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Regional agreements vary widely, but all have the objective of reducing barriers to trade between member contries. Countries have the goal of economic union and involve the construction of shared executive, judicial, and legislative institutions.
In recent years there have been qualitative changes in regional integration agreements. So three major developments have showed up – closed regionalism has become more open; recognition that effective integration requires more than simplyreducing tariffs and quotas; the advent of trade blocks in which high-income countries and developing countries are partners.
These developments have occured against the backdrop of globalization: new technologies and more liberal trading regimes have led to higher trade volumes, larger investment flows, and increasingly footloose production. …