Asean growth drives US firms' optimism in region: survey

Singapore

ASEAN'S economic growth is now making the region more important to the global bottom lines of American firms that are based in Asean, a survey has shown.

But even as trade relations strengthen between the United States and Asean, at least one observer has said that whether the US ratifies the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement will have a significant impact on how these relations will be carried out in the future - for better or for worse.