The Building Blocks of Successful Regional Integration: Lessons for the CSME from other regional integration schemes

The Building Blocks of Successful Regional Integration: Lessons for the CSME from other regional integration schemes. By Rachel Simms, LL.M, 2006 University of Toronto And Errol Simms, Senior Lecturer, Department of Management Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, U.W.I., St. Augustine. Regional Trading Blocs (RTBs) have become quite ubiquitous, with approximately 200 of them presently operating in the world trading system. However, many of these RTBs are not successful in their goal of improving the economic development of their respective regions. Indeed, in the last three decades many RTB’s have failed and have been dismantled. This paper seeks to identify the socio-economic factors which are necessary for successful regional integration. These factors have been divided by some commentators into demand factors, such as the potential for economic gain for each member state and supply factors, such as the existence of commitment institutions, for example a regional Court. This paper seeks to identify and examine the demand and supply factors for successful regional integration as distilled from past and existing regional integration experiences both in Latin America and in Europe. The paper will then go on to apply this learning to the CSME, by firstly assessing whether the requisite demand and supply conditions are met by the institutional arrangements of the CSME, and by suggesting ways in which the CSME can adopt, create or enhance the demand and supply factors which are necessary for successful regional integration.