Economic Integration
This is the process of harmonizing commercial regulations and reducing trade barriers to form a common commercial environment. This process can be regional or federal. Globalization is often described as a process of increasing economic integration between countries, but countries actually maintain very different commercial regulations. Efforts to increase economic integration are encouraged as part of creating a level playing field and economic growth. Regional economic integration refers to a group of countries eliminating trade barriers between themselves and harmonizing their regulations in order to form a common, regional market, e.g. the European Union Single Market Programme.