Global Groupings

Geographers use two main types of grouping to study nations in a global context. These are economic groupings and political groupings.

Economic Groupings
Nations can be categorised according to their overall level of wealth.

a) Least developed countries (LDCs) - this term refers to the world's 50 least developed nations e.g. Afghanisatan, Uganda and Sudan.
b) Newly industrialised countries (NICs) - these are middle-income nations and average earnings have risen at massively since the 1970s e.g. Brazil, Singapore and Taiwan.
c) Ex-Soviet States - the break up of the Soviet union in 1989 created 15 ex-Soviet states which have low GDP and HDI figures. They are often described as middle-income.
d) Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) - since the 1960s many of the world's oil producing countries have belonged to this organisation. Saudi Arabia is an OPEC member and has a very high GDP ($350 billion in 2007) but this is often unfairly distributed.
e) Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - this is an organisation of 30 members whose GDP is more evenly distributed and the typical standard of living is good e.g. UK, Canada, Japan.

Political Groupings
Trade blocs are voluntary organisations which countries join for security and trade e.g. the European Union. Agreements have to be drawn up to allow money, goods and sometimes workers to freely cross borders. National laws have to be altered (which is why these are called political groupings). Trade blocs can also contain countries at different levels of economic development e.g. USA and Mexico both belong to NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). This makes sense because Mexico has a relatively cheap workforce and the USA has managment and research expertise. This allows companies to pick the right place for their operations e.g. manufacturing in the USA and research & development in the USA. This is called the spatial division of labour.

Homework activity
Research one of the trade blocs we have studied. You must include:
~ detail of member states
~ when it was set up
~ its objectives
~ benefits of being a member

Useful websites:
ASEAN
NAFTA
EU
CARICOM
COMESA
MERCOSUR