Emerging Countries, Regionalization, and World Trade

The economic development of emerging countries such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia has serious implications for the multilateral trading system, and for government policies worldwide. This paper explores globalization and regionalization processes in order to assess the effects of trade liberalization on emerging countries. Today, major economic players tend to focus on bilateral and regional agreements. Attention must be paid to how these agreements affect the multilateral trading system and the trilateral world economy. One aspect that stands out from this study is that the role of countries such as China and India, which are reshaping trade patterns, remains to be defined within the Asian regional framework. Equity issues also have an important role to play, both at a regional and at a global level. Consideration of the intersections between the regional and/or bilateral trade agreements of member countries raises interesting questions about the role of trade blocs in the future trajectory of the global economy.