Prospects of regionalism under WTO. (c2004)

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate on whether or not membership in regional economic blocks contributes to better integration into the global trading system. Do regionalism and multilateralism go hand in hand? Are these two patterns of integration compatible or do they conflict which each other? What are the prospects for a sub-regional cooperation between Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, members of the Greater Free Arab Trade Area (GAFTA)? To date Arab countries were reluctant in their pursuit for regional integration schemes; in spite of several integration attempts, many Arab countries are still lagging behind for reaching any form of regional economic integration e.g. GAFTA, due to various economic, political and regional reasons. Further sub regional integration need to be engaged at the level of the Arab world for non-oil exporting countries e.g. Lebanon, Jordan and Syria from a common platform that so far Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are rapidly integrating among themselves. Particular attention 1S given in this thesis to the achievement of this sub-regional cooperation among non-GCC Arab countries, more specifically for Lebanon, Jordan and Syria as a counterbalance to GCC for better implementation of GAFTA. Nowadays, several prospects for GAFTA's implementation based on such sub-regional cooperation seem to be promising especially in view of several considerations like terms of trade, regional instability, various regional and bilateral agreements as well as WTO membership.