Download U.S. Accession to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Treaty of Amity and Cooperation Ebook by Michael John Garcia

U.S. Accession to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Treaty of Amity and Cooperation

In February 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the Obama Administration would launch its formal interagency process to pursue accession to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), one of the ten-nation organization’s core documents. The Administration reportedly hopes to announce its accession at the ASEAN Regional Forum Foreign Ministerial meeting July 22-23, 2009. This report analyzes the legal and diplomatic issues involved with accession to the TAC.ASEAN is Southeast Asia’s primary multilateral organization. Its ten member-nations include over 500 million people. Collectively, ASEAN is one of the United States’ largest trading partners, constituting about 5%-6% of total U.S. trade. Geographically, Southeast Asia includes some of the world’s most critical sea lanes, including the Straits of Malacca, through which pass a large percentage of the world’s trade. The TAC was first negotiated in 1976 and subsequently amended to allow non-regional countries to accede. Fifteen countries have done so, including U.S. allies Japan, South Korea, and Australia, as well as China, Russia, and India.Within ASEAN, accession to the TAC by non-members often is seen as a symbol of commitment to engagement in Southeast Asia, and to the organization’s emphasis on multilateral processes. The United States is the only major Pacific power not to have acceded, one of many pieces of evidence that Southeast Asian leaders have cited in arguing that the United States has neglected Southeast Asia generally, and ASEAN specifically. Southeast Asian leaders generally have welcomed the Obama Administration’s move, which seems to be designed to boost the United States’ standing in Southeast Asia by expanding the multilateral component of U.S. policy in the region. Some U.S. and Southeast Asian officials and analysts say that expanding U.S. engagement with ASEAN will help boost Southeast Asia’s political stature, particularly as China seeks to continue expanding its influence in the region.The major concern with accession is whether the TAC’s emphasis on non-interference in other countries’ domestic affairs would constrain U.S. freedom of action, particularly its ability to maintain or expand sanctions on Burma. Proponents of accession often note that Australia has imposed and expanded financial and travel restrictions on Burma since it acceded in 2005. Canberra’s restrictions are far less extensive than the sanctions the United States maintains on Burma. Other objections have included arguments that acceding would accord greater legitimacy to the ruling Burmese junta; a view that ASEAN is insufficiently “action-oriented”; and a belief that the TAC is an untested, arguably meaningless agreement.One issue for U.S. policymakers is whether accession to the TAC should take the form of a treaty, subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, or whether the President already has sufficient authority to enter the TAC without further legislative action being necessary. If reports that the Administration hopes to accede to the TAC in July 2009 are accurate, accession likely will take the form of an executive agreement, which does not require Senate approval.