Title: International Trade Agreements and Organizations | Boundless Business
Headings: International Trade Agreements and Organizations
International Trade Agreements and Organizations
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
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The European Union
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The European Union
The Euro
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
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The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
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The World Bank
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
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Common Markets
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The Export-Import Bank of the United States
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Content: The EU is represented at the United Nations, the WTO, the G8 and the G-20. The Euro
The creation of a single European currency became an official objective of the European Economic Community in 1969. However, it was only with the advent of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 that member states were legally bound to start the monetary union. In 1999 the euro was duly launched by eleven of the then fifteen member states of the EU. It remained an accounting currency until 1 January 2002, when euro notes and coins were issued and national currencies began to phase out in the eurozone, which by then consisted of twelve member states. The eurozone (constituted by the EU member states that have adopted the euro) has since grown to seventeen countries, the most recent being Estonia, which joined on 1 January 2011. All other EU member states, except Denmark and the United Kingdom, are legally bound to join the euro when the convergence criteria are met, however only a few countries have set target dates for accession. Sweden has circumvented the requirement to join the euro by not meeting the membership criteria. The euro is designed to help build a single market by easing travel of citizens and goods, eliminating exchange rate problems, providing price transparency, creating a single financial market, stabilizing prices, maintaining low interest rates, and providing a currency used internationally and protected against shocks by the large amount of internal trade within the eurozone. It is also intended as a political symbol of integration.