<![CDATA[The Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) program of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) is examined in this paper as a crucial tool for advancing economic integration in Southeast Asia. Originally motivated by economic concerns, trade liberalization has expanded to include political, security, and sociocultural aspects, creating a multifaceted framework for regional integration. Theoretically, these results are consistent with viewpoints in regional integration theory and international political economy, especially neo-functionalism, which highlights the spillover effects of economic cooperation on the growth of political institutions and policy coordination. The findings demonstrate that an open investment environment and a free trade regime act as catalysts for raising ASEAN's overall competitiveness. Economic and trade cooperation among member nations is strengthened by the efficient flow of goods, which is bolstered by competitive production capacity and the development of intraregional production networks. In addition to serving as a gradual regulatory mechanism to lower tariff and non-tariff barriers, the inference implies that ASEAN-AFTA, as an international regime invention, increases the strategic position of the ASEAN organization in the activities of world trade regime provisions. In order to achieve highly competitive, sustainable, and adaptable regional integration based on natural resources toward global competition and the progressive development of the welfare of ASEAN regional countries, ASEAN-AFTA free trade finds comparative advantages.]]>
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