• NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA
  
  • NAFTA : North American Free Trade Agreement.
    Established in 1994, this is a free trade area between Canada, the United States and Mexico.
    
  • CAN : Andean Community of Nations. Created in 1969, CAN is composed of Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador. Peru joined CAN on January 1, 2006.
    
  • BRICS Group originally composed of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC).
    This group is not a formal organization, but reflects the thesis according to which these four countries will become the major economic powers in 2050, replacing the current economic powers (United States, Europe and Japan). South Africa can be added to this group (hence the name BRICS), because its future characteristics are very similar to those of the other four countries. BRICS foreshadows the world economic situation of tomorrow!

  
  
• ASIA
  
  • ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations, created in 1967. This is a political, economic and cultural organization bringing together the countries of Southeast Asia. It seeks to create a vast free trade area with China in the next 10 years.
  
  
  • APEC: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. This intergovernmental organization established in 1989 seeks to promote economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. APEC has more than 21 members, accounting for more than one third of the world population.
  
  
  • South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC):
    Created in 1985, the Association brings together 8 countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
  
  In 2002, the member countries signed the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), bringing together a population of almost 1.4 billion inhabitants.
  
  
• AFRICA
  
  • ECOWAS : Created in 1975, the Economic Community of West African States is a regional international organization. Its primary objective is to promote cooperation and integration in view of creating an economic and monetary union among the countries of West Africa; it currently has 15 members.
  
  
  • CEMAC: Created in 1964, the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa is made up of six Central African countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. It brings together the Economic Union of Central Africa and the Monetary Union of Central Africa.
  
  
  • MASHREQ: This is the name given to the Middle Eastern countries starting from Egypt, crossing over the countries of the Arabian Peninsula and ending in Iraq.
    There are no economic organizations in the area composed of Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq due to conflict, whereas the Arabian Peninsula is organized through the GCC.
    
  • SADC: The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an organization that seeks to promote the economic development of Southern Africa. On August 17, 1992, it succeeded the Southern African Development Coordinate Conference, founded on April 1, 1980.
  • AMU: The Arab Maghreb Union was established in 1989, and is composed of five countries: Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Mauritania. A political union, it also has economic objectives.
  
  
• EUROPE
  
  • The Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) is an entity that, since the 1980s, has brought together the formerly communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Since 1991 and the fall of the Soviet Empire, these countries have been in an economic transition similar to what we can observe in other so-called emerging countries. Some of these countries joined the European Union in 2004, and others will join in 2007
  
  
  • The European Union (EU) is an international organization bringing together most of the states
    of Europe.
    This organization, which is at once intergovernmental and supranational, is the culmination of the European Community, and includes all of its members. Today it is composed of 25 members.
    Thirteen members have adopted the single currency.

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