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Abstract
In many developing countries, regional integration has become a key
means of promoting economic growth and fighting poverty. PTAs are
increasingly used as engines of change in many developing countries, to
promote, implement, and lock in reforms in a wide range of policy areas such as
investment regimes, competition rules, and government procurement. They
create larger and more competitive markets and benefit producers and
consumers through economies of scale and lower prices. Although PTAs may
promote development, they necessarily discriminate against nonmembers and
can therefore lead to trade diversion in a way that hurts both member countries
and excluded countries. Also, the proliferation of bilateral and regional PTAs
may undermine progress toward a more open, transparent, and rules-based
multilateral trading system. In this paper it will be discussed about the
establishment and expectations of a free trade agreement CEFTA 2006.
Specifically, the South East European countries, which made the majority of this
regional economic integration, still have many unresolved, above all, political
problems. On the other hand, the different status of these countries in the process
of integration into the European Union chose the inflow of financial resources
and speed necessary economic reforms. However, the global economic crisis has
slowed the flow of financial resources, especially greenfield investments,
deepened social stratification and mutual political differences between member
states. This paper will try to answer the question: do this PTAs really contribute
to deeper integration in EU?