european union

NAME SUPRIYA S HEGDE

ROLL NO7431

BATCH 1

SUBJECTINTERNATIONAL MARKETING

TOPICTRADE BLOC

SEMESTER FOURTH

What is a trade blocEuropean Union(EU)

Member states Future membership Objectives of European Union Organizational Structure Evolution of European Union as trade bloc Factors that European Union must consider

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)

History Member States

Future membership

SAARC Formation and objectives

Areas of Cooperation

Secretariat

Ineffectiveness

Political issues

Free trade agreement

The EU and South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation

Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA)

Objectives Methods The LAFTA agreement has important limitations

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

History of implementation Objectives Economic Relationship among NAFTA Nations Effects on NAFTA nations NAFTA Trade Policies

What is a trade bloc

A trade bloc is type of intergovernmental agreement often part of a regional intergovernmental organization where regional barriers to trade (tariffs and non-tariff barriers) are reduced or eliminated among the participating states Surges of trade bloc formation were seen in the 1960s and 1970s as well as in the 1990s after the collapse of Communism By 1997 more than 50 of all world commerce was conducted under the auspices of regional trade blocs Trade blocs can be stand-alone agreements between several states (such as NAFTA) or part of a regional organization (such as the European Union) Depending on the level of economic integration trade blocs can fall into different categories such as

Preferential trading areas Free trade areas Customs unions Common markets Economic and monetary unions

Advocates of worldwide free trade are generally opposed to trading blocs which they argue encourage regional as opposed to global free trade Scholars and economists continue to debate whether regional trade blocs are leading to a more fragmented world economy or encouraging the extension of the existing global multilateral trading system

Advantages benefits of Joining a Trading Blocs

Access to larger markets leads to internal economies of scale

External economies of scale due to improved infrastructure (eg transport and telecoms links)

Greater international bargaining power

Increased competition between members

More rapid spread of technology

Disadvantages risks of Joining a Trading Blocs

Country may lose resources to more efficient members or to geographical centre and become depressed region

Firms may co-operate collude and merge leading to greater monopoly power

Diseconomies of scale if firms become very large

High administrative costs of trading bloc

European Union

Introduction

The European Union or EU is an international organisation of European states established by the Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht treaty) The European Union is the most powerful regional organisation in existence in some ways it resembling a state The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states located primarily in Europe It was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community With almost 500 million citizens the EU combined generates an estimated 30 share of the worlds nominal gross domestic product (US$168 trillion in 2007)

Member states

The European Union is composed of 27 independent sovereign countries which are known as member states Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus the Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta the Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden and the United Kingdom

Future membership

There are three official candidate countries Croatia the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey The western Balkan countries of Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Montenegro and Serbia are officially recognised as potential candidates Kosovo is also listed by the European Commission as a potential candidate but the Commission does not list it as an independent country because not all member states recognise it as an independent country separate from Serbia

To join the EU a country must meet the Copenhagen criteria defined at the 1993 Copenhagen European Council These require a stable democracy which respects human rights and the rule of law a functioning market economy capable of competition within the EU and the acceptance of the obligations of membership including EU law Evaluation of a countrys fulfillment of the criteria is the responsibility of the European Council The current framework does not specify how a country could exit the Union (although Greenland a Territory of Denmark

withdrew in 1985) but the proposed Treaty of Lisbon contains a formal procedure for withdrawing

Four Western European countries that have chosen not to join the EU have partly committed to the EUs economy and regulations Iceland Liechtenstein and Norway are a part of the single market through the European Economic Area and Switzerland has similar ties through bilateral treatiesThe relationships of the European microstates Andorra Monaco San Marino and Vatican City include the use of the euro and other co-operation

Objectives of European Union

Economic integration is a mechanism through which a group of countries try to improve their level of welfare through higher growth A single market arrangement the highest form of regional cooperation (as adopted by the European Union) requires that all residents (producers and consumers) should be governed by exactly the same rules This form of integration implies that all participants must be treated equally in all parts of the market The guiding principle behind economic integrationeconomic union is the concept of convergence in per capita income andor per worker income among participating nations

The EU has developed a single market through a standardised system of laws which apply in all member states guaranteeing the freedom of movement of people goods services and capital It maintains a common trade policy agricultural and fisheries policies and a regional development policy

Fifteen member states have adopted a common currency the euro It has developed a role in foreign policy representing its members in the World Trade Organisation at G8 summits and at the United Nations Twenty-one EU countries are members of NATO It has developed a role in justice and home affairs including the abolition of passport control between many member states under the Schengen Agreement

According to the neo-classical models of economic growth ldquothe technology is such that all things equal poor countriesregions in terms of GDP per capita andor per worker grow faster than rich ones If poor and rich countries differ only by their initial level of per capita GDP and they face identical technology and preferences then inequality eventually disappears in the long-run If countries differ in other aspects too then convergence takes the form of the stabilization of the distribution of relative income per capita across territories European Union was created with this basic principle in mind

The EU operates through a hybrid system of intergovernmentalism and supranationalism In certain areas it depends upon agreement between the member states However it also has supranational bodies able to make decisions without unanimity between all national governments Important institutions and bodies of the EU include the European Commission the European Parliament the Council of

the European Union the European Council the European Court of Justice and the European Central Bank EU citizens elect the Parliament every five years

The EU traces its origins to the European Coal and Steel Community formed among six countries in 1951 and the Treaty of Rome in 1957 Since then the union has grown in size through the accession of new countries and new policy areas have been added to the remit of the EU institutions

By making conditions equal across Europe EU will be able to bridge the gap between the rich and poorer nations Over the last twelve years EU has tried to create equal opportunities for the poorer nations and we try to find out if it helped poorer nations get richer and closer to rich nations in terms of GDP per capita as well as in terms of absolute amount of GDP

The study evaluates if EU delivered growth to member nations by creating equal conditions in terms of lower inflation through monetary policy coordination and lower budgetary deficits lower currency volatility through single currency promotion of democratic institutions through respect for human rights and peace on borders of the participating nations

Organizational Structure

The EC which is the core of the EU originally referred to the group of Western European nations that belonged to each of three treaty organizationsmdashthe European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) In 1967 these organizations were consolidated under a comprehensive governing body composed of representatives from the member nations and divided into four main branchesmdashthe European Commission (formerly the Commission of the European Communities)

the Council of the European Union (formerly the Council of Ministers of the European Communities)

the European Parliament

and the European Court of Justice

Although the EU has no single seat of government many of its most important offices are in Brussels Belgium The European Commission which has executive and some legislative functions is headquartered there as is the Council of the European Union it is also where the various committees of the European Parliament generally meet to prepare for the monthly sessions in Strasbourg France

In addition to the four main branches of the EUs governing body there are the Court of Auditors which oversees EU expenditures the Economic and Social Committee a consultative body representing the interests of labor employers farmers consumers and other groups and the European Council a consultative but highly influential body composed primarily of the president of the Commission and the heads of government of the EU nations and their foreign ministers

Evolution of European Union as trade bloc

The history of the EU began shortly after World War II when there developed in Europe a strong revulsion against national rivalries and parochial loyalties While postwar recovery was stimulated by the Marshall Plan the idea of a united Europe was held up as the basis for European strength and security and the best way of preventing another European war In 1950 Robert Schuman Frances foreign minister proposed that the coal and steel industries of France and West Germany be coordinated under a single supranational authority France and West Germany were soon joined by four other countriesmdashBelgium Luxembourg the Netherlands and Italymdashin forming (1952) the ECSC The EEC (until the late 1980s it was known informally as the Common Market) and Euratom were established by the Treaty of Rome in 1958 The EEC working on a large scale to promote the convergence of national economies into a single European economy soon emerged as the most significant of the three treaty organizations

The Brussels Treaty (1965) provided for the merger of the organizations into what came to be known as the EC and later the EU Under Charles de Gaulle France vetoed (1963) Britains initial application for membership in the Common Market five years after vetoing a British proposal that the Common Market be expanded sinto a transatlantic free-trade area In the interim Britain had engineered the formation (1959) of the European Free Trade Association In 1973 the EC expanded as Great Britain Ireland and Denmark joined Greece joined in 1981 and Spain and Portugal in 1986 With German reunification in 1990 the former East Germany also was absorbed into the Community

The Single European Act (1987) amended the ECs treaties so as to strengthen the organizations ability to create a single internal market The Treaty of European Union signed in Maastricht the Netherlands in 1992 and ratified in 1993 provided for a central banking system a common currency to replace the national currencies (the euro see European Monetary System) a legal definition of the EU and a framework for expanding the EUs political role particularly in the area of foreign and security policy The member countries completed their move toward a single market in 1993 and agreed to participate in a larger common market the European Economic Area (est 1994) with most of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) nations In 1995 Austria Finland and Sweden all former EFTA members joined the EU but Norway did not having rejected membership for the second time in 1994

A crisis within the EU was precipitated in 1996 when sales of British beef were banned because of ldquomad cow diseaserdquo Britain retaliated by vowing to paralyze EU business until the ban was lifted but that crisis eased when a British plan for eradicating the disease was approved The ban was lifted in 1999 but French refusal to permit the sale of British beef resulted in new strains within the EU In 1998 as a prelude to their 1999 adoption of the euro 11 EU nations established the European Central Bank The euro was introduced into circulation in 2002 by 12 EU nations additional EU nations have since adopted it

The EU was rocked by charges of corruption and mismanagement in its executive body the European Commission (EC) in 1999 In response the ECs executive commission including its president Jacques Santer resigned and a new group of commissioners headed by Romano Prodi was soon installed In actions taken later that year the EU agreed to absorb the functions of the Western European Union a comparatively dormant European defense alliance thus moving toward making the EU a military power with defensive and peacekeeping capabilities

The installation in Feb 2000 of a conservative Austrian government that included the right-wing Freedom party whose leaders had made xenophobic racist and anti-Semitic pronouncements led the other EU members to impose a number of sanctions on Austria that limited high-level contacts with the Austrian government Enthusiasm for the sanctions soon waned however among smaller EU nations and the issue threatened to divide the EU A face-saving fact-finding commission recommended ending the sanctions stating that the Austrian government had worked to protect human rights and the sanctions were ended in September

In 2003 the EU and ten non-EU European nations (Estonia Latvia Lithuania Poland the Czech Republic Slovakia Hungary Slovenia Cyprus and Malta) signed treaties that resulted in the largest expansion of the EU the following year increasing the its population by 20 and its land area by 23 Most of the newer members are significantly poorer than the largely W European older members The old and new member nations at first failed to agree on a constitution for the organization the main stumbling block concerned voting with Spain and Poland reluctant to give up a weighted system of voting scheduled for 2006 that would give them a disproportionate influence in the EU relative to their populations In Oct 2004 however EU nations signed a constitution with a provision requiring a supermajority of nations to pass legislation The constitution which needed to be ratified by all members to come into effect was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005 leading EU leaders to pause in their push for its ratification

Meanwhile in 2003 the EU embarked in minor ways on its first official military missions when EU peacekeeping forces replaced the NATO force in Macedonia and were sent by the United Nations to Congo (Kinshasa) the following year the EU assumed responsibility for overseeing the peacekeepers in Bosnia EU members also took steps toward developing a common defense strategy independent of NATO and agreed in 2004 to admit Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 Joseacute Manuel Barroso

succeeded Prodi as president of the European Commission late in 2004 Accession talks with Turkey were partially suspended in Dec 2006 over the issue of Turkish relations with Cyprus because Turkey was unwilling to open its ports to Cypriot trade unless the EU eased its trade restrictions on North Cyprus

The EU opted for incremental reforms over a new constitution in 2007 when member nations signed the Lisbon Treaty The treaty slated to come into force in 2009 after ratification by all EU nations would reorganize the European Council establish a single EU foreign policy official and reform the EUs system of voting among other changes (The reforms would be phased in through 2017) In June 2008 however Irish votersmdashthe only national electorate given the opportunity to ratify the treatymdashrejected it in a referendum a potentially fatal setback

Factors that European Union must consider

Globalization is here to stay and it has changed everything with extremely harsh consequences for some participants Globalization has resulted in migration of jobs to new cheap locations in China and India resulting in complaints about outsourcing and delocalization The creation of the single market and enlargement of the European Union has further intensified the pain to the existing residents of the Eurozone by displacing many people out their existing jobs Also open internal borders have attracted criminals and illegal immigrants that are threatening to erode the social fabric of the European society and their existing way of life Therefore residents of the Eurozone feel left out of the promises of higher competitiveness more jobs and better living standards

If the European Union is to survive and expand the member nations especially the original 15 founder nations must listen to their citizens and deliver on the promise of better economic life for them otherwise the very survival of the EU may be at risk European Union was founded with a promise of higher growth lower inflation and higher job creation Some of the policy initiatives that the European Union should implement include

1048766 European Union must promote economic growth With exchange rate stability single currency and low interest rates participating nations need to introduce necessary flexibility in the labor markets so that economic growth in the Eurozone can be regenerated5 With low interest rates corporations can borrow easily hire labor at favorable terms across the Eurozone and bring economic growth all over Europe

1048766 European Union must enforce fiscal discipline among its participating nations by strictly adhering to budgetary deficit not exceeding 3 percent of the GDP Countries that borrow beyond the limit must be penalized to keep public borrowing and consequent inflation under control

1048766 European Union should encourage the member nations to do fundamental reforms in the form of removal of subsidies tax reforms and labor market reforms that will encourage competitiveness increase output and create jobs instead of public borrowing to solve their problems

1048766 Make European Union more democratic and open to the citizens so that they do not believe that this is a just a project of the politicians without any regard for the ordinary citizen Residents of the Eurozone must be made to participate and their opinions and voices must be incorporated in the decisions of the European Union instead of leaving the decision making in the hands of a few bureaucrats and politicians which can be blamed for any pain their citizens are going through This only undermines the credibility of the union

1048766 Last but not the least European Union should not rush into expansion of the union Larger the number of member nations in the union more difficult it will be to implement desperately fundamental reforms on a consensus basis


The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and political organization of eight countries in Southern Asia In terms of population its sphere of influence is the largest of any regional organization almost 15 billion people the combined population of its member states It was established on December 8 1985 by India Pakistan Bangladesh Sri Lanka Nepal Maldives and Bhutan In April 2007 at the Associations 14th summit Afghanistan became its eighth member

History

In the late 1970s Bangladeshi president Ziaur Rahman first mooted the idea in the 1970s for creation of a trade bloc consisting of South Asian countries The idea of regional cooperation in South Asia was again mooted in May 1980 The Foreign Secretaries of the seven countries met for the first time in Colombo in April 1981 The Committee of the Whole which met in Colombo in August 1981 identified five broad areas for regional cooperation New areas of cooperation were added in the following years

The Declaration on South Asian Regional Cooperation was adopted by the Foreign Ministers in 1983 in New Delhi The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was established when its Charter was formally adopted on December 8 1985

Member States

India Pakistan Bangladesh Sri Lanka Nepal Maldives and Bhutan form the principle Member States of the associationAfghanistan was added to the regional grouping at the behest of India on November 13 2005 and became a member on April 3 2007 With the addition of Afghanistan the total number of member states were raised to eight

Future membership amp Observers

In April 2006 the United States of America and South Korea made formal requests to be granted observer status The European Union also indicated interest in being given observer status and made a formal request for the same to the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting in July 2006

On August 2 2006 the foreign ministers of the SAARC countries agreed in principle to grant observer status to the US South Korea and the European Union Other observers areAustraliaChinaIran JapanMauritius Myanmar (Burma)

The Peoples Republic of China has shown its interest in joining SAARC While Pakistan and Bangladesh support Chinas candidature India is more reluctant about the prospect of Chinese membership while Bhutan does not even have diplomatic relations with China However during the 2005 Dhaka summit India agreed on granting observer status to the PRC along with Japan During the 14th summit Nepal along with Pakistan and Bangladesh announced their support for the membership of China China seeks greater involvement in SAARC however finds it too early to apply for full membership

The Islamic Republic of Iran a state with borders to two SAARC members has traditionally enjoyed strong cultural economic and political relationships with

Afghanistan Pakistan India and Bangladesh and has expressed its desire to become a member of the South Asian organization On 22 February 2005 the Foreign Minister of Iran Kamal Kharrazi indicated Irans interest in joining SAARC by saying that his country could provide the region with East-West connectivityOn 3 March 2007 Iran asked to join the SAARC as an observer SAARC Secretary-General Lyonpo Chenkyab Dorji responded by saying that Irans request for observer status would be taken up during a meeting of ministers of foreign affairs of SAARC member countries in the 3 April summit in New Delhi

The Russian Federation intends to become an observer as well and is supported by India Union of Myanmar has expressed an interest in joining as a full member If done so Myanmar will become the ninth member in the group India is currently backing Myanmar The Republic of South Africa has participated in meetings


To promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and to improve their quality of life

To accelerate economic growth social progress and cultural development in the region and to provide all individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and to realize their full potential

To promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia

To contribute to mutual trust understand and appreciation of one anothers problem

To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic social cultural technical and scientific fields

To strengthen cooperation with other developing countries

To strengthen cooperation among themselves in international forums on matters of common interest and

To cooperate with international and regional organisations with similar aims and purposes

The Declaration on South Asian Regional Cooperation was adopted by the Foreign Ministers in 1983 in New Delhi During the meeting the Ministers also launched the Integrated Programme of Action (IPA) in nine agreed areas namely Agriculture Rural Development Telecommunications Meteorology Health and Population Activities Transport Postal Services Science and Technology and Sports Arts and Culture The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was

established when its Charter was formally adopted on 8 December 1985 by the Heads of State or Government of Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Afghanistan was added to the regional grouping at the behest of India on November 13 2005 and became a member on April 3 2007 With the addition of Afghanistan the total number of member states were raised to eight (8) In April 2006 the United States of America and South Korea made formal requests to be granted observer status The European Union has also indicated interest in being given observer status and made a formal request for the same to the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting in July 2006 On August 2 2006 the foreign ministers of the SAARC countries agreed in principle to grant observer status to the US South Korea and the European Union On 4 March 2007 Iran requested observer status Followed shortly by the entrance of Mauritius


At the inception of the Association the Integrated Programme of Action (IPA) consisting of a number of Technical Committees (TCs) was identified as the core areas of cooperation

The current areas of cooperation under the reconstituted Regional Integrated Programme of Action covers the following areas

Agriculture and Rural Development

Women Youth and Children

Environment and Forestry

Science and Technology and Meteorology

Human Resources Development

Transport

High level Working Groups have also been established to strengthen cooperation in the areas of Information and Communications Technology Biotechnology Intellectual Property Rights Tourism and Energy

Secretariat

The SAARC Secretariat was established in Kathmandu on 16 January 1987 and was inaugurated by Late King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah of Nepal

It is headed by a Secretary General appointed by the Council of Ministers from Member Countries in alphabetical order for a three-year term He is assisted by the Professional and the General Services Staff and also an appropriate number of functional units called Divisions assigned to Directors on deputation from Member States[8] The Secretariat coordinates and monitors implementation of activities prepares for and services meetings and serves as a channel of communication between the Association and its Member States as well as other regional organizations

The Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of the Secretariat which was signed by Foreign Ministers of member countries on 17 November 1986 at Bangalore India contains various clauses concerning the role structure and administration of the SAARC Secretariat as well as the powers of the Secretary-General

In several recent meetings the heads of state or government of member states of SAARC have taken some important decisions and bold initiatives to strengthen the organisation and to widen and deepen regional co-operation

The SAARC Secretariat and Member States observe 8 December as the SAARC Charter Day

Ineffectiveness

SAARCs inability to play a crucial role in integrating South Asia is often credited to the political and military rivalry between India and Pakistan It is due to these economic political and territorial disputes that South Asian nations have not been able to harness the benefits of a unified economy Over the years SAARCs role in South Asia has been greatly diminished and is now used as a mere platform for annual talks and meetings between its members

Political issues

SAARC has intentionally laid more stress on core issues mentioned above rather than more decisive political issues like the Kashmir dispute and the Sri Lankan civil war However political dialogue is often conducted on the margins of SAARC meetings SAARC has also refrained itself from interfering in the internal matters of its member states During the 12th and 13th SAARC summits extreme emphasis was laid upon greater cooperation between the SAARC members to fight terrorism


Over the years the SAARC members have expressed their unwillingness on signing a free trade agreement Though India has several trade pacts with Maldives Nepal Bhutan and Sri Lanka similar trade agreements with Pakistan and Bangladesh have been stalled due to political and economic concerns on both sides India has been constructing a barrier across its borders with Bangladesh and Pakistan In 1993 SAARC countries signed an agreement to gradually lower tariffs within the region in Dhaka Eleven years later at the 12th SAARC Summit at Islamabad SAARC countries devised the South Asia Free Trade Agreement which created a framework for the establishment of a free trade area covering 14 billion people This agreement went into force on January 1 2006 Under this agreement SAARC members will bring their duties down to 20 per cent by 2007

Areas of CooperationSAARC is an economic and political regional organisation of countries in South Asia set up in 1985 It aims to accelerate the process of economic and social development in its member states through increased intra-regional cooperation It has eight member countries (Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan and Sri-Lanka) and seven observer status countries (China the European Union Iran Japan Korea Mauritius and the United States of America)

The EU has observer status since 2006 and greatly values co-operation and regional integration in South Asia

The EU believes that it can help consolidate the ongoing integration process through its economic influence in the region its own historical experience of economic and trade integration and of dealing with diversity and its interest in crisis prevention It is convinced that SAARC could play a useful role in regional co-operation and dialogue

Cooperation between the EUropean Commission and SAARC should notably seek to promote the harmonisation of standards facilitate trade raise awareness about the benefits of regional cooperation and promote business networking in the SAARC area

Key Milestones

1996 European Commission and SAARC Secretariat sign Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation which has provided the background for technical assistance on trade matters

1999 EU and SAARC agree to cooperate on improving market access for SAARC products into EU working towards a cumulation of rules of origin for SAARC products for exports to the EU giving a Technical support for the establishment of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement and supporting the harmonisation of SAARC standards

Latin American Free Trade AssociationThe Latin American Free Trade Association LAFTA (later transformed into the Latin American Integration Association or Asociacioacuten Latinoamericana de Integracioacuten) was created in 1960 in the 1960 Treaty of Montevideo by Argentina Brazil Chile Mexico Paraguay Peru and Uruguay

The signatories hoped to create a common market in Latin America and offered tariff rebates among member nations In 1980 LAFTA reorganized into the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) which now has 12 members Argentine Republic Republic of Bolivia Federative Republic of Brazil Republic of Chile Republic of Colombia Republic of Cuba Republic of Ecuador United Mexican

States Republic of Paraguay Republic of Peru Eastern Republic of Uruguay and Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Objectives

The main objective of the association is to build up a common market for South American countries and thereby to bring about a gradual reduction in trade barriers among member countries LAFTA as a trade bloc wants to stimulate intra-Latin American trade and also to increase Latin Americanrsquos declining share in world trade

The Latin American Free Trade Association was one which came into effect on January 2 1962 When the trade association commenced it had seven members and its main goal was to eliminate all duties and restrictions on the majority of their trade within a twelve year period By the late 1960rsquos the area of LAFTA had a population of 220 million and produced about $90 billion of goods and services annually By the same time it had an average per capita gross national product of $440

By 1970 LAFTA expanded to include four more Latin American nations which were Bolivia Colombia Ecuador and Venezuela It now consisted of eleven nations

In 1980 LAFTA reorganized into the Latin American Integration Association (Asociacioacuten Latinoamericana de Integracioacuten ALADI)

The membership of ALADI had remained unchanged until Cuba joined in 1999

The goal of the LAFTA is the creation of a free trade zone in Latin America It should foster mutual regional trade among the member states as well as with the US and the European Union

To achieve these goals several institutions are foreseen

the council of foreign ministers a conference of all participating countries

a permanent council

LAFTA brought many new positive changes to Latin America With LAFTA in place existing productive capacity could be used more fully to supply regional needs industries could reduce costs as a result of potential economies through expanded output and regional specialization and attraction to new investment occurred as a result of the regional market area Although LAFTA has brought many constructive results it has also brought problems to individual nations as well as to Latin America as a whole

Methods

The ALADI promotes the creation of an area of economic preferences in the region aiming at a Latin American common market through three mechanisms

Regional tariff preference granted to products originating in the member countries based on the tariffs in force for third countries

Regional scope agreement among member countries

Partial scope agreements between two or more countries of the area

Either regional or partial scope agreements may cover tariff relief and trade promotion economic complementation agricultural trade financial fiscal customs and health cooperation environmental conservation scientific and technological cooperation tourism promotion technical standards and many other fields As the Montevideo Treaty is a framework treaty by subscribing to it the governments of the member countries authorize their representatives to legislate through agreements on the economic issues of greatest importance to each country

A system of preferences mdash which consists of market opening lists special cooperation programs (business rounds preinvestment financing technological support) and countervailing measures on behalf of the landlocked countries mdash has been granted to the countries deemed to be less developed (Bolivia Ecuador and Paraguay) to favour their full participation in the integration process As the institutional and normative umbrella of regional integration that shelters these agreements as well as the subregional ones (Andean Community MERCOSUR G-3 Free Trade Agreement Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas etc) it is the aim of the Association to support and favour every effort in order to create a common economic area

The LAFTA agreement has important limitations

It only refers to goods not to services and it does not include a coordination of policies Compared eg to the European Union the political and economic integration is very limited

Some of the problems which the individual countries face are the way they are grouped together by their economic strengths according to LAFTA The grouping was originally Argentina Brazil and Argentina in one group Colombia Chile Peru Uruguay and Venezuela in the second group and the last group which included Bolivia Ecuador and ParaguayThere is a problem in these classifications

because these countries are very different economically as well as in other aspects which the classification does not take into account

However LAFTA could not emerge as a powerful economic union due to non-cooperation among the member countries The member countries have been competing among themselves for promoting their exports Political instability among the member countries is another cause responsible for making this union weak and ineffective Due to lack of understanding and mutual trust the integration among the member countries is not effective

ALADI is now the largest Latin-American group of integration It covers more than 20 million sq kilometres and more than 493 million people It is responsible for regulations on foreign trade which includes regulations on technical measures sanitary regulations environment protection measures quality control measures automatic licensing measures price control measures monopolistic measures as well as other measures These regulations are put into place in order for trade to be even handed amongst members of ALADI

In recent years the Latin American debt crisis has eroded some of the industrial progress that the countries had made and has forced them to rely on primary product exports to patch up their debt In 1989 Andean countries made a renewed effort to revive regional co-operation with new measures LAFTA was replaced (renamed) by the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) with the signing of the Montevideo Treaty of 1980 The achievements of LAIA are also moderateAn advising bank is a correspondent of a bank which issues a letter of credit and on behalf of the issuing bank the advising bank notifies the beneficiary of the terms of the credit without engagement on its part to pay or guarantee the credit

Problems which Latin America faced as a whole had to deal with many of the nations in the continent being underdeveloped The Free Trade Agreement was seen as a way of the countries having greater economic interactions amongst each other and thus improving the economic state of the poorer nations

1994 ndash North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Creating the Worldrsquos Largest Free Trade Area

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (Spanish Tratado de Libre Comercio de Ameacuterica del Norte [TLCAN] French Accord de libre-eacutechange nord-ameacutericain [ALENA]) is a trilateral trade bloc in North America created by the governments of the United States Canada and Mexico The agreements were signed in December 8 1993 by the leaders of the three countries mdash Brian Mulroney of Canada Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico and Bill Clinton of the United States

when Jean Chreacutetien was in office in Canada In terms of combined purchasing power parity GDP of its members as of 2007 the trade bloc is the largest in the world and second largest by nominal GDP comparison It also is one of the most powerful wide-reaching treaties in the world

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has two supplements the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC)

HISTORY OF IMPLEMENTATION

NAFTA was initially promoted by politicians in the United States and Canada supportive of free trade led by Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney US President George H W Bush and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari The agreement was pursued by business interests in all three countriesand opposed by labor environmental and other business interests in all three countries An agreement in principle was reached in August 1992 and the agreement was signed by the chief negotiators of each country in October 1992 The heads of government of all three countries signed NAFTA in December 1992 subject to ratification by the legislatures of the three countries The supplemental agreements on labour and the environment were signed in September 1993 NAFTA and the supplemental agreement came into effect on January 1 1994

In the United States NAFTA was able to secure passage after Bill Clinton made its passage a major legislative priority in 1993 Clintons Trade Representative Mickey Kantor was a strong advocate of the treaty Since the agreement had been signed by Bush under his fast-track prerogative Clinton did not alter the original agreement but complemented it with the aforementioned NAAEC and NAALC After intense political debate and the negotiation of these side agreements the US House of Representatives passed NAFTA on November 17 1993 by 234-200 vote (132 Republicans and 102 Democrats voting in favor 43 Republicans 156 Democrats and 1 independent against) and the US Senate passed it on the last day of its 1993 session November 20 1993 by 61-38 vote (34 Republicans and 27 Democrats voting in favor 10 Republicans and 28 Democrats against with 1 Democrat opponent not voting -- Sen Byron Dorgan (D-ND) an ardent foe of NAFTA missed the vote because of an illness in his family)

In Canada the divisive debate during the 1988 election over the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was not repeated for NAFTA By this time the formerly anti-FTA Liberal party had moderated its stance New Liberal leader Jean Chretien had expressed doubts over NAFTA and threatened to abrogate the treaty if changes were not made But after being elected in 1993 the Liberals duly passed the treaty

and its supplemental agreementson Tariffs and Trade hereby establish a free trade area

Objectives

1 The objectives of this Agreement as elaborated more specifically through its principles and rules including national treatment most-favored-nation treatment and transparency are to

a) eliminate barriers to trade in and facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and services between the territories of the Parties

b) promote conditions of fair competition in the free trade area

c) increase substantially investment opportunities in the territories of the Parties

d) provide adequate and effective protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in each Partys territory

e) create effective procedures for the implementation and application of this Agreement for its joint administration and for the resolution of disputes and

f) establish a framework for further trilateral regional and multilateral cooperation to expand and enhance the benefits of this Agreement

2 The Parties shall interpret and apply the provisions of this Agreement in the light of its objectives set out in paragraph 1 and in accordance with applicable rules of international law

Economic Relationship among NAFTA Nations

The North American Free Trade Agreement popularly known as NAFTA is an ideal display of how the outward-looking nations which resort to trade liberalization policies experience the benefits of trade in the form of greater competitiveness and increased wealth Trade benefits the manufacturers laborers and farmers through simplification of discriminatory and restrictive trade practices The consumers on the other hand get the benefits of trade in the form of lower commodity prices

Since its formation on 1st January 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement has played a pivotal role in deepening the economic relationship among Mexico Canada and the US The NAFTA attempted to promote multilateral trade agreements among the member nations It represents the biggest trade block of the world measured in terms of collective purchasing power parity GDP of the member nations

Effects among NAFTA nations

The effects of NAFTA both positive and negative have been quantified by several economists whose findings have been reported in publications such as the World Banks Lessons from NAFTA for Latin America and the Caribbean NAFTAs Impact on North America and NAFTA Revisited by the Institute for International Economics

Some argue that NAFTA has been positive for Mexico which has seen its poverty rates fall and real income rise (in the form of lower prices especially food) even after accounting for the 1994ndash1995 economic crisis Others argue that NAFTA has been beneficial to business owners and elites in all three countries but has had negative impacts on farmers in Mexico who saw food prices fall based on cheap imports from US agribusiness and negative impacts on US workers in manufacturing and assembly industries who lost jobs Critics also argue that NAFTA has contributed to the rising levels of inequality in both the US and Mexico

Some economists believe that NAFTA has not been enough (or worked fast enough) to produce an economic convergence nor to substantially reduce poverty rates Some have suggested that in order to fully benefit from the agreement Mexico must invest more in education and promote innovation in infrastructure and agriculture

Industry

Maquiladoras (Mexican factories which take in imported raw materials and produce goods for export) have become the landmark of trade in Mexico These are plants that moved to this region from the United States hence the debate over the loss of American jobs Hufbauers (2005) book shows that income in the maquiladora sector has increased 155 since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994 Other sectors now benefit from the free trade agreement and the share of exports from non-border states has increased in the last five years while the share of exports from maquiladora-border states has decreased

This phenomenon has allowed for the rapid growth of non-border metropolitan areas such as Toluca Leoacuten and Puebla all three larger in population than Tijuana Ciudad Juaacuterez and Reynosa The main non-maquiladora industry that has benefited from NAFTA is the automobile industry

Environment

Securing US congressional approval for NAFTA would have been impossible without addressing public concerns about NAFTArsquos environmental impact The Clinton Administration negotiated a side agreement on the environment with Canada and Mexico the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation NAAEC which led to the creation of the Commission for

Environmental Cooperation in 1994 To alleviate concerns that NAFTA the first regional trade agreement between a developing country and two developed countries would have negative environmental impacts the CEC was given a mandate to conduct ongoing ex post environmental assessment of NAFTA

In response to this mandate the CEC created a framework for conducting environmental analysis of NAFTA one of the first ex post frameworks for the environmental assessment of trade liberalization The framework was designed to produce a focused and systematic body of evidence with respect to the initial hypotheses about NAFTA and the environment such as the concern that NAFTA would create a ldquorace to the bottomrdquo in environmental regulation among the three countries or the hope that NAFTA would pressure governments to increase their environmental protection mechanisms The CEC has held four symposia using this framework to evaluate the environmental impacts of NAFTA and has commissioned 47 papers on this subject In keeping with the CECrsquos overall strategy of transparency and public involvement the CEC commissioned these papers from leading independent experts

Overall none of the initial hypotheses were confirmed NAFTA did not inherently present a systemic threat to the North American environment as was originally feared but NAFTA-related environmental threats instead occurred in specific areas where government environmental policy infrastructure or mechanisms were unprepared for the increasing scale of production under trade liberalization In some cases environmental policy was neglected in the wake of trade liberalization in other cases NAFTArsquos measures for investment protection such as Chapter 11 and measures against non-tariff trade barriers threatened to discourage more vigorous environmental policy The most serious overall increases in pollution due to NAFTA were found in the base metals sector the Mexican petroleum sector and the transportation equipment sector in the United States and Mexico but not in Canada

Agriculture

From the earliest negotiation agriculture was (and still remains) a controversial topic within NAFTA as it has been with almost all free trade agreements that have been signed within the WTO framework Agriculture is the only section that was not negotiated trilaterally instead three separate agreements were signed between each pair of parties The Canada-US agreement contains significant restrictions and tariff quotas on agricultural products (mainly sugar dairy and poultry products) whereas the Mexico-US pact allows for a wider liberalization within a framework of phase-out periods (It was the first North-South FTA on agriculture to be signed)

The overall effect of the Mexico-US agricultural agreement is a matter of dispute Mexico did not invest in the infrastructure necessary for competition such as efficient railroads and highways creating more difficult living conditions for the countrys poor Still the causes of rural poverty cannot be directly attributed to NAFTA in fact Mexicos agricultural exports increased 94 percent annually between 1994 and 2001 while imports increased by only 69 percent a year during the same period

Production of corn in Mexico has increased since NAFTAs implementation However internal corn demand has increased beyond Mexicos sufficiency and imports have become necessary far beyond the quotas Mexico had originally negotiated Zahniser amp Coyle have also pointed out that corn prices in Mexico adjusted for international prices have drastically decreased yet through a program of direct income transfer (a subsidy) expanded by former president Vicente Fox production has remained stable since 2000

The logical result of a lower commodity price is that more use of it is made downstream Unfortunately many of the same rural people who would have been likely to produce higher-margin value-added products in Mexico have instead emigrated The rise in corn prices due to increased ethanol demand may improve the situation of corn farmers in Mexico

In a study published in the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics NAFTA has increased US agricultural exports to Mexico and Canada even though most of this increase occurred a decade after its ratification The study focused on the effects that gradual phase-in periods in regional trade agreements including NAFTA have on trade flows Most of the increase in membersrsquo agricultural trade which was only recently brought under the purview of the World Trade Organization was due to very high trade barriers before NAFTA or other regional trade agreements

Mobility of persons

According to the Department of Homeland Security Yearbook of Immigration Statistics during fiscal year 2006 (ie October 2005 through September 2006) 74098 foreign professionals (64633 Canadians and 9247 Mexicans) were admitted into the United States for temporary employment under NAFTA (ie in the TN status) Additionally 17321 of their family members (13136 Canadians 2904 Mexicans as well as a number of third-country nationals married to Canadians and Mexicans) entered the US in the treaty nationals dependent (TD) status Because DHS counts the number of the new I-94 arrival records filled at the border and the TN-1 admission is valid for one year the number of non-immigrants in TN status present in the US at the end of the fiscal year is approximately equal to the number of admissions during the year (A discrepancy may be caused by some TN entrants leaving the country or changing status before their one-year admission period

expired while other aliens admitted earlier may change their status to TN or TD or extend earlier granted TN status)

Canadian authorities estimated that as of December 1 2006 the total of 24830 US citizens and 15219 Mexican citizens were present in Canada as foreign workers These numbers include both entrants under the NAFTA agreement and those who have entered under other provisions of the Canadian immigration law New entries of foreign workers in 2006 were 16841 (US citizens) and 13933 (Mexicans)

NAFTA Trade Policies

According to Isaac (2005) overall NAFTA has not caused trade diversion aside from a few select industries such as textiles and apparel in which rules of origin negotiated in the agreement were specifically designed to make US firms prefer Mexican manufacturers The World Bank also showed that the collected NAFTA imports percentage growth was accompanied by an almost similar increase of non-NAFTA exports

The North American Free Trade Agreement has taken a number of policy measures to strengthen the rules of trade followed by the North American nations The flexibility in the economic infrastructure initiated by the NAFTA has resulted in substantial increase in investment and trading activities across the NAFTA nations

Canada has recorded an increase in export by 87 to the other members of NAFTA Exports from Mexico to US registered a substantial increase by 234 American exports to Mexico and China have also shown considerable growth since the formation of the NAFTA

The new trade rules initiated by the North American Free Trade Agreement has helped Mexico and Canada to boost up their respective shares of exports to US The NAFTA has also has also been able to generate a number of new sources trading and investment options among the member nations of North America

The NAFTA has taken the necessary initiative to increase competitiveness in the international market With its effective trade rules and other policy measures NAFTA has emerged as one of the most dynamic trade blocs in the world The NAFTA nations contribute around 25 of the global imports and 19 of the total exports of the world The Agreement has brought about an environment of financial stability necessary to facilitate free flow of goods and services and investments across the NAFTA nations Aided by its stable economic environment North America has been able to draw huge amount of FDI North America shares 239 of the international inward foreign direct investment As far as the global outward foreign direct investment is concerned the contribution of North America happens to be around 25

With their favorable economic infrastructure and trade policies the economic relationship among the NAFTA nations is bound to be stronger in the years to come

European Union

Introduction


Latin American Free Trade Association



Industry

Environment

Agriculture

Mobility of persons

What is a trade blocEuropean Union(EU)

Member states Future membership Objectives of European Union Organizational Structure Evolution of European Union as trade bloc Factors that European Union must consider


History Member States

Future membership



Secretariat

Ineffectiveness

Political issues


The EU and South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation

Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA)

Objectives Methods The LAFTA agreement has important limitations

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european union

News & Politics