Annals of the University of Oradea: Economic Science (Jul 2016)
THE EU, APEC AND ASEAN; A COMPARISON IN THE FRAMEWORK OF ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
Abstract
Fast developing technology, increased production and the search for market has paved the way for globalization after the industrial revolution. Transnational borders has almost disappeared today’s World which faced with two great wars and a lot more threat during the 20th century. Economic integrations gained speed after the two Great World Wars. Countries started to come together because of advancing technology, transportation facilities, security concerns and increased competition during this period. Thus, political, military and cultural integration movements established and also economic integration movements gained speed. Economic, political, military integrations like EU, APEC, ASEAN, NAFTA, WTO and NATO have showed impact in every region of the World. There are a lot of regional and global integration movements in the World. Globalization leads to act the World as if it had a single center increasingly. This case is important in terms of economic integration of the national economies. The main objective of economic integration is an effort to eliminate all barriers to trade. In this work, the structure of the economic integration process and its effect on the World economy will be examined. APEC, ASEAN and EU can be considered as one of the best samples of the economic integration in the World. General structures, macroeconomic performances and their effects on integration process of these three economic integrations will be discussed. As a result, APEC stands out with its developing large trade volume, ASEAN is noted with its great speed of economic development and, European Union differs with its large gross domestic product per capita. APEC, EU and ASEAN organizations show that both developed and developing countries can not remain outside of integration. Each of the three integration movement has been making great contributions to the World to integrate. World is almost becoming a single country thanks to the economic integration.
