Implications of the New Regional Trade Agreements for the World Trading System

Agnes Ghibutiu

Revista de Economie Mondiala / The Journal of Global Economics, 2015, vol. 7, issue 1

Abstract: The year 2013 witnessed an outstanding rise in the pace and scale of negotiations on regional trade agreements (RTAs). While RTAs are not a new phenomenon, current negotiations involve multiple parties and/or major trading countries that have a significant combined economic weight, i.e. mega-RTAs. This paper looks at the recent surge in trade regionalism and addresses some of the key issues related to the potential impact of mega-RTAs upon the world trading system and global trade patterns. It examines the peculiarities of the new mega-RTAs and the factors underlying their proliferation, and discusses the main concerns raised by their foreseeable impact on excluded countries and the wider trading system. The paper finds that, if successfully concluded, mega-RTAs are likely to have far-reaching implications for the world trading regime, affecting its transparency and coherence. Nevertheless, the adverse effects could be cushioned through a revival of trading nations’ interest in the multilateral Doha Round talks.

Keywords: regional trade agreements (RTAs); mega-RTAs; world trading system; World Trade Organization (WTO); Doha Round; multilateral trade agreements; trade liberalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F13 F15 F23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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