The Asian Economic Community is coming .docVIP

www.Breaking News E Ready-to-use ESL / EFL Lessons The Breaking News E Resource Book “1,000 Ideas Activities For Language Teachers” /book.html The Asian Economic Community is coming URL: /0512/051216-east_asia_summit.html Contents The Article 2 Warm-ups 3 Before Reading / Listening 4 While Reading / Listening 5 Listening Gap Fill 6 After Reading 7 Discussion 8 Speaking 9 Homework 10 Answers 11 16 December, 2005 THE ARTICLE The Asian Economic Community is coming A new economic superpower is on the cards following the resounding success of the inaugural meeting of the East Asia Summit (EAS). Leaders attending the 16-nation talks were full of high hopes they could cooperate on a whole host of issues, most notably with integration and community-wide trade agreements. The summit was the fruition of a proposal initially tabled by Malaysia 15 years ago. Its primary objective is the formation of an Asian Economic Community (AEC) – a trade pact similar to the European Union. With a quarter of world trade and over half of the world’s population within its borders, such an entity would become a driving force in global business. It would most certainly rival other regional alliances such as the EU and NAFTA. The AEC would comprise of the ASEAN countries plus China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi enthused about the progress made at the EAS and said Asian integration, dialogue and cooperation were key in moving towards a broader community. “We see eye to eye on many things,” he added. Market forces have already seen a proliferation of free trade agreements between various countries and trading blocs within the region. The idea now is to consolidate these to produce the synergies necessary to optimize business and trading efficiency. This, in turn, should propel the region into a mega-market that would put its European and American rivals in the shadows. WARM-UPS 1. FREE TRADE SEARCH: Talk to as