The North American Integration Regime and its Implications for the World Trading System

19 April 2001

book chapter
Published by Oxford University Press (OUP)

p. 169-200
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248124.003.0006

Abstract

Although the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and European Union (EU) regional integration processes have shortcomings, there is also reason to conclude that these enterprises are generally beneficial to the world economic and political system. Evidence is mounting that close market integration coupled with effective legal institutions provides economic, social, and political benefits over more diffuse market integration and the absence of legalisation. Despite risks inherent in the regionalisation of the world economy, the success of the NAFTA and EU relative to the world economy as a whole suggests that there is more to be gained than feared from the process. This chapter discusses the implications of the NAFTA integration regime for international trade, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), customs unions and free trade areas within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) System, most favoured nation principle of international trade, and impact of NAFTA on the political economy of regionalism.

Keywords

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