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AbstractThe rapid growth in the number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has led to concern about the weakening of the multilateral trading system. This paper looks at the spread of such agreements and the extent which they pose a threat to the system.The Spread of RTAs 3.The Coverage of RTAs 4.Regionalism Versus Multilateralism 5.RTAs in the WTO 6. Conclusions 1
I INTRODUCTIONThere has been a rapid growth in the number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in recent years. In Europe, these are mainly centred on the European Union, spreading to the Central and Eastern European countries, the Baltic States, the Mediterranean and beyond. In the Americas, two agreements -NAFTA and MERCOSUR -have had a significant impact, but these may be overtaken by the Free Trade Area for the Americas.There has also been an increase in the extent to which RTAs overlap, although there are significant variations in the product coverage and the rules of origin. On the whole, the newer agreements tend to have deeper coverage, extending into areas of domestic disciplines beyond the exchange of tariff concessions, and a number of agreements now also cover the services sector. The spread of RTAs and their coverage are discussed in Sections II and III.Bhagwati (1992), in particular, has raised the question as to whether RTAs pose a threat to the multilateral trading system, and he has initiated a rapid growth in the economic literature on the subject. In Section IV we look briefly at some of the main arguments, and the extent to which they square up with the phenomena which we have observed.The paper does not revisit the question of the benefits of RTAs or the conditions under which they contribute to economic welfare. However, it is worth noting that political and security considerations have been of considerable importance in the decision to form a number of RTAs, especially in Europe, and these would have been established even if strict economic criteria were not met.In Section V we review the debate on "systemic" issues within the WTO. There are considerable differences between WTO Members' views on the meaning of certain terms in the various WTO rules relating to RTAs; such differences do not fall cleanly between those Members who participate in RTAs and the few who do not. These divergences of view have made it difficult to conclude the examination of RTAs for consistency with WTO rules, although these are not the only problem. There ...
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