HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF REGIONAL TRADE ASSOCIATIONS: THE ESSENCE AND REASONS FOR INTEGRATION
This article analyzes the nature, specifics and main factors of regional trade and economic integration, makes a periodization of the key stages of development of such associations, and also examines and compares the main reasons that are the primary drivers of this process.Regional integration has reached a qualitatively new level of development in recent decades, and new agreements cover a much broader range of issues than just aspects of trade interaction between countries. Modern RTAS are a much more comprehensive concept than in the past, but a comprehensive analysis of modern associations requires a multi-dimensional, consistent analysis of the historical evolution of these associations in the context of the key root causes and driving mechanisms of integration.