Trade agreements and other international cooperation agreements have proliferated en masse in recent years around the world. Rather than being spurred by exogenous forces alone, the two phenomena are likely both path-dependent and endogenous to one another. However, the understanding of their...

Trade integration agreements and other international cooperation agreements have proliferated in recent years around the world. Rather than being spurred by exogenous forces alone, the two phenomena are likely to be both path-dependent and endogenous to one another. However, the theoretical and...

It is well known that, despite improvements in recent years, a number of LAC countries' exports still remain below their potential and what would be expected judging from their levels of development. The same holds for their degrees of export diversification (Blyde et al., 2014). In addition,...

These two volumes survey the most important scholarly writings in economics and political science that explain the drivers and constraints to freer world trade.

Regional trade agreements (RTAs) have proliferated over the past decade around the world to cover nearly half of global trade. The number of RTAs notified to the WTO is approaching 200, while the total number of RTAs around the world exceeds 300. The global RTA spree has forged a veritable...

This paper maps out Rules of Origin (RoO) in regional trade agreements (RTAs) around the world, and observes that the restrictiveness and complexity of RoO are driven by factors specific to each RTA, including economy size and level of development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of liberalisation in RTAs in the Americas in comparison to agreements in other world regions, and to put forth policy recommendations for multilateralising the regional RTAs. While primarily focusing on market access in goods-and tariff...

The purpose of this document is to inform Bank staff and other interested parties about recent developments in integration and trade among the countries of the Western Hemisphere and between these and other countries and world regions.