Economic Integration and Interdependencies

Globalization underlines a decreasing importance of boundaries in the geography of international transportation. Economic integration processes, notably free-trade agreements, have established common tariff policies among groups of nations (such as G1 and G2) becoming interdependent. Multilateral agreements have also helped establishing an increasingly deregulated global trading environment.

Previously, every nation was mostly limited to its national market, while external markets were more or less protected by tariffs. The current environment shows a decrease of relative costs for many commodities, parts and finished goods, a process supported by transport systems. Many factors explain this, such as the exploitation of comparative advantages, a reduction in tariffs and larger consumption markets, expanding economies of scale.

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Copyright © 1998-2012, Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Dept. of Global Studies & Geography, Hofstra University, New York, USA.
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