Critical Analysis of Elements of Arab Economic Integration - PowerPoint Presentation Example

‘Globalization as a concept refers both to the compression of the world and intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole.both concrete global interdependence and consciousness of the global whole in the twentieth century’1. The consequences of economic unification are not negligible, however, as the combined impacts of globalization are quite uneven universally. The formation of various regional economic blocs such as European Union, NAFTA, Mercosur, ASEAN, EFTA, CAFTA and Andean community etc have contributed towards the creation of an unbalanced economic situation that compels unorganized countries to integrate their economies also for the sake of future sustainability.

The idea of economic integration among Arab states gained traction at the end of World War-II2. The League of Arab States was established in 1945 with the purpose of close mutual cooperation among Arab states (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen) in economic and financial matters, trade, customs, currency, agriculture, industry and to coordinate their political activities to establish collaboration between them.

Arab economic integration has been a hope, agenda of Arab economists, politicians, intellectuals and of interest to the businessmen for over 50 years. The integration of Arab economies has been a focused objective according to the protocol of The League of Arab States. The economic council under league’s secretariat has made numerous economic negotiations, held conferences, and signed several trade treaties to cooperate and form alliances in order to gain integration objective, but still, the impact is very modest.

Arab League’s regional efforts to make intra-Arab bilateral agreements gained momentum with the Treaty for Joint Defense and Economic Cooperation in the early 1950s, though agreed upon more on security concerns than economics.