num_pages: 71
description: Regional trade agreements (RTAs) have proliferated to the point where, by 1995, virtually all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) were members of an RTA of some kind a customs union, a free-trade agreement, or an interim agreement leading to one or the other.Analysts are divided about the effects of RTAs. Some argue that trade and investment liberalization even when restricted to a particular region helps create world trade and investment. Others maintain that the implicit discrimination these agreements embody diverts rather than creates worldwide trade and investment.The Study Group, composed of eminent former trade negotiators and trade experts, assesses existing theoretical and empirical analyses of the effects of RTAs and offers the WTO a series of recommendations aimed at strengthening its leadership role in managing RTAs. The proposals focus on improving existing rules governing RTA formation and operation. They are aimed at minimizing the risks of trade and investment diversion that result from RTAs and at inducing trade- and investment-creating patterns in existing and future RTAs.
language: English
title: Reflections on Regionalism: Report of the Study Group on International Trade
titlecomplete: Reflections on Regionalism: Report of the Study Group on International Trade
publisher: Carnegie Endowment for Intl Peace