"Plan B Is Always Inferior to Plan A"

Dr. Fred Bergsten, Director of the Institute for International Economics, wrote in Financial Times that a grand Asia-Pacific regional bloc, i.e., "Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific Region (FTAAP)," should be launched as a "Plan B" in the face of the moribund Doha Round. See Plan B for world trade: go regional," Financial Times, August 16, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/390d8cec-2c82-11db-9845-0000779e2340.html 

In the line of his long-held faith in "competitive liberalization," he argued that FTAAP would effectively threaten those naysayers, such as the EU, Brazil, and India, to return to the Doha Round negotiation table, as was allegedly the case in the Uruguay Round. This proposal for an FTAA incarnate in the Asia-Pacific region is quite reminiscent of the former USTR Robert Zoellick’s intimidation made when the Cancún Ministerial Conference collapsed in 2003. He vowed that the U.S. would go regional with "can-do" countries, leaving behind those "won’t-do" countries.

Here is my response to Dr. Bergsten’s Comment, which has appeared in the same newspaper today. ‘Plan B’ is always inferior to ‘Plan A.’ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3c2e5142-317b-11db-b953-0000779e2340.html

I basically argued that Dr. Bergsten "profoundly underestimates the demerits of regionalism."