this chapter examines rules of origin which is seen as an increasing significant impediment to trade.

This paper examines the key issues and assesses the impact of the rules of origin (RoO) and cumulation on Nigeria’s international trade within the context of Africa-EU partnerships agreements. The review of literatures shows that RoO are an important element in determining the final benefit...

This chapter studies interlinkages and interaction between the reciprocal trade liberalization through the WTO and preferential trade agreements from the perspective of the LDCs. An econometric exercise using an extended version of ARTNeT gravity dataset is done to determine the impact of WTO...

Countries embarking on trade negotiations are not only seeking increased market access, but also, reduced market opacity. This study distils the most progressive practices for promoting regulatory transparency in over one hundred regional trade agreements (RTAs) concluded by OECD and large...

The proliferation of preferential trade agreements has posed challenges for the multilateral trading system. But regional trade agreements (RTAs) also allow countries to develop and strengthen trade disciplines beyond what is possible at the multilateral level. In some instances, RTAs explore...

Over the past decade, an increasing number of economies have resorted to regional trade agreements (RTAs) as a means to further the market-opening and rule-making agenda. In this context, this paper addresses the question as to whether and how selected elements of RTAs could be used as...

What influences the adoption of transparency obligations in trade agreements, and what are its effects? This paper uses a new dataset on transparency provisions in over a hundred regional trade agreements (RTAs) to provide empirical evidence of the political economy determinants of international...

Focusing on the Least Developed Countries located in the Asia-Pacific region, the study explores the impact of different approaches available to the LDCs and their partners in improving their developmental prospects through enhanced trade. The monograph starts with the presentation of trade...

This chapter presents a set of stylized facts and PTAs features which are shared across the region’s economies. Agreements are routinely classified with respect to the level of development of partners, their number and regional proximity and contiguity. The other features of the agreements...

this chapter attempts to evaluate the impact of agricultural trade reform in the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on RTAs.