ABSTRACT
The merging of countries by forming free trade zones and customs or even economic unions is a phenomenon which is currently on the agenda all over the world. There is talk of the ‘globalisation’ of markets, but at the same time there is increasing regionalisation.1 Concern about the efficacy of the GATT process has led some countries to divert their negotiating capacity more on such arrangements than on their serious involvement on the multilateral level. It has clearly been seen in recent years that there is a close-negative-interaction between progress in the GATT and progress on regional economic integration.
