DEEP AND COMPREHENSIVE CUSTOMS UNIONS IN MODERN WORLD ECONOMY

Abstract

Abstract. International trade in the last decade is more open and less discriminative. At the
same time, tendencies in changes of regional trade agreements provide reciprocity of the
economies of member countries. Among such changes one should mention tendency for deepening
of character and widening of application spheres of regional trade agreements. Modern
regional trade agreements acquire complex character, are comprehensive and deal not only with
cancellation of tariff barriers but also with issues of markets opening in trade of services, investment
sphere, with competition, trade assistance, governmental purchases, intellectual property,
electronic commerce, standards harmonization, and in some cases with mutual regulation
of labor markets and mutual environmental protection. In modern scientific literature cases of
deep and comprehensive free trade agreements are widely observed. At the same time, complexity
of character and widening of the application sphere applies not only to such integration
phase as free trade agreement.
Regulatory convergence of modern customs unions is also beyond mutual trade policy with
the third countries. Therefore, we observe a new phenomenon – deep and comprehensive customs
union. Comprehensive customs union provides liberalization of all production factors
within the union. Deep customs union distinguishes by higher level of regulatory convergence
of member countries. Most common spheres of mutual regulation of modern customs unions are
energy, investments, agriculture, competition, labor migration, intellectual property, social policy
and regulation of small and medium business activities. Existence of modern deep and comprehensive
customs unions facilitates conditions of goods exchange between countries and drives
coordination of all aspects of activities of member countries. Regionalization of standards and
unification of regulatory norms provides the increase of the volumes of trade between countries
and though leads to the appearance of effects of trade creation. At the same time, such measures
lead to the decrease of export to countries with different standards and norms and respec-

tively to the effect of trade diversion, which negatively influences general welfare of the country.
Key words: customs union, deep customs union, comprehensive customs union, regional
trade agreements, international trade.