1 Problems with Overlapping Free Trade Areas

• Main Authors: Takatoshi Ito, Anne O. Krueger, Anne Krueger
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1997
• Subjects: Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.456.3789; http://www.nber.org/chapters/c8594.pdf

Preferential regional trading arrangements are in vogue. As of the end of 1994, GATT had received notification of 33 new agreements since 1990. Most of these arrangements are for free trade areas (FTAs), although the European Union has also been enlarging its membership. As of 1994, there were few members of GATT that did not belong to at least one preferential trading ar-rangement, and many belonged to more than one.’ Additional FTAs are currently under discussion and, in a number of cases, officially endorsed. Moreover, it is contemplated that some of these FTAs might be overlapping. The United States, for example, is already a member of NAFTA, also has an FTA with Israel, and has declared its intention to partici-pate in an Asia Pacific (APEC) FTA. The APEC countries have announced that they will become an FTA by 2010 (for the developed countries) and 2020 (for the developing). * In the spring of 1995, there was even discussion of a North Atlantic Free Trade Area, which might entail U.S. membership in yet another FTA. In addition, the United States extends preferences unilaterally to coun-