Author: Ken Heydon, LSE

As the Doha Round flounders, preferential trade agreements (PTAs) have become the centrepiece of trade diplomacy. The annual average number of PTA notifications since the WTO was established has been 20, compared with an annual average of less than three, during the four and a half decades of the GATT.

Such agreements, which now account for over half of world trade, share a number of characteristics. Read more…