Author: Thomas Hale, Princeton

Over the last two decades, East Asian countries have signed more preferential trade agreements (PTAs) than any other region. At the beginning of the 1990s there were essentially no PTAs in East Asia. Today there are dozens, with regional leaders discussing the negotiation of a region-wide free trade zone.

But according to a new study forthcoming in the Review of International Political Economy, this goal has already been outstripped by reality. Focusing on applied tariffs – not the legal ceilings they agree in formal trade agreements – the data reveal a striking pattern.   Read more…