Single Market
Categories: Trading
Single markets are economic clubs. If you’re in the club, you get to trade with others in the club, no trade barrier strings attached...but there are some regulatory strings attached. That’s the price for admission.
A single market is a trade bloc that promotes the freedom of movement of stuff (capital) and people (labor) within it, under certain requirements. Welcome to the club.
The European Single Market is a real-life example of a single market, which includes the entire EU and a few other nations who are under the European Free Trade Association. The more trade cooperation between nations, they more all nations involved benefit.
It’s not all economic rainbows though; single markets come with sacrifices. For instance, in the European Single Market, no one country can say to the other countries “No importing Red Bull here...we don’t want our people drinking that swill.” That actually happened. It was France. The ban worked for a while...until it didn’t. They didn’t have the science to back up their “Red Bull is dangerous” claims. The ban was removed, so now you can buy Red Bull in France.
There’s other types of blocs too, along a spectrum. For instance, a common market is a tariff-free market, but might include some other trade barriers...so it’s not as tight-knit of a bloc as a single market.
What is more tight-knit than a single market? The Golden Girls market bloc? Uh, no. That'd be a unified market, which is the total freedom of goods, services, capital, labor, and consumers...an economic free-for-all across national borders.
