Business
General
These can have a major impact on regional trade (either by the reduction or elimination of tariffs and/or removing or reducing Non-Tariff barriers).
N.B. Where a country is a member or otherwise affiliated to any of these agreements, this is indicated (with an appropriate link) in the Country Specific (Trade Profile) section.
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Andean Community
The Andean Community is a customs union comprising the South American countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. |
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Arab Maghreb Union (UMA)
A trade agreement aiming for economic and future political unity among Arab countries of the Maghreb in North Africa. |
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ASEAN Australia New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA)
The AANZFTA is a comprehensive and single-undertaking free trade agreement that opens up and creates new opportunities for approximately 663 million peoples of ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand. |
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ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)
ASEAN Member Countries have made significant progress in the lowering of intra-regional tariffs through the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme for AFTA. |
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Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA)
APTA aims to promote economic development through the adoption of mutually beneficial trade liberalization measures that will contribute to intra-regional trade expansion and provides for economic integration through coverage of merchandise goods, services, investment and trade facilitation. Open to all developing member countries, APTA is a truly region-wide trade agreement spanning East and South Asia, with potential to expand to other sub-regions, including Central Asia and the Pacific. |
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Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración
ALADI fosters the creation of an area of economic preferences in the region, with the ultimate goal of achieving a Latin American common market, |
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Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM)
The economic integration of CARICOM is largely conceived through a single economic space; the benefits of which include the sustainable economic development of the Community and improved quality of life for its people. The CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) is the heart of CARICOM’s economic integration. |
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Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
COMESA’s Vision is to “be a fully integrated, internationally competitive regional economic community with high standards of living for all its people ready to merge into an African Economic Community”. |
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Economic Community of Central African States
ECCAS - Le but de la «Communauté est de promouvoir et de renforcer une coopération harmonieuse et un développement équilibré et auto-entretenu dans les domaines de l’activité économique et sociale. |
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Economic Community of Great Lake Countries
Mainly inactive, covers: Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. |
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Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
ECOWAS is a 15-member regional group with a mandate of promoting economic integration in all fields of activity of the constituting countries. |
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Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area (EU-MEFTA)
The key objective of the trade partnership is the creation of a deep Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area, which aims at removing barriers to trade and investment between both the EU and Southern Mediterranean countries and between the Southern Mediterranean countries themselves. Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements are in force with most of the partners (with the exception of Syria and Libya). |
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European Customs Union
The European Union Customs Union (EUCU) is a customs union which consists of all the member states of the European Union (EU), Monaco, and some territories of the United Kingdom which are not part of the EU (Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Bailiwick of Jersey, and the Isle of Man). Some territories within the EU do not participate in the customs union, usually as a result of their geographic circumstances. Besides the EUCU, the EU, through separate agreements, is in customs unions with Andorra, San Marino, and Turkey, with the exceptions of certain goods. |
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European Economic Area
Covers: The European Union, EFTA and Switzerland. |
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European Free Trade Association
The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is the intergovernmental organisation of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland established for the promotion of free trade and economic integration between its members. |
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Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)
The effort to unite the economies of the Americas into a single free trade area began at the Summit of the Americas, which was held in December 1994 in Miami, U.S.A. The Heads of State and Government of the 34 democracies in the region agreed to construct a Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, in which barriers to trade and investment will be progressively eliminated. |
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Mercado Común del Cono Sur
Mercosur is an economic and political bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and Venezuela. |
| North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) |
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Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER AND PACER Plus)
The Asia Regional Integration Center (ARIC) is an ongoing technical assistance project of the Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department (ERCD). |
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Southern African Development Community Free Trade Area (SADCFTA)
The main objectives of SADC are to achieve development, peace and security, and economic growth, to alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the peoples of Southern Africa, and support the socially disadvantaged through regional integration, built on democratic principles and equitable and sustainable development. |
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Trans Pacific Partnership
A trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam signed on 4 February 2016, which has not entered into force. As the United States withdrew from it afterwards, negotiations have started on a new trade agreement called Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. |
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UN Conference on Trade and Development
At UNCTAD, we support developing countries to access the benefits of a globalized economy more fairly and effectively. And we help equip them to deal with the potential drawbacks of greater economic integration. |
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West African Economic and Monetary Union
The goals of WAEMU/UEMOA are: To strengthen the economic and financial competitiveness of the Member States in an open and competitive market environment and within a streamlined and harmonized legal context ....... |
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World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible. |