Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in the Asia-Pacific region have proliferated rapidly over the past five years and … are creating a complex web of intersecting bilateral and regional trade agreements. This paper describes the proliferation …

Is the recent proliferation of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) in Asia a healthy development, or runs the risk of … results show that membership in the Asian RTAs considered in this study have not, to date, occurred at the expense of trade … and multilateral liberalization, could run the risk of leading to costly trade diversion. …

Regional trade arrangements (RTAs) in Africa have been ineffective in promoting trade and foreign direct investment …. Relatively high external trade barriers and low resource complementarity between member countries limit both intra- and … extraregional trade. Small market size, poor transport facilities and high trading costs make it difficult for African countries to …

Regional integration has been seen in Africa as a means of encouraging trade and securing economies of scale. This … paper examines in detail the prospects and challenges for trade expansion in the two most prominent arrangements in eastern … and southern Africa: the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development …

This survey of the recent literature asks: how important is trade policy for poverty reduction? We consider the effects …-level research, and case studies) supports the view that trade openness contributes greatly to growth. Moreover, trade openness does … not have systematic effects on the poor beyond its effect on overall growth. Trade policy is only one of many determinants …

? Data from South Asia suggest that member states have minor trade linkages and face asymmetrical patterns of shocks. This …

This paper analyzes export performance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) using a gravity model applied to …

if China's relative presence continues to rise in the regional trade. …