The geographic structure of cross-national trade flows and region states

Abstract

Recent trends in the globalization of production and the formation of regional coalitions has brought into question the suitability of the nation state as the relevant scale for regional analysis. Economic activities are increasingly occuring within supranational spaces or region states, which act as mediators between the national and the international economy. The rise of the region state has provoked fears that the postwar world order is disintegrating into closed trading blocs. This paper examines the spatial structure of region states and the role they play in the international economy, based upon international trade flows 1970-90. Six region states are identified, arranged around the core market countries of the US, Japan, Germany, France, UK and the former USSR. Trade linkages between region states are hierarchically arranged, revealing a bipolar structure of Pan-Pacific and Pan-European trade. We also found an increase in the trade between region states relative to the trade within region states, indicating that the emerging regionalization is associated with stronger global interdependencies.