The dissertation thesis focuses on political and economic integration in the Western Hemisphere. In the first part the paper compares two major regional trading blocs, North American Free Trade Agreement and Mercosur. Through the discourse and metaphor analysis shows differences between the respective blocs, as well as their objectives. Second part deals with US foreign policy in its historical context in relation to other nations within the region, and transformaton of this relationship into current policy of bilateral 4 free trade agreements. Discourse analysis of the key texts and revealed dominance metaphors suggest that the United States uses bilateral free trade agreements to maintain control over the region. Keywords USA, Mexico, Latin America, Western Hemisphere, NAFTA, Mercosur, bilateral free trade agreements, discourse analysis, metaphors, foreign policy, manifest destiny, integration

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Commerce (Economics/Economic Science) in the School of Economic and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2018 / World trade has become a significant factor in improving standards of living, creating employment, improving countries’ balance of payments and making it possible for consumers to have a wide variety of goods and services to choose from (Vijayasri, 2013). Living examples of some of the benefits of world trade are those brought by the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) initiative. [No abstract provided. Information taken from introduction]. / XL2019

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No / The pace of economic integration amongst European Union (EU) member states has accelerated considerably during the past decade, highlighted by the process of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Many aspects of the EU's apparatus, however, have failed to evolve in order to meets these new challenges. This book explores the issue of fiscal federalism within the context of EU integration from theoretical, historical, policy and global perspectives. It contrasts the pace of integration amongst EU member states with the failure of financial and administrative apparatus to evolve to encompass fiscal federalism, i.e. the development of a centralised budgetary system. This impressive collection, with contributions from a range of internationally respected authors, shall interest students and researchers involved with European economics and economic integration. Its accessible style will also make it extremely useful to policy-makers and professionals for whom European economic integration is a daily topic of conversation.

An appropriate regional cooperation environment makes a vital contribution to the social and economic development of every country in the region. This research thesis focuses specifically on the growing lack of appropriate regional cooperation models in developing countries, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is used as a case study. The research highlights some key issues on the development of the appropriate regional cooperation models. The research information is obtained on the research areas through questionnaire surveys to respondents from South Africa, Tanzania, and Mauritius on the current regional cooperation model and the perceived ideal one. The conclusions drawn are that the regional cooperation models envisaged to be in use in the SADC differ significantly from the theory, which results in inappropriate focus on the requirements of the majority of the states. This is primarily due to the use of inappropriate regional cooperation models. The indications are that traditional market-type integration models, which are used as a “default model” without major adjustments, are inappropriate within the developing countries context, owing to the existence of a fundamental incongruence between the assumptions and requirements of such models and the needs and realities prevailing in Southern Africa. Southern Africa does not satisfy the foremost prerequisites of successful market integration. Despite the considerable advantages the models might have gained in other developed regions, they often fail to meet the requirements of the developing countries. In measuring the satisfaction regarding the current regional cooperation adhering to the requirements of the majority of states, it becomes obvious that the SADC population is generally not satisfied with the results regarding the current regional cooperation. In order to meet the requirements of the majority of states, SADC regional cooperation needs to focus on the appropriate regional cooperation. This requires an understanding and management of three classes of factors, which are environmental factors, capacity factors, and regional organisational factors. The three classes of factors together affect the participation rate of the states. / Business Leadership / DBL (Business Leadership)

The main purpose of this paper was to explore the role economic partnership agreements play in regional integration. The whole paper was premised on identifying the nature of economic partnership agreements that is conceived as a free trade arrangement. Therefore the paper discussed the feasibility of the reciprocal principle between the European Union and ACP countries, and further indicated that there is no need to implement the principle of reciprocity at present. The paper also discovered that, due to the fact that unequal trade relations between the EU and the ACP countries still exist, the implementation of the EPAs is most likely to generate the complementary but non-competitive trade relations between the EU and the ACP countries. Such a situation could result in the ACP countries over-independence on the EU's market. ACP countries are not expecting to such integration. In addition the paper ascertains that the EPAs themselves could contain the intrinsic negative impacts such as discrimination against the third countries on regional integration.