Regional Trade Agreements and U.S. Agriculture: An Overview

摘要

Regional trade agreements (RTA's) have become a fixture in the global trade211u001earena. Their advocates contend that RTA's can serve as building blocks for 211u001emultilateral trade liberalization. Their opponents argue that these trade pacts 211u001ewill divert trade from more efficient nonmember producing contries. This analysis 211u001eof RTA's finds that U.S. agriculture can benefit from participating in RTA's and 211u001emay lose when it does not. Agriculture is an important source of potential U.S. 211u001egains from RTA's. Regionalism and multilateralism are likely to be mutually 211u001ereinforcing in agriculture. While the United States, as a global trader with 211u001ediverse trade partners, potentially can gain more from global free trade than 211u001efrom RTA's many recent RTA's have been more comprehensive in their liberalization 211u001eof agricultural trade liberalization than the Uruguay Round. A strong 211u001emultilateral process can help ensure that RTA's are trade creating, rather than 211u001eprotectionist.