Customs Union

The situation in which the independent political units, called states, and their economic agents compete on the world market, may be denoted as zero economic integration. The liberal epoch of 19th-century Europe corresponds institutionally most closely to such a state of affairs. Although various attempts at integration were made already in the last century, it is only in the second half of this century that the world began to move gradually towards economic integration. Various international agreements are the milestones on this path. Suffice it to mention the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), whose rules are obeyed by all important trading nations. Nevertheless, the world arrangements, just because they are so encompassing, will be taken as a basis from which the various, less general, integration schemes start. Various preferential trading agreements, in the ascending order of economic integration, are: