Regional integration
OBJECTIVES
1. Explain and use correctly concepts and terms associated with regional integration.
2. Describe the major challenges facing the Caribbean.
Regional integration is the process by which two or more nations/countries agree to cooperate and work closely together to achieve peace, stability and economic growth.
BILATERAL AGREEMENT
This term is used to describe an agreement that is made between two groups, countries or nations.
MULTILATERAL AGREEMENT
This term describes an agreement that is made among many groups or countries.
COMMON MARKET
This is an economic unit that is formed by countries,with the intention of eliminating or reducing trade barriers among its members.
SINGLE MARKET
This is used to refer to a group of countries that has few or no restrictions on the movement of goods, money and people between the borders of the members of this group.
ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
This is the unification of economic policies between different countries through the partial or full abolition of tariff and non-tariff restrictions on trade taking place among them prior to their integration.
INDEPENDENT STATE
This is the self-government of a county, nation or state by its residents and population. This country now has the right to exercise freely the full range of power a country possesses under international law.
UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRY
This is a nation which, compared to others, lacks industrialisation, infrastructure, developed agriculture, and developed natural resources, and suffers from a low per capita income as a result.
DEVELOPING COUNTRY
This is referred to as a less-developed country, one with a low standard of living, an underdeveloped industrial base, and a low Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries.
DEVELOPED COUNTRY
This is an industrialised country, or ‘more economically developed country’. This country has a highly developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure relative to other less-industrialised nations.
TRADE LIBERALISATION
This is the removal or reduction of restrictions or barriers on the free exchange of goods between nations.
GLOBALISATION
This is the worldwide movement towards economic, financial, trade, and communications integration. It is the opening of local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and interdependent world which engenders the free transfer of capital, goods, and services across national frontiers.
MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION
Sometimes called a transnational corporation, this is a corporation or enterprise that manages production and delivers services in more than one country.
TRADING BLOC
This is a large number of countries, with the same political and economic aims, linked by special trading arrangements among them.
FREE TRADE
This is an arrangement wherein a group of countries agrees to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade among them.
INTRAREGIONAL TRADE
This means countries in the region buying locally produced goods from or selling locally produced goods to other countries in the region.
FISCAL POLICY
Fiscal policy is the means by which a government adjusts its spending levels and tax rates to monitor and influence a nation’s economy.
MONETARY POLICY
This is the process a government, central bank or monetary authority of a country uses to control the supply of money, availability of money and cost of money, or rate of interest, to attain a set of objectives oriented towards the growth of the economy.
FACTORS PROMOTING REGIONAL INTEGRATION
■ The language spoken by most of the Caribbean people is English, and this will facilitate easy communication.
■ The Caribbean countries are relatively strategically located.
■ Caribbean people are descendants of people who had been subjected to slavery and also to indentureship.
■ The Caribbean people share a common culture in terms of language, dress, music, cuisine,