Economy blocks: origin, types, exercises

You Bcrazy andconical they are associations made by countries for the social, political and economic development of their members. These alliances are mainly made to ensure mutual help and develop the economy of all involved.

There are several benefits for a country to join a bloc, such as the elimination of tariffs and customs barriers and the guarantee of the development of internal and external trade. On the other hand, some disadvantages emerge, as the impediment of some commercial partnerships.

The economic blocks can be of the following types:

  • customs union;

  • free trade zones;

  • common market;

  • political and monetary union; and

  • preferential tariff zones.

Read too: Mercosur – South American economic bloc

Origin of economic blocks

The origin of the economic blocks refers to the context that followed the Gwar Flaugh, when the global economy gained a new phase of integration between countries and a new world order established itself, which generated the globalization. In an attempt to keep their markets functioning, some countries have formed alliances to keep their internal and external trade functioning.

Economic blocs are associations between countries with a view to the economic development of all members.
Economic blocs are associations between countries with a view to the economic development of all members.

The economic blocks consist especially of the process of facilitating the development of commercial activity among the members. In this way, the member countries carry out the sale of products among themselves and allow the traffic of information, goods and people, in addition to hampering the entry of products from non-member countries by creating barriers commercials.

The first blocks came with the reduction of commercial tariffs. With time and the evolution of capitalism, we started to observe new features, such as the complete elimination of trade and customs barriers, creation of tariffs for trade with countries non-members and advantages for individuals and legal entities within the scope of economic and even social development of the members.

Types of economic blocks

  • customs union: consists of a free trade area with a Common External Tariff (TEC), which is a rate that makes products from countries outside the bloc more expensive. Examples: Southern Common Market (Mercosur).

  • Free come zonercio: consists of trade facilitation with the elimination of tariffs and customs barriers, in order to guarantee economic and commercial development. Example: Naphtha (Free Trade Treaty of the Americas) and CAN (Andean Community).

  • common market: it is an economic bloc with a high standard of integration, in which there is free trade and free movement of people, information, capital and goods. In these blocks, physical boundaries practically do not exist. Examples: Southern Common Market (Mercosur).

  • political and monetary union: it is a broad integration in the economic field, with the development of trade (import and export) and the countryside political – with common policies adopted between the countries –, in addition to the creation and adoption of a single currency by the members. Example: european unionandwas going.

  • Tariff preference zones: type of integration in which tariff advantages are adopted only for some products, to make them cheaper for countries not participating in the bloc. Example: THEladi (Latin American Integration Association).

See too: Difference between export and import

Main economic blocks

The emergence of economic blocs in modern capitalism has placed countries in the system of global competition. Thus, each member country is able to participate in the global economy. In every continent, every region of the world, there are associations in this format.

Flag of the European Union – largest economic bloc in the world.
Flag of the European Union – largest economic bloc in the world.

The main world economic blocks are:

  • European Union: formed by Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania and Sweden. It was created in 1957 and its main function is to promote the free movement of people and economic development among its members.

  • Naphtha (North American Free Trade Agreement): created in 1994, its main objective is to develop trade between the United States of America, Mexico and Canada.

  • OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries): formed by countries that produce and sell oil globally: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Its creation took place in the 1960s.

  • Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation): created in 1989 and formed by Australia, Brunei, Darussalam, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nova Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United States of America, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Peru, Russia and Vietnam. Its core function is to promote an area of ​​economic and commercial development among its members.

  • MCCA (Central American Common Market): bloc founded in 1960 with members Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua.

  • Andean Community: formed by the countries of Andean America (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru). The general objective is to develop the economy, politics, social and cultural fields through the integration of the countries involved.

  • Mercosur (Southern Common Market): formed by Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. Its main function is to promote an area of ​​free trade, social and economic development among its members, in addition to allowing the free movement of people, goods and goods in general.

  • Asian tigers: created in the 1970s, it is made up of East Asian countries: Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. It aims to implement customs barriers and develop new technologies in the global competitive process.

  • CIS (Community of Independent States): formed by countries that were members of the USSR: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The bloc was created to integrate countries into world economic logics after the end of the USSR.

  • SADC (Southern African Development Community): created in 1992, its members are: South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The main objective is to establish peace and security in the region.

Read too: OECD – the organization also known as “Club of the Rich

Advantages and disadvantages of economic blocks

The main benefits to integrate an economic bloc revolve around the economic development of countries, highlighting the lower cost of products, elimination of export and import tariffs and the gradual increase in Gross Domestic Product. As independent economies become part of a larger system, a association of mutual help, with greater ease of movement between people, goods and information, common economic and social development policies, among countless other benefits.

Between the disadvantages, we can highlight the absence of sovereignty national, weakening of multinationalism in the face of the strengthening of the regional economy, polarization of global economies, lack of economic freedom of companies to participate in broader markets and the possibility of countries with fragile economies to affect the most developed.

All these factors promote greater or lesser impact on members, depending on what is analyzed in the economic aspect of the country. Some blocs, such as the European Union, impose economic stability on members as a common policy, so that these aspects do not become disadvantages for members, but rather advantages.

Importance of economic blocks

The importance of economic blocs is not limited to stimulating trade, whether internal or external. When we talk about globalizatione of these great economic transformations of the last years, we must understand how the capitalist economies have changed in favor of the economic and social development between countries. There was great business and industrial growth, with this business institutions gaining market and influence at local, regional and global levels. the barriers territorial diminished, and the areas of influence expanded significantly.

This importance is not restricted to economic aspects, as it is possible to observe social factors in this dynamic, as new sources of income, employment and living standards that are established with the globalized capitalist way of life. Consumption expands, new social classes establish themselves, new ways of living day-to-day appear, among other factors. All these elements are related to the integrations made by the economic blocks.

Read too: UN - organization that aims at world development through cooperation between countries

Revolved exercises

1- (Cefet-CE) - The initiative for the Americas, launched by President George Bush in June 1990, was part of the orientation reformist: its goal was to form a free trade zone throughout the American continent, with the exclusion of of Cuba. This economic integration zone is called:

a) Southern Common Market (Mercosur).

b) European Union.

c) Free Trade Area of ​​the Americas (FTAA).

d) Pacific Basin Zone.

e) New Industrialized Countries (NPIs).

Resolution:

Alternative C. The Free Trade Area of ​​the Americas is a treaty between the countries of the Americas that seeks economic integration between countries and stimulus to the continent's economy.

2- (Unioeste) - “Globalization is, in a way, the apex of the internationalization process of the capitalist world. [...] At the end of the 20th century and thanks to advances in science, a system of techniques was produced, presided over by the techniques of information, which began to play the role of a link between the others, uniting them and ensuring a presence to the new technical system planetary. But globalization is not just the existence of this new system of techniques. It is also the result of actions that ensure the emergence of a so-called global market, responsible for the essentials of the political processes that are currently effective.”

SAINTS, Milton. For another globalization: from single thought to universal consciousness. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2000, p. 23-24.

Considering the previous statement, about the globalization process in contemporary society, mark the correct alternative.

a) Globalization is a process exclusively based on the development of new information techniques and their origin is directly related to the diffusion and universalization of the use of the internet, which took place from the end of the decade of 1990.

b) Among the characteristics of globalization, we have the profound change in the international division of labor, in which the distribution of productive functions tends to be increasingly concentrated in a few countries, such as the United States and the Japan.

c) About the actions that ensure the emergence of the global market, the author is referring to the neoliberal economic doctrine that, among others principles, defends the strengthening of the State and state intervention as a direct regulator of markets – industrial, commercial and financial.

d) Currently, world economic relations, comprising the dynamics of the means of production, productive forces, technology, division international labor market and the world market, are largely influenced by the requirements of companies, corporations or conglomerates. multinationals.

e) The protectionist strategies taken by governments around the world, hindering the entry of products foreigners in their national markets, are considered as outstanding characteristics of the process of globalization.

Resolution:

ALTERNATIVE D. With the expansion of markets and growth of companies, industries and multinationals, the new scenario economic was strongly influenced by these corporations, as they are important regulators of the economy. worldwide.

By Gustavo Henrique Mendonça
Geography teacher

Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/acordos-economicos.htm

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