common market with the added feature that additional policies -- monetary, fiscal, welfare -- are also harmonized across the member countries.

During the 1948 referendum campaigns, the Economic Union Party* argued that closer economic ties with the United States would give Newfoundland the economic stability it needed to remain an independent country with responsible government. The organization, headed by businessman Chesley Crosbie, offered a popular alternative to confederation.

The highest level of economic integration between sovereign countries, in which members proceed beyond the requirements of a common market to unify their fiscal, monetary, and socioeconomic policies. Belgium and Luxembourg, for example, have been joined in an economic union since 1921.

( Unión Económica en español) Economic Integration in which the members integrate all of their economic policies.

A group that combines the economic characteristics of a common market with some degree of harmonization of macroeconomic policies, such as monetary and fiscal policies.

A degree of economic integration that goes beyond that found in a customs union. An economic union eliminates both tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and finance among a group of countries.

An agreement between two or more countries that allows the free movement of capital, labor, all goods and services, and involves the harmonization and unification of social, fiscal, and monetary policies.