Development of Regionalism : New Criteria and Typology

Abstract

This study examines the development of regionalism and the different typologies of Regional Trade Agreements. Beginning with Balassa's typology, it conducts an overview of commonly used typologies of regionalism and emphasizes that the previous typologies do not reflect the different features of Regional Trade Agreements, for example, the external factors that make it possible to differentiate between seemingly similar types of Regional Trade Agreements. After noticing these limitations, we propose a new typology of Regional Trade Agreements and its criteria by combining the existing methods and the new one. Recent Regional Trade Agreements can be regarded as responses to a new trade environment: Multilateral negotiations agenda and globalization. This is probably why recent Regional Trade Agreements are often termed as World Trade Organizationplus. In the context of emerging mega-Regional Trade Agreements, such as the TransPacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, this study calls for more efforts toward harmonizing the different Regional Trade Agreements or creating a template of standard Regional Trade Agreements in order to prevent a spaghetti bowl effect. Meanwhile, Mega-Regional Trade Agreements also seem to be influenced by the consequences of the 2008~2009 global financial crisis.

Development Trends of Regional Economic Integration: Methodological Aspect

“…That is, de facto integration can exist without regionalism. It should also be noted that flows of goods and factors are often the most intense at the interregional level (Kang, 2016).…”

“…Regarding regional economic integration, we adhere the modern theoretical mainstream (Bolaños, 2016;Figuière, 2006;Kang, 2016), considering it as a simultaneous combination of upstream initiatives in the context of regionalization with the downstream strategic institutional measures that embody regionalism 3 .…”

“…The first and foremost criterion is the level of actual effectiveness of regional integration, which can be determined by estimating the share of intra-regional trade in total exports and imports. For example, the share of intra-regional trade in the EU exceeds 60%, while in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) it does not reach 10% (Kang, 2016). On the other hand, in the 1990s, even before the start of institutional regionalism, Eastern Asian states demonstrated a high intensity of mutual commodity and investment flows even without any preferential trade regimes, which again raises the question of the overall effectiveness of regionalism in principle.…”

A Kelet-afrikai Közösség belső kereskedelmére ható tényezők

“…2 ma az integrációk csoportosítását több szempontból is közelítik, részletesen lásd Kang [2016] ösz-szegző munkáját.…”

Análise econômica das relações entre Brasil e Peru: evidências da Rodovia Interoceânica sobre a integração

“…Daí que, muito importante é discutir nesse contexto a importância dos aspectos políticos no processo de integração sustentado pelo novo regionalismo e os movimentos que ela abrange, tais como desenvolvimento local e regional (KANG, 2016;HARVIE e LEE, 2016).…”