Does Regional Integration Promote Trade? Case Study of Selected Regional Trade Agreements

This article analyse the position of selected regional integration groups (mostly consisting of developing countries) in the international market We will try to find commonalities between their extra regional trade and answer the question if the existence of regional integration can increase value of trade. We have analysed the overall exports for the period of twelve years and can say that all RTAs witness the continuous growth of total exports; however, there are huge differentiations between particular trade agreements. The results show enormous differences between chosen regional groups which can be caused by the level of development of the member states in the regional trade agreements. Even if the value of traded products increased over the monitored period of time we can conclude that the structure of foreign trade of analysed regional trade agreements exactly shows the position of developing countries on the international market. They are competitive in agricultural products and fuels but not in processed products or products with higher value added. The problem is even the structure of agricultural products, when some of the RTAs (ECOWAS, CARICOM, COMESA) focus on "cash crops" where the price is fluctuating. The main aim was to find any evidence of whether the regional trade agreements promote trade. On the basis of our analyses we cannot prove that there is any direct impact of the RTA on increasing value of trade, or even the changing structure of trade. Pieces of knowledge introduced in this paper resulted from solution of an institutional research intention MSM 6046070906,Economics of resources of Czech agriculture and their efficient use in frame of multifunctional agri-food systems".