Policy Directives, Overall Conclusions and Prognostications on the Future for International Economic Integration

In this concluding chapter I wish first of all to highlight the policy implications of the theory of economic integration, then to bring together the conclusions that emerge from the book as a whole and finally to prognosticate about the future of international economic integration. The reader may be disappointed to learn that this concluding chapter does not have a section devoted to a summary of the experiences of the various schemes considered in this book. However, given that these experiences are so varied, it is impossible to draw a unified set of experiences from them, and, in any case, the reader who has come to this chapter after having tackled the rest of the book will most certainly not appreciate such a section. But for the lessons to be drawn from the experience of the various schemes considered in this book, the reader is advised to refer to the final section of Chapter 7 by Professor Hazlewood on the East African Community and to reflect on the twenty-five questions he raises there.