ABSTRACT
Even before the recent tendency towards anti-globalization in the advanced countries, and the stalling of the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s Doha Development Round, bilateral and regional free trade agreements (RTAs) were becoming an essential alternative to the WTO’s multilateral approach. Many of these preferential trade agreements (PTAs) involve trade between ‘like-minded’ countries, thus avoiding the conflicts associated with large numbers of nations engaged in multilateral negotiations.
