One of the selling points behind larger preferential trade agreements (PTAs) is the potential to encourage the spread of global value chains (GVCs). These supply chains are increasingly critical to the globalized economy. Large GVC operators may include up to 15,000 firms in their networks...

Since the early 2000s, the European Union and the United States have pushed aggressively for the development of bilateral, plurilateral and regional trade agreements. Termed economic partnership agreements (EPAs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) by the European Union and FTAs by the United...