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A trade bloc is a large Free Trade Area or free trade area formed by one or more Tax, Tariff And Trade agreements. Typically Trade Pact s that define such a bloc specify formal adjudication bodies, e.g. NAFTA trade panels. This may include even a more democratic and participative system, as the EU and its Parliament .

Particularly since the demise of most of the world's Empire s, a number of international—generally regionally based—economic blocs have been developed to promote trade between member states.

Several blocs also have stated or implicit Political goals—notably the EU . Varieties of economic blocs include Free Trade Area s, Customs Union s, Single Market s, and Economic And Monetary Union s.

One of the first economic blocs was the German Customs Union ('' Zollverein '') initiated in 1834, formed on the basis of the German Confederation and subsequently German Empire from 1871.

A trade bloc is established through a Trade Pact (or pacts) covering different issues of the Economic Integration .


MOST ACTIVE REGIONAL BLOCS


It is possible that a country is member of two (or more) different blocs. To avoid overlapping for this classification such countries are only included in the most active of the blocs in question. The "activity" of each block is measured by the following three criteria:
  • to have greater real practical achievements (not only declarations that are not followed by actual actions by its members)

  • to have more recent (or regular) activities (meetings, new agreements, other internal procedures)

  • to have more ambitious plans for future Integration and a tighter timescale for it.


Also a country may be classified here as part of the less active regional bloc if the country itself is more active in it; Venezuela, for example, is a member of both the Andean Community and Mercosur. While Mercosur is a more active bloc than the Andean Community, Venezuela itself is much more active in the Andean Community than in Mercosur. Therefore Venezuela is assigned to the Andean Community for the purpose of this classification. (''This is only an example. So, note, that Venezuela is planning to completely integrate with Mercosur by 2010'').

Priority is given to such regional blocs that have ambitions for integration in more spheres than just economy (i.e. Political , Defence and other spheres). Sometimes activities are divided between different (but related) blocs with small deviations in membership (e.g. NATO and EU members are ''almost'' the same).

Some colors on the map are used multiple times for different blocs. A darker color means ''full member''; a lighter color means ''associate state'', ''observer state'', ''prospective member'', ''candidate'', ''acceding state'' or a similar status.


European Union (EU)



Caribbean Community (CARICOM)



Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS)



Economic And Monetary Community Of Central Africa (CEMAC)



East African Community (EAC)



South American Community Of Nations (CSN)



Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)



Southern African Customs Union (SACU)



Common Market For Eastern And Southern Africa (COMESA)



North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA)



Association Of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)



South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (SAARC)



Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC)



Agadir Agreement



Central American Common Market (CACM)

''Cooperation in the framework of the bloc currently stalled and status in light of DR-CAFTA is unclear''


Pacific Regional Trade Agreement (PARTA of PIF )



African Economic Community (AEC)

Under the umbrella of the African Union it is expected that ECOWAS, CEMAC/ECCAS, SACU/SADC, COMESA/IGAD and EAC will join into a common African Economic Community in 2019 .


Other states or entities

  • Europe:

  • --- )

  • --- )

  • --- .


  • Arab States:

  • --- Iraq : aiming at GCC membership, but also possibility for Agadir

  • --- Palestine : problems with status, prospective member for Agadir

  • --- , general possibility for Agadir


  • West Asia:

  • --- Iran : problems with political system (for cooperation with established democracies), no suitable bloc (relations with neighbours uneasy)

  • --- Turkmenistan : self-imposed isolation, possibility for EurAsEC if it chooses to engage with international organizations

  • --- cooperation only


  • East Asia:

  • --- China : no suitable bloc currently because of political system and size

  • --- Japan : no suitable block currently, possibility for Japan-South Korea and/or ASEAN

  • --- South Korea : no suitable block currently, possibility for Japan-South Korea and/or ASEAN

  • --- Mongolia : no suitable block currently

  • --- North Korea : isolated because of political system

  • --- , affiliation with Japan and South Korea


  • Oceania:

  • ---


  • Latin America:

  • --- Cuba : mostly isolated because of political system, possibility for CARICOM or CACM

  • --- Panama : possibility for engaging with CSN or CACM



Comparison between regional blocs


1 not all members participating yet

2 involving Goods , Services , Telecommunications , Transport (full Liberalisation of Railway s from 2012), Energy (full liberalisation from 2007)

3 Telecommunications , Transport and Energy - proposed

4 sensitive goods to be covered from 2019

5 Least Developed members to join from 2012

6 Least Developed members to join from 2017




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