An agreement between two or more countries to remove trade barriers with each other and to establish common tariff and non-tariff policies with respect to imports from countries outside of the agreement The EU is the most well-known example
A union of countries where there are no duties on products traded among member nations and common external tariffs levied on imported products from non-member states
An arrangement between two or more countries whereby eliminate tariffs and other import restrictions on one another's goods and establish a common tariff on the goods from all other countries
A customs union is a group of countries among which goods pass free of trade barriers but which also adopts a common external tariff regime As such, the EC is a customs union, but NAFTA is a free-trade area because the external trade barriers of Canada, Mexico and the US were not harmonized
Similar to a common market except that customs unions do not permit free movement of all factors of production The European Community (EC) is the best known example of a customs union
A union of countries in which free trade exists between member nations and external tariffs may be erected against all outside countries The tariffs may be different for different goods and applied to some countries and not others, but the trade policy with respect to all external countries is consistent throughout member countries
A customs union is formed when two or more countries agree to remove all barriers to free trade with each other, while establishing a common external tariff against other nations A free-trade area exists when nations remove trade barriers with each other while retaining individual tariffs against non-members
An international association organized to eliminate customs restrictions on goods exchanged between member nations and to establish a uniform tariff policy toward nonmember nations. Trade agreement by which a group of countries charges a common set of tariffs to the rest of the world while allowing free trade among themselves. It is a partial form of economic integration, intermediate between free-trade zones, which allow mutual free trade but lack a common tariff system, and common markets, which both utilize common tariffs and allow free movement of resources including capital and labour between members. Well-known customs unions include the Zollverein, a 19th-century organization formed by several German states under Prussian leadership, and the European Union, which passed through a customs-union stage on the path to fuller economic integration. See also European Community; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; North American Free Trade Agreement; World Trade Organization