[OPE-L:3501] Re: currency unions

[Paul Cockshott <wpc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:02 14/06/00 -0600, Jerry Levy wrote:
> I. Regional trade associations
>    ===========================
>
> > The problem with nafta is that it is not a currency union.
>
> True, but one can have a customs union without a currency union.

The original question is how one values the import content
of goods in terms of labour time. This problem arises because
one has in the i/o tables figures for the imports used by
various industries given in money terms. You want to convert
these money figures into equivalent labour fingures.

A money i/o table can only be constructed if you use a single
unit of account - typically the national currency. Thus you can
only construct monetary i/o tables within a given currency union.
A customs union with multiple monetary units would have to
be described by multiple i/o tables.

That is why the original question of how to value the imports
row of an i/o table in labour time only arises when dealing with
the relations between a currency union and the rest of the world.