The Reasons behind the Revival of Trade Regionalism

Agnes Ghibutiu

Revista de Economie Mondiala / The Journal of Global Economics, 2015, vol. 7, issue 2

Abstract: Over the last decade, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have increasingly resorted to preferential trade agreements (PTAs) as a means to further the market-opening and rule-making agenda. Particularly visible is this trend since 2013, with numerous new PTA negotiations being launched, including by WTO members accounting for substantial shares of world GDP and trade. The paper discusses the recent surge in trade regionalism through the lens of the multilateral trading system governed by the WTO. It aims to highlight the systemic as well as economic and geopolitical factors that are driving the new PTAs, and also distil their potential effects upon the world trading system. According to its findings, the fresh impetus to regionalism should be seen as a shift in focus rather than a fundamental course change in the evolution of the regional agenda, and the factors underlying this shift should be sought in the structural transformations that have marked the WTO in the context of the changing global political and economic environment.

Keywords: preferential trade agreements (PTAs); trade policy; trade negotiations; world trading system; World Trade Organization (WTO); Doha Round (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F13 F15 F23 O19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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