Regional Integration is when an economic alliance or trade agreement is formed among countries that are located geographically close to one another. This paper analyzes the role of regional integration in promoting global business, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of regional integration using a trading block as an example, and compares the economic development stages of two countries within a chosen region and discusses the ramifications of the region’s economic development for global business.
The purpose of regional integration is to achieve economic gains through free trade flow and investments between neighboring countries often by lowering or eliminating tariffs against imports from fellow member countries. Another purpose to the integration is to create institutions responsible for policy formulation concerning issues like education, health, labor matters and foreign policy within the member nations. These actions increase duty free trade, tourism, movement of labor, and the flow of capital across national borders, reducing the possibility of conflict.
Regional integration promotes global business in that it removes in stages or all together, previous barriers to foreign investments and other business ventures. As long as the policies set forth by the regional trade bloc are followed, businesses within each member country are encourages to participate in business activities such as forming strategic alliances, licensing, exporting, and relocating operations to other countries within the regional block to name a few. Businesses looking to expand globally have the opportunity to reduce productions costs through actions such as setting up manufacturing operations in another country where they would have access to products and or s ...