Economic integration proceeds through six stages — preferential trade area, free trade area, customs union, common market, economic union, and full economic integration — each removing more barriers and requiring deeper policy coordination.
What Are the Stages of Economic Integration? Economic integration is the process by which countries progressively remove barriers to trade and investment and coordinate their economic policies. Economists distinguish six stages, arranged from the loosest to the tightest form of integration. Each stage builds on the previous one: it removes additional barriers and requires a greater degree of policy coordination. Understanding these stages is essential for analyzing regional economic integration