As observed, Singapore has been the first mover towards bilateral FTAs in Southeast Asia. Other regional efforts in ASEAN include the formation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), which is now implemented for the association's six founding members. Although other ASEAN members were initially sceptical of Singapore's moves towards bilateral FTAs, the interest in taking the bilateral route to free trade has gradually found favour within the grouping as a whole as well as within the individual members. The individual FTA initiatives from other ASEAN members include a Thai-U.S. FTA, with Thailand having already signed an FTA framework agreement with Bahrain and India. Thailand is also well on the way to conclude similar bilateral deals with Japan and Australia. Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam have been contemplating bilateral FTAs with Japan.

Although there are a number of possible economic and strategic motivations for these ongoing FTA initiatives involving ASEAN countries, the primary motive appears to be to strengthen ASEAN's competitiveness as a regional grouping and to make it more attractive to investments from its major trading partners and the emerging markets of China and India. As in the case of Singapore, slow progress in multilateral trade talks within the WTO and the setback to regional economic integration due to the economic crisis of 1997-98 have been the reasons behind other ASEAN members and the grouping to go for the third best option for advancing free trade through bilateral FTAs.

Singapore has been the most active country with respect to negotiations of bilateral FTAs in ASEAN on an individual country basis. This chapter analyses Singapore's ongoing bilateral FTA initiatives on an individual country basis, and then focuses on the ongoing bilateral FTA initiatives by other ASEA N members, specifically Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. These three countries have already announced or are contemplating negotiating bilateral FTAs with their major trading partners outside ASEAN. Since detailed information on most of these initiatives are not yet available, the expected benefits from these FTAs cannot be clearly spelt out as was done in the case of Singapore's concluded FTAs.