In the modern world there are global processes associated with the unification of foreign states in various unions and formations. This happens for a number of reasons, the main of which are the following:
- the interdependence of economies is growing;
- integration processes are gaining momentum at the micro and macro levels;
- the higher the civilization of the state, the faster it transfers its economy from national economic isolation to openness to the outside world.
The market for the production and consumption of goods and services, international corporations and subsidiaries, spheres of influence regulating ruinous competition - all this is based on a joint balanced economic interaction between countries connected by common business interests.
Definition
It is generally accepted that international economic integration is a conscious process, directed and regulated by the heads of state, caused by objective reasons. It is based on the rapprochement of individual economic and economic systems, their coalescence, adjustment to each other. Naturally, such unions are planned for more than one day, they have long-term potential and elements of self-development.
International economic integration is beneficial to many individual countries, which, running their own economy separately, face a number of difficulties. Together, these difficulties are overcome much easier, solving many problems of an economic and technical nature.
If we consider the economic microlevel, then international integration is the creation in the neighboring states of firms, organizations, enterprises that have common trade and economic ties. For example, in one country, enterprises produce products from raw materials that another supplies. And production is carried out on equipment manufactured in a third partner country. This type of communication is established on the basis of economic agreements, the organization of foreign branches, etc.
If we talk about the macro level, then it is equated with interstate, and here international integration is an economic union of states, agreed not only on economic activity, but also on separate national and political foundations. An example is the European Union.
Intensive development of integration requires the free movement of goods in different state regions, services, cash, work resources. This, in turn, entails the need for concerted joint action in finance, foreign exchange transactions, science and technology, and economics. Moreover, over time, social policies, foreign and defense , also enter the orbit of joint action. Thus, international economic integration is a complex, multi-level phenomenon, possible at a certain stage in the development of state systems. For its emergence, a high-level public consciousness is needed, overcoming narrow-ownership ideology and confrontation, which is characteristic of states with a militaristic deviation of government.
Forms of international economic integration
Traditionally, several such forms stand out:
- The simplest of them is considered to be free trade zones. In the formation of such zones between the participating countries, various restrictions related to the import-export of goods, customs duties, etc. are eliminated.
- The Customs Union - this type of form of international economic integration involves not only introducing a free trade zone between the participating countries, but also a common foreign trade policy, and a certain price regulator in relation to countries outside the integration union.
- A more complex formation is the common market. It makes it possible not only to organize a common market space with free, mutually beneficial trade, a single pricing policy, but also free input and output of capital, movement of labor resources, and coordination in the economic laws of the parties involved.
- The highest level of international economic integration is the economic and monetary union. Such a community, among other things, involves a single interstate monetary, financial, and economic policy.