Introduction
A free trade area has been used to describe the regional market that eliminates most, if not all, trade barriers between the trading partners such as quotas, barriers, and preferences on the flow of the services and goods traded between the member countries (Plante, 2004). Nevertheless, in the free trade areas, members negotiate trade agreements separately with the countries that are not members of the free trade area. A customs union on the other hand, refers to the trade agreement where a group of countries charges a common set of tariffs and quotas to external countries. This refers to a higher level ...
