Regional Trade Agreements. Are they Building Blocks or Stumbling Blocks?

Regional economic integration means agreements between countries in a geographic region to reduce / remove barriers to trade. Rationale is consistent with comparative advantages. Building Blocks: 1. Provides impetus for trade talks. Regionalism can even help to promote liberalization in small or developing countries that may hold doubts about freer trade and the benefits it holds for them. 2. Free trade in regions is better than none at all. At least those countries in R.T.A.'s …showed first 75 words of 1206 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1206 total…fits all solution is not realistic in today's climate and alternative ways to get to the desired goal need to be explored. Perhaps the middle road that embraces both regionalism and multilateralism, which is effectively being practiced by many nations in the world today, is for the time being the only realistic way forward. Therefore one can conclude that there is a big incentive to form and enlarge a customs union until free trade prevails.