The ASEAN Economic Research Unit (AERU) of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) was formed in 1979 to promote research and critical thinking and debate on the economics and related political issues of ASEAN. Priority areas identified for research and discussion include investment, industry, and trade; finance and monetary aspects; food, energy, and commodities; transportation/shipping; and political factors in ASEAN economic co-operation. Within these, work relating to ASEAN economic relations with its main trading partners and sources of investment has been most prominent, including the project on “ASEAN-U.S. Economic Relations”.

This project has been designed as a three-year undertaking with each year focusing on a distinct but related aspect of the economic links between ASEAN and the United States. The theme for the first year was “The Current State of ASEAN-U.S. Economic Relations”. For this, eight papers were commissioned and presented at a workshop on 22-24 April 1985 in Singapore. They covered patterns of trade between ASEAN and the United States; U.S. investment in ASEAN; transfer of technology by U.S. transnational corporations and contractual arrangements; ASEAN manufactured exports to the United States; U.S. exports of goods and services to ASEAN; the impact of U.S. policy mix on the ASEAN economies.

Summaries of these papers were published as a monograph, ASEAN-U.S. Economic Relations: An Overview edited by Agustin Kintanar, Jr. and Tan Loong-Hoe. The revised papers themselves were subsequently published in full in the November 1986, March 1987, and November 1987 issues of the Institute's journal, ASEAN Economic Bulletin.

The research during the second year of the project focused on “Changes in ASEAN-U.S Economic Environment: Constraints and Opportunities”. Eight papers again were prepared. They examined the following topics: economic trends in the United States and their implications for ASEAN; increasing protectionism and its implications for ASEAN-U.S. trade and investment in services; U.S.-Thai relations: selected case studies in agribusiness; and, the role of U.S. official development assistance in ASEAN.

These papers were discussed at a workshop in San Francisco jointly organised by the Institute and The Asia Foundation's Center for Asian Pacific Affairs (CAPA).