Beijing

DESPITE numerous pledges and years of effort to transform South-east Asia into a single market, the 10-nation region remains resistant to free-flowing trade and fortified against imports, to the cost of some global companies, according to a study for one of the region's biggest investors.

The study, commissioned and paid for by US carmaker General Motors (GM), highlights a lack of progress by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to harmonise trade and investment rules, leaving the car industry with little to show for a decade of trade liberalisation.