Benefits and effects of regional agreements.

After reviewing the agreements there were several things I noticed. Like many regional trade agrements this one brings together the organizations multiple countries for the purpose of multilateral trade accross regions..According to ASEAN http://www.aseansec.org/about_ASEAN.html   The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand... The ASEAN Charter entered into force on 15 December 2008. A gathering of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers was held at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta to mark this very historic occasion for ASEAN. With regards to the advantages of this agreement.I found that the areas that interest me the most in this agreement are 1. accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region through joint endeavours in the spirit of equality and partnership in order to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian Nations 2.To provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities in the educational, professional, technical and administrative spheres; 3 To collaborate more effectively for the greater utilisation of their agriculture and industries, the expansion of their trade, including the study of the problems of international commodity trade, the improvement of their transportation and communications facilities and the raising of the living standards of their peoples.  According to the world bank regional trade agreements are signed for a varity of reasons http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGEP2005/Resources/GEP107053_Ch03.pdf, however
 The impact of these agreements on trade determines the extent to which broader political and social objectives are achieved. It is difficult to identify an agreement that has fostered wider political objectives without achieving economic integration. The world bank further states that  Successful regional agreements might be expected to increase trade between partners relative to those countries’ trade with the rest of the world. this reminds me about  Ecowas, economic communitity of west african states that my home country liberia is a part off. http://www.comm.ecowas.int/sec/index.php?id=about_a&lang=en This group much like the asean is meant provide regional integration among countries in the region. The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen countries, founded in 1975. Its mission is to promote economic integration in "all fields of economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters ... I would strongly recommend many nations stay part of some regional agreement for simple things advantage of most favored nation clauses, lowered tariffs and trade and exchange of opportunities. As a disadvantage, many companies are unlikely to meet up to the standards set as natural endowment resources are not necessarily the same. issues like pace of development and social/ political issues can be a setback for improvements in these forms of regional agreements. None the less, this can be implemented as a policy to ensure that at the least, any advantages it would being to a nation part of these agreements be taken advantage of.