Unfortunately for Proton, those protections will disappear when ASEAN Free Trade Area rules come into effect.

CNN: Local Win, Global Worries

Take the latest grumblings about the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), which aims to liberalize commerce in the 10-nation grouping in the next 20 years.

CNN: Full Speed Ahead

At the heart of the package is an acceleration of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) scheme, the centerpiece of the group's effort to increase cooperation in the face of economic globalization.

CNN: A 'BOLD' BAND OF BROTHERS

Burma's prime concern is the preparation for entry into the ASEAN Free Trade Area (Afta) and ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), as well as wanting to take its turn as ASEAN's chair in 2014.

BBC: Viewpoint: Change in Burma - one step at a time

If ASEAN accelerates the move towards the ASEAN Free Trade Area and the ASEAN Investment Area, this would be a powerful endorsement of ASEAN's commitment to free trade and the region's openness to investment.

CNN: ASIANOW - Asiaweek

Under the ASEAN Free Trade Area, members have to adopt tariff cuts and other liberalization measures, on pain of exclusion from AFTA. However, if intervention is done not in pursuit of the grouping's goals, but at the behest of outside forces, then ASEAN appears to be an instrument of, rather than a bulwark against, big-power bullying.

CNN: The Bloc Buster

In the near term, ASEAN members want to build on the free-trade area they signed up to in 1992.

ECONOMIST: Noodle soup