An Introduction To Economic Integration

Trades in different countries have certain restrictions as well as some tariffs, which can be issued
in a very discriminatory manner for sure.

The discrimination is something which depends on community and country discrimination as

well.

The policy of economic integration is purely commercial, and it takes place in order to make sure
that certain trade barriers are reduced in the best way so that some nations can be unified
together.

Economic integration, process in which two or more states in a broadly defined geographic area
reduce a range of trade barriers to advance or protect a set of economic goals.

The level of integration involved in an economic regionalist project can vary enormously from
loose association to a sophisticated, deeply integrated, transnationalized economic space. It is in
its political dimension that economic integration differs from the broader idea of regionalism in
general. Although economic decisions go directly to the intrinsically political question of
resource allocation, an economic region can be deployed as a technocratic tool by the
participating government to advance a clearly defined and limited economic agenda without
requiring more than minimal political alignment or erosion of formal state sovereignty. The
unifying factor in the different forms of economic regionalism is thus the desire by the
participating states to use a wider, transnationalized sense of space to advance national economic
interests.

The integration processes are complex, due to the controversies that arise among its members.
Among the most outstanding features of the current processes of regional economic integration
are:

1. Institutional strengthening and free functioning of market rules.

2. Trade liberalization and export promotion
3. Deepening of democratic government systems.
4. Generate global competition
5. The rest of the world is not discriminated
 6. Emphasis is placed on opening markets, eliminating trade barriers and encouraging
political and institutional cooperation.
7. The rules are similar and strict compliance by all members, without discrimination or
asymmetries.
8. The agreements that are adopted are vertical
9. Countries can sign one or more trade agreements with other countries, including
overlapping agreements.
10. The concept of regionalism is more open, less protectionist. It adopts open policies
against official barriers to trade or a distancing from protectionism.
11. Reduction of non-tariff barriers derived from sectors such as transport and
communications.
12. Currently, regional integration processes are being adopted through market processes that
are independent of the government.
Economic Integration: Meaning, Types, & Benefits of Economic Integration (marketing91.com)

Economic Integration: Characteristics, Stages, Advantages, Disadvantages, Examples | Life Persona

ASEAN Economic Integration: Features, Fulfillments, Failures and the Future | Asian Development Bank
(adb.org)

The pace of global economic change in recent decades has been breathtaking indeed, and the full
implications of these developments for all aspects of our lives will not be known for many years. History
may provide some guidance, however. The process of global economic integration has been going on for
thousands of years, and the sources and consequences of this integration have often borne at least a
qualitative resemblance to those associated with the current episode.

A Short History of Global Economic Integration

Two thousand years ago, the Romans unified their far-flung empire through an extensive transportation
network and a common language, legal system, and currency.

A millennium and a half later, at the end of the fifteenth century, the voyages of Columbus, Vasco da
Gama, and other explorers initiated a period of trade over even vaster distances. The sea lanes opened
by these voyages facilitated a thriving intercontinental trade. Much of this trade ultimately came under
the control of the trading companies created by the English and the Dutch. Influenced by the prevailing
mercantilist view of trade as a zero-sum game, European nation-states competed to dominate lucrative
markets, a competition that sometimes spilled over into military conflict.

Global economic integration took another major leap forward during the period between the end of the
Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the beginning of World War I. International trade again expanded
significantly as did cross-border flows of financial capital and labor. Trade expanded the variety of
available goods, both in Europe and elsewhere, and as the trade monopolies of earlier times were
replaced by intense competition, prices converged globally for a wide range of commodities.

The structure of trade during the post-Napoleonic period followed a "core-periphery" pattern. Capital-
rich Western European countries, particularly Britain, were the center, or core, of the trading system
and the international monetary system. Countries in which natural resources and land were relatively
abundant formed the periphery. The composition of the core and the periphery remained fairly stable,
with one important exception being the United States, which, over the course of the nineteenth
century, made the transition from the periphery to the core.

For the most part, government policies during this era fostered openness to trade, capital mobility, and
migration.

Beginning in the late 1870s, many European countries raised tariffs, with Britain being a prominent
exception.

Unfortunately, the international economic integration achieved during the nineteenth century was
largely unraveled in the twentieth by two world wars and the Great Depression.

Postwar economic re-integration was supported by several factors, both technological and political. In
the policy sphere, tariff barriers--which had been dramatically increased during the Great Depression--
were lowered, with many of these reductions negotiated within the multilateral framework provided by
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Globalization was, to some extent, also supported by
geopolitical considerations, as economic integration among the Western market economies became
viewed as part of the strategy for waging the Cold War. However, although trade expanded significantly
in the early post-World War II period, many countries--recalling the exchange-rate and financial crises of
the 1930s--adopted regulations aimed at limiting the mobility of financial capital across national
borders.

Several conclusions emerge from this brief historical review. Perhaps the clearest conclusion is that new
technologies that reduce the costs of transportation and communication have been a major factor
supporting global economic integration.

A second conclusion from history is that national policy choices may be critical determinants of the
extent of international economic integration.

A third observation is that social dislocation, and consequently often social resistance, may result when
economies become more open.