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Part IChapter 1
<br>The stages of economic integration
<br>? Free trade areas:
<br>– Free trade between members, different external tariffs
<br>– Little or no institutional co-ordination
<br>? Customs union:
<br>– Free trade between members and common external trade restriction
<br>– Common regulatory bodies
<br>? Common (or single) markets:
<br>– Removal of all barriers to free factor mobility
<br>– Free mobility of goods, capital, labour, and services
<br>– Greater level of regulation and strong institutions to monitor decisions adopted by member states
<br>The stages of economic integration (II)
<br>? Economic union:
<br>– Harmonisation of economic policies (generally monetary or fiscal policy)
<br>– Members give up powers. Strong central institutions which dictate common economic policy
<br>? Complete economic integration:
<br>– All economic policy areas are harmonised
<br>– The capacity of states to implement independent policies disappears
<br>– Central institutions become the centres of economic decision-making
<br>The stages of economic integration in the EU
<br>Economic integration to achieve competitiveness
<br>? Why did a customs union (the EC) decide to increase the pace of economic integration during the 1980s and 1990s?
<br>– Increasing globalisation of the world economy (increased competition, especially from the US, Japan, and the NICs)
<br>– More sophisticated systems to dodge trade barriers (multinational corporations)
<br>– Belief that market fragmentation (nationally divided markets) was reducing economies of scale
<br>GDP per capita (2000) in Europe, the US and Japan
<br>The limits of European competitiveness
<br>? The costs of the ‘non-Europe’ (Cecchini, 1991):
<br>– Physical barriers: Intra-European stoppages, controls at border checkpoints, red-tape, different currencies…\r<br>– Technical barriers: Different national product standards and technical regulations across Member States
<br>– Fiscal barriers: Lack of fiscal harmonisation
<br>Physical barriers
<br>? Custom related costs:
<br>– Customs controls, border stoppages
<br>– Paperwork and red-tape
<br>– Exchange of low-value added perishable goods suffered as a result
<br>? High administrative costs and regulatory hassles:
<br>– Higher cost of red-tape of SMEs (higher proportion of their business volume, and lack of expertise and human resources)
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