International experience shows that cost­free replication and adoption of industrial best practices on a universal basis is a misconception. Rather, it is a matter of a progressive and reciprocal adaptation between external and local practices in which learning costs and times, as well as the need for public and private cooperation, are essential. The potential for convergence of policies, practices and institutions triggered by globalization appears to be greater at the macroeconomic than at the microeconomic level. This article examines such issues in a general way and then focuses on the dilemmas facing the countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN); and other developing countries of Asia in complying with the World Trade Organization's Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs); by the year 2000. This experience is of special relevance to other developing regions -Latin America and the Caribbean in particular-, since the inertia to be overcome in the race against time to reconcile those commitments with national development objectives raises doubts as to whether these standards can be met before 2010.