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Trachtman, Joel P. --- "International trade: regionalism" [2007] ELECD 95; in Guzman, T. Andrew; Sykes, O. Alan (eds), "Research Handbook in International Economic Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Research Handbook in International Economic Law

Editor(s): Guzman, T. Andrew; Sykes, O. Alan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843766742

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: International trade: regionalism

Author(s): Trachtman, Joel P.

Number of pages: 26

Extract:

4. International trade: regionalism
Joel P. Trachtman



1. Introduction
Regional integration agreements (RIAs), like other forms of international
economic institutionalization or law, are generally aimed at economic integra-
tion: the reduction of barriers to movement of economic factors across
borders. However, there can be other aims: the original European Economic
Community and European Coal and Steel Community were famously moti-
vated by a desire to make war between Germany and France impossible.
Monetary union in the European Union has been criticized by financial econ-
omists, but may play a broader role in political or social aspects of integration.
Regionalism is an accelerating phenomenon, as shown in Figure 4.1,
although in 1963, Kenneth Dam was able to say that the last dozen years had
`seen a proliferation of customs unions and free-trade areas of unforeseen
proportions' (Dam 1963, p. 615). One estimate suggests that more than half of
international trade could be covered by RIAs by 2005 (OECD 2003, p. 12). By
July 2005, 330 RIAs had been notified to the GATT (General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade) or the WTO (World Trade Organization), with 180 of these
still in force. Only Mongolia belonged to no RIA.
The great majority of these RIAs are free trade areas (FTAs), rather than
customs unions (CUs). An FTA provides zero tariffs among its members, but
each member maintains its own tariff schedule for application to the products
of other states, whereas a CU is a free trade area with a common external ...