Over the time a large number of reciprocal preferential trade agreements (RTAs) have been concluded among countries. Recently many studies have used gravity equations in order to estimate the effect of RTAs on trade flows between partners. These studies report very different estimates since they...

The U.S. agricultural trade surplus has fallen from $26.9 billion in 1996 to $7.3 billion in 2004, and it is shrinking even further in 2005. The objective of this paper is to examine the characteristics of the decreasing agricultural trade surplus and determine the factors causing this decline....