Process Of Regional Economic Integration Research Articles

THE DYNAMICS OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION: A SYSTEM DYNAMICS ANALYSIS OF PATHWAYS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF VALUE CHAINS IN THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN CUSTOMS UNION

Despite progress towards improved cooperation within the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), it can be argued that real economic integration is still lacking. Cross-border value chain (VC) development has been proposed as a potential enabler of regional economic integration. This article draws on a systems thinking process to explore the dynamic process of regional economic integration and value chain development. Through an inductive approach, we consider pathways for value chain development using the agro-processing and automotive sectors within SACU as case studies. The outcome of the dynamic hypothesis is to inform a framework for strategic decision-making to support policy action towards developing cross-border value chains in SACU.

Ceramic production and provenance in the Yiluo Basin (Henan, China): Geoarchaeological interpretations of utilitarian craft production in the Erlitou state

Petrographic and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis performed on late Neolithic/early Bronze Age utilitarian ceramic assemblages from three high-level centers in the Yiluo River valley (Henan, China) – Erlitou, Huizui, and Shaochai – have identified discriminating features which serve as a basis for inferring community-level production loci on an intra-basinal scale. Principal among these are 1) a volcanic and sulfide-silica “Luo River” inclusion signature seen at Erlitou and Shaochai, 2) a metamorphic (amphibole gneiss and schist) signature seen almost exclusively in sherds from Huizui, and 3) a predominantly fine-grained siliciclastic and carbonate sedimentary lithic “Songshan Mountain” signature observed among sherds at both Huizui and Shaochai. The pXRF data help to further refine these petrographic provenance assignments. Identification of overwhelmingly “local” production signatures suggests that wares were not widely exchanged between the Erlitou urban core and the surrounding centers with much frequency during the Erlitou period (ca. 1900–1500BCE). Domestic wares may have been produced for systems of local exchange among regional centers and surrounding rural potting communities utilizing ceramic raw materials found within shared geological resource zones. The persistence of local production signatures throughout the Yangshao (ca. 5000–3000BCE), Longshan (ca. 3000–2000BCE), and Erlitou periods at Huizui suggests that systems of localized ceramic production and exchange within the Yiluo basin were not significantly altered in response to processes of urbanism and regional economic integration characterizing formation of the Erlitou state.

SPACE ASYMMETRIES OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

The objective preconditions of regionalization in the global space are considered in the article. The consequences and challenges of regional economic integration processes for the countries are revealed. The importance of coordinating the objectives of regional economic integration and national economic policy is substantiated. The role of integration in the liberalization of trade through the reduction of tariff barriers is argued. The regional asymmetries of global economic development are outlined. The state of development of regional trade agreements in the last decades is analysed. This analysis has made it possible to determine the difficulties of functioning of integration associations in modern conditions and to substantiate that each region has its own peculiarities, as shown by the example of the European Union, the member countries of NAFTA, integration in the countries of Latin America . The index of regional integration in Africa has been estimated. It allowed revealing significant differences among the groups of countries. The peculiarities of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the conditions of cooperation of the countries have been clarified.

ASEAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION COMPARED: WHAT DO THE NUMBERS TELL US?

In the comparative literature on regional (economic) integration processes, the ASEAN experience is often contrasted with the European (EU) integration process. More than any other integration process in the world, the ASEAN case is singled out as a counter-model for the EU. The ASEAN model is thereby associated with features such as: low levels of institutionalization, pragmatism, bottom-up or de facto regionalization, regional production platforms, and so on. The positive features of this ‘model’ are often emphasized; however, in recent years there have also been calls for deepening the institutionalization of ASEAN, including from the ADB.The purpose of our paper is double: On the one hand, we present a long-term meta-analysis of available indicators in order to compare more accurately the ASEAN experience with other integration experiences worldwide, and complement (and test) the mostly qualitative approaches in the comparative literature. This should allow to better identify convergences and divergences between ASEAN and other integration processes. On the other hand, by comparing ASEAN with benchmark cases, we shed new light on the potential for further deepening the economic integration process in Southeast Asia. The latter comparison is complemented with gravity-type model estimations to assess the potential for further developing intra-ASEAN trade.It is shown that ASEAN’s export space is expanding faster than the world average and that there is still space for ASEAN countries to further develop the role of its intra-regional trade. ASEAN can further improve the region’s competitiveness by reducing the non-tariff barriers and technical barriers, trade facilitation, strengthening regional value chains, facilitating factor mobility and enhancing regional cooperation.

Regional Economic Integration in South Asia: Prospects and Challenges

Realizing its importance, the South Asian region has also embarked upon various processes of regional economic integration. However, the South Asian regional integration process is fraught with difficulties, especially due to a lack of understanding about the very economics of regional economic integration. Thus, this paper dwells upon some of the conceptual issues pertaining to regional economic cooperation in general and specific to the South Asian region. It also documents the progress made in SAARC, the SAFTA trade liberalization and associated mechanisms alongside the nature of safeguards provided for. In this respect, developmental perspectives of safeguards are put forth. Some fresh insights on the status of SAARC trade integration process in a dynamic setting are also brought out. The paper also highlights the potentials for deeper economic integration in the region. The paper further illustrates some of the areas wherein project-based cooperation is feasible in the region. Finally, the paper makes an objective assessment of the regional integration process and identifies certain policy-induced and structural constraints that have important policy-implications.

Regionalism and Changing Regional Order in the Pacific Islands

AbstractInstitutional developments in Pacific Islands regionalism have been dramatic in recent years. These include the changing role of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, a grouping of eight ‘tuna‐rich’ Pacific Island states that is transforming the dynamics of regional fisheries; the emergence of a more activist Melanesian Spearhead Group, which comprises the four largest economies of the Pacific Islands and is leading the process of regional economic integration; and the establishment of the Pacific Islands Development Forum, which promises a more inclusive ‘regionalism through partnerships’ approach in addressing climate change and sustainable development issues. This new dynamism is driven by the discontent of a growing number of island states with the established regional order, defined by prevailing institutions, power and ideas, and by a desire to assert greater control over their own futures. Against the backdrop of an increasingly dynamic geopolitical and geo‐economic landscape, Pacific Island states are using alternative regional frameworks to develop new approaches to the challenges facing them.

The Economic Impact Index of the Employment Relations Promulgation (2007) on the Fiji Islands

Globally, initiatives to improve the economic, political and social environment by implementing meaningful employment laws date back to the early 19th century. In the regional economic integration process, countries are encouraged to trade with other countries that have fair labour legislation. In this context, this paper will discuss the Economic Impact Index (EII) of the ERP (2007). This paper largely focuses on the economic implications of the ERP (2007) on the private sector of the Fiji Islands.

Mercosur's regional health agenda: architecture and themes

This article describes the shaping of institutional health spaces in the Mercosur, with analysis of themes and results and considerations on the construction of the regional agenda and on the effects of regional economic integration processes on health policies and systems. We discuss the organization, operation, focus topics, and results achieved in specific health forums (Meeting of Ministers of Health and Sub-Working Group 11), seeking to analyze the architecture and issues addressed by the regional agenda and drawing parallels with the European experience. The aim of this reflection is to identify how the work done by Mercosur structures contributes to building a regional agenda, with the expectation that the integration can contribute to reducing inequalities in access to health care in the region.

Regional Economic Integration and the Location of Multinational Firms

A theoretical model of international location is applied to a process of regional economic integration in which a set of countries mutually removes barriers to trade and investment, thus overcoming the traditional ‘hub and spoke’ setup of regional agreements. The theoretical results are matched with actual trade and foreign investment data from a sample of some 4,200 multinational firms who have invested in Central and Eastern Europe over the 1990–1999 period. Controlling for the effects of the reduction in trade barriers through a proper specification of a gravity model, it is found that the conventional outcome of an agglomeration of economic activities in the centre of the integrating area does not necessarily hold. Multilateral regional integration agreements can act as an important dispersion force significantly driving the location of multinational firms. A panel probit econometric exercise confirms the findings.

Migration and Development in Mexico: Toward a New Analytical Approach

IntroductionInternational organizations, led by the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, are pursuing an international political agenda in the areas of migration and development. Its guiding principle is that they consider that remittances, sent home by migrants, can promote the local, regional and national of the countries of origin. In addition, remittances are recognized an indispensable source of foreign exchange for providing macroeconomic stability, and alleviating the ravages caused by such insidious phenomena as poverty. At the same time, the Mexican government is pursuing an erratic policy of migration and implemented by a handful of programs that are unconnected and de-contextualized vis-a-vis the complexity of problems (Delgado Wise and Marquez, 2005).For Mexico, as for other countries that export large numbers of migrants, the great paradox of international migration and policy is that it provides no substantial change in the principles that underpin neoliberal globalization or the specific way in which neoliberal policies are applied in the countries of origin. At most, they offer superficial strategies related to the migration phenomenon but not to development. Neither, do they address the need to lower the cost of transferring remittances or the promotion of financial support instruments to enable the use of remittances for microprojects, with very limited impact in terms of development. In the specific case of Mexico, it is clear that the country is not attempting to design coherent or properly contextualized policies for migration and development. There are no guiding strategies that could serve as part of an alternative model or as a new form of regional economic integration to reduce the socioeconomic asymmetries between Mexico and the United States. It is apparent that there are no efforts made to contain -or at least reduce- the burgeoning the current migratory dynamic.Our argument is that the remittance-based model is not the only one at work in the world, but it is certainly the most regressive (Delgado Wise and Marquez, 2006b). The peculiarity of this model is that it is not intended to foster substantial socioeconomic change in the communities and regions of migrant origin or to set roots in the sending country. In the specific case of Mexican migration to the United States, its aims are threefold: (1) Deepen the process of asymmetric regional economic integration based on exports of Mexican labor (Delgado Wise and Marquez, 2006a.) (2) Encourage the neoliberal export-led development mode of the country by the remittances contribution to macroeconomic stability. (3) Assure a level of governance, by presenting a human face to negate the climate of social unsustainability, labor precarization, and productive disarticulation that prevails.The theoretical perspective, used in this paper, emphasizes the political economy of development. It centers its attention on the role of migrant labor within the North American regional economic bloc. The analytical approach assesses remittances as a component, largely equivalent to wages, used for the workers subsistence. According to these forethoughts, workers are part of a relative surplus population forced to enter the crossborder job market under conditions of labor precarization and social exclusion. This outlook adopts contributions made by several theoretical approaches that shed light on the relationship between migration and in its efforts to construct a comprehensive, multidimensional view.1This document is divided into five sections: The first offers a brief overview of current migration and models found in different socioeconomic and geographical contexts around the world. The second describes the labor export-led model, applied in Mexico, under the neoliberal aegis and NAFTA context. Section three, examines how this model leads to the remittance-based model, which serves as the framework for most public policies in that area. …

Central American Borders at the Core of the Regional Integration Process

At the beginning of the 2000 decade, boundaries are at the heart of the Central American reality. Three of four conflicts listed for the American continent by the International Boundaries Research Unit (IBRU) in 2004 were occurring in the isthmus. Since the end of the 1980s, the states of this area have initiated a process of democratic pacification and regional economic integration. The diplomatic relations maintained by these neighbouring states are an essential element of this process, yet their shared borders, so often an object of national tension, are still prone to conflict. Over the past few years, Central American borders have been the subject of new research, due to both renewed regional and increased world interest in this topic. This renewed interest is accompanied by Central American authorities' interest in encouraging binational co-operation. The aim of this paper is to examine the Central American boundary-design process and present the causes of the still-existing border disputes, with the intention of understanding better what is at stake today in the promotion of trans-border co-operation on the scale of the Central American region. Rather than focus on the classic territorial view of boundaries as dividers and as mechanisms for defusing conflicts between states, this article concentrates on the awakening of political wills that has resulted in the emergence of transnational relations and thus given value to Central American borders as privileged spaces of interaction. The Central American case is used to try to illustrate how the synthesis of the theories of boundary studies and border studies can be both positive and stimulating.

The future of the Asian auto industry: regional integration, alternative designs, and Chinese leadership

This paper provides a critical analysis of the key drivers behind the future of the automotive industry in Asia. It argues that three changes will condition the evolution of the Asian auto sector. First, the Asian region will rapidly progress towards an integrated market and, as a whole, will play a central role in the global automotive industry. Second, alternative vehicle designs specific to the emerging Asian markets can be expected to emerge and form a second tier market. Political and economic advantages exist for the bodies of these vehicles being of fiber-composite resin materials instead of the steel of traditional vehicles. Finally, China will increasingly play a leadership role in the region, driving the regional economic integration process and establishing itself as critical base and destination for automakers and suppliers. The paper also addresses the evolving regional division of labor in Asia and how differences across countries, automakers, and suppliers may play a role in the emerging context.

Spanish Investments in Morocco and the Process of Regional Integration

The creation of the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area constitutes a big opportunity for Mediterranean third countries to integrate in the international economy. The big Euro-Mediterranean market that will unfold will not only intensify trade and investment flows into the Southern countries of the Mediterranean, but will also, as in all regional economic integration processes, signify a restructuring of the investments already made. This article studies the strategies of Spanish companies with industrial investments in Morocco in the light of the creation of the Euro-Mediterranean area, and the repercussions these strategies may have on employment.

A inserção insumo-produto da economia brasileira no Mercosul: uma abordagem pelo valor adicionado

Neste artigo, com base na matriz insumo-produto internacional do Mercosul de 1990, avalia-se, através do valor adicionado, a inserção da economia brasileira no Mercosul. Verificou-se, em termos relativos, que o valor adicionado induzido no Brasil pelas respectivas demandas da Argentina, Chile e Uruguai é o mais alto na região. Isso, associado aos níveis de industrialização alcançados pelo Brasil e às necessidades estruturais por importados que apresentam as indústrias dos países parceiros, mostra a importância relativa da economia brasileira como um supridor de produtos acabados de materiais básicos industriais e de bens de capital para o Mercosul. Contudo, ficou evidente que, para as economias da Argentina, Chile e Uruguai, o maior parceiro da região na geração de valor adicionado é o Brasil. Portanto, conclui-se que os mercados na região são potencialmente complementares e que, em decorrência disso, o processo de integração econômica regional poderá, efetivamente, vir a representar para o Brasil e seus países parceiros uma opção permanente de ampliação do espaço de produção e de circulação de mercadorias.

An Introduction into the Regional Economic Integration Process of the Americas

An Introduction into the Regional Economic Integration Process of the Americas

Decentralisation, Globalisation and China's Partial Re-engagement with the Global Economy

There is a tendency for research on processes of regional economic integration to be built on national-based paradigms and levels of analysis. Even those approaches that move away from intergovernmental processes of state-led regionalism and instead emphasise non-state directed regionalisation are often concerned with integration between two or more national economies. But, in many cases, real integration is taking place below the national scale. This is ree ected in the growing number of formal agreements between subnational political administrations, and also by the uneven geographic spread of international economic relations in many states. This notion of partial or microregional 1 economic integration is particularly important in understanding the processes and implications of China’ s re-engagement with the global economy. Indeed, national-based perspectives of regional integration are all but inapplicable in the Chinese context. This article assesses two case studies of microregional integration involving subnational territories of the People’ s Republic of China (PRC)— growing economic integration across the border between Guangdong Province and Hong Kong in the south, and the development of the North East Asian microregion (NEA) in the Chinese northeast. Using wider theoretical concepts and approaches not only facilitates our understanding of the political economy of specie c case studies, but also allows us to test the validity of those concepts and approaches themselves. Thus this article has two main aims. On a domestic level, it aims to assess both the importance and implications of microregional integration for economic governance within China. The dual processes of decentralisation and globalisation are recone guring loci of decision making and authority and, in combination, are simultaneously strengthening and weakening the relevance of political administratively dee ned territories for economic activity. This apparently contradictory statement is explained by distinguishing between local and national political administrative boundaries. On the one hand, decentralisation has consolidated the importance of provincial 2 boundaries as determinants of economic activity. On the other hand, China’ s transition from relative isolationism has increased the

Los procesos de regionalización económica en Asia

The appropriateness of providing the pertinent context for the analysis of non-Western cultures ensues from the author's analysis of current regional economic integration processes in Asia, and their specific characteristics, when confronted with the Western concepts on regionalism. Regional integration case studies analyzed include the Pacific Basin countries, the Association of Nations from Southeastern Asia (ANSEA), the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC), the Cooperation Council of the Gulf (CCG), and the Southern Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).