Despite the proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs) between nations today, academics and policy makers alike have yet to fully understand why trading nations actively pursue free trade agreements. With what aim do governments enter into an FTA? In this paper, we propose that the...

This paper examines how preferential rules of origin that operate under Regional Trade Agreements (RTA) can be utilized to help developing countries. Under the standard territoriality principle, products imported from countries outside of a RTA territory will be treated as non-originating. A...

Restrictive preferential rules of origin cause producers in RTAs to source intermediate materials from RTA partners instead of non-parties in order to meet the rules of origin requirements. For RTAs concluded under Article XXIV, restrictive preferential rules of origin open doors to selective...

Disagreement between the parties involved in regional trade agreements (RTAs) about the legal basis of RTAs has led to dual notifications of some RTAs to the WTO. Dually notified RTAs are characterized by non-reciprocal trade liberalization between developing and developed RTA parties. If all...