ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of Preferential Trade Agreements and their precursor, the Bilateral Investment Treaty, and argues that these are not the answer to the problems of global inequality. Despite a proliferation of such agreements in recent times, it is argued that they actually result in unequal outcomes in favour of the advanced countries. This is because the potential for economic development in the labour-intensive producing economies is limited. In analysing the impact of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, instituted by the United States, we find that it essentially replicates the conditionality of the IFIs that has been so damaging to underdeveloped economies over the past 40 years. Empirically, studies have found little or no evidence that North-South PTAs have any significant policy implications for trade policy or for increases in material well-being in underdeveloped economies.
