Introduction
The present nature of the world economy is one of expeditious change. National economies, previously secluded from other nations by trade barriers, physical distance, time zones, different languages and culture, differences in government policy, and business practices are now merging. Determinants include reductions in trade barriers, advances in transport and telecommunications technology, and a convergence of material culture. Today, many national economies have advanced into an integrated global economic system. This process of global integration has been termed Globalisation. (Hill, 2003)
In this globally integrated society an Irishman (Paddy) may drive to work tractor that was assembled in Holland by John Deere from components made in Taiwan and Poland that were fabricated from British steel and Indonesian rubber. Paddy might have filled the tractor with diesel at a filling station owned by an American multinational company. The diesel could have been made from Oil pumped out of a well off the coast of Iran by an Italian oil company that transported it to Ireland in a ship owned by a Spanish shipping line and so forth.
Global Integration training session
Global Integration training session
Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organis...This scenario depicts the present integrated world of today in the developed nations.
Objective
This paper will ultimately seek to identify and find fault with the various determinants of global integration. Initially, an understanding of what is meant by Global Integration and Globalisation will be presented. A comprehensive list of the determinants will subsequently be discussed. Following this a critical appraisal of the determinants will conclude the main body.
Global Integration
The term 'Global Integration' supplicates the question; what in the 'Global' sense is being integrated? Hill (2003) refers to global integration as the globalisation of markets and production. The globalisation of markets refers to the merging of historically distinct and separate national markets into one global marketplace. The globalisation of production refers...