Regionalism
Topic: International Trade Policy, WTO and Intellectual Property · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Regionalism means liberalising trade through deals among limited groups of countries, regional or bilateral, rather than across all WTO members at once. Its rise raises a key debate. Economist Jagdish Bhagwati asked whether regional deals are building blocks that lead towards global free trade, or stumbling blocks that split it apart.
Example
Since walking out of RCEP in 2019, India has signed bilateral deals with the UAE, Australia, EFTA and the UK. It also concluded an FTA with the EU in January 2026. This is regionalism in practice.
Don't confuse with
- Multilateralism: liberalising trade through common rules negotiated among all or most nations, as at the WTO.
Related concepts
- Stages of economic integration
- Preferential trade agreement
- Free trade agreement
- Customs union
- Common market
- Economic union
- Monetary union
- Trading bloc
- Regional economic groupings
- Open regionalism