Anticipating the future of regional trade integration under the World Trade Organization – Selected experiences with the possibility of benefiting from them in Iraq

A Thesis submitted by the student

Mohammed Ali Mahdi Al-Tamimi

To the Board of the Faculty of Management and Economics – Karbala University, which is part of the requirements of obtaining a master’s degree in economics

Under the supervision of

Assistant Professor Dr. Ammar Mahmood Hameed Al-Rubaie

   Abstract

    Regional trade integration is one of the most important strategies of international economic relations that help achieve great economic successes.  Accordingly, this study seeks through it to identify its success factors, its weaknesses, and the challenges and difficulties it faces, in order to determine the extent to which we can benefit from the complementary experience between Iraq and neighboring and regional countries and benefit from accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and to enhance the possibility of optimal use Because of the large economic resources that it possesses towards the development of economic sectors that suffer from structural imbalances, and this is what can accelerate the construction of important strategic projects that are necessary and essential for the development of the Iraqi economy, including the large port of Faw, roads and express transportation for land transport, fast and advanced railways, bridges and linking them to all neighboring countries to facilitate transportation Imported and exported commodities, passengers, transit trade, airport construction and a fleet of modern air transport.                                           

 The establishment and activation of regional economic integrations came as a result of the countries’ growing sense of the importance of the regional approach as a new framework for adapting to the failure of the national state to perform its functions on the one hand, and in response to the political, social and economic changes imposed by the context of globalization on the other hand.  This general trend towards regional integration coincided with the increase of multilateral efforts to liberalize international trade, then questions and debates widened about the nature of the relationship between regional and multilateral frameworks in the field of international trade liberalization .                                                               

 The study dealt with the phenomenon of regional economic integration and its role in promoting intra-trade under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and by presenting the experience of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), the experience of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and the experience of the free trade area of ​​the Association of Southeast Nations.  Asia (ASEAN) for the period (2005-2021) based on the collection of statistical data on intra-regional exports and imports of goods and services, analyzing and comparing them with the values ​​of the factors supporting regional economic integration as models that were able to withstand the global economic crises. The study concluded that the indicators of foreign trade and the difference in the economic structure, the availability of natural resources, the development of infrastructure, the efficiency of the labor force, the size of the consumption market, and the customs tariff are all factors that enhance the gains of trade.                                    

Anticipating the future of regional trade integration under the World Trade Organization – Selected experiences with the possibility of benefiting from them in Iraq

A Thesis submitted by the student

Mohammed Ali Mahdi Al-Tamimi

To the Board of the Faculty of Management and Economics – Karbala University, which is part of the requirements of obtaining a master’s degree in economics

Under the supervision of

Assistant Professor Dr. Ammar Mahmood Hameed Al-Rubaie

   Abstract

    Regional trade integration is one of the most important strategies of international economic relations that help achieve great economic successes.  Accordingly, this study seeks through it to identify its success factors, its weaknesses, and the challenges and difficulties it faces, in order to determine the extent to which we can benefit from the complementary experience between Iraq and neighboring and regional countries and benefit from accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and to enhance the possibility of optimal use Because of the large economic resources that it possesses towards the development of economic sectors that suffer from structural imbalances, and this is what can accelerate the construction of important strategic projects that are necessary and essential for the development of the Iraqi economy, including the large port of Faw, roads and express transportation for land transport, fast and advanced railways, bridges and linking them to all neighboring countries to facilitate transportation Imported and exported commodities, passengers, transit trade, airport construction and a fleet of modern air transport.                                           

 The establishment and activation of regional economic integrations came as a result of the countries’ growing sense of the importance of the regional approach as a new framework for adapting to the failure of the national state to perform its functions on the one hand, and in response to the political, social and economic changes imposed by the context of globalization on the other hand.  This general trend towards regional integration coincided with the increase of multilateral efforts to liberalize international trade, then questions and debates widened about the nature of the relationship between regional and multilateral frameworks in the field of international trade liberalization .                                                               

 The study dealt with the phenomenon of regional economic integration and its role in promoting intra-trade under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and by presenting the experience of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), the experience of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and the experience of the free trade area of ​​the Association of Southeast Nations.  Asia (ASEAN) for the period (2005-2021) based on the collection of statistical data on intra-regional exports and imports of goods and services, analyzing and comparing them with the values ​​of the factors supporting regional economic integration as models that were able to withstand the global economic crises. The study concluded that the indicators of foreign trade and the difference in the economic structure, the availability of natural resources, the development of infrastructure, the efficiency of the labor force, the size of the consumption market, and the customs tariff are all factors that enhance the gains of trade.