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Advantages And Disadvantages Of Multilateral Trade Agreements

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Trade agreements can either be bilateral, regional or multilateral. No matter how they are they are intended to lower or remove trade barriers between the participants. Lowering trade barriers among each other increases the degree of economic integration between the participants. Trade agreements that increase the access of each member’s market are supported by sectors that export their products but are opposed by sectors that face competition from imports 1. Advantages and disadvantages of Multilateral trade agreements Multilateral trade agreements are trade agreements between two or more countries. They are very complicated to negotiate but once agreements are reached they are can be very powerful. The WTO advocates the multilateral trade agreements. The WTO is a voluntary group of …show more content…

They are building blocks where multilateral deals can later be built. Disadvantages of regional trade agreements Power symmetries are often highly pronounced, (leading to deals that often favor the largest member at the expense of smaller partners). They pose the risk of dividing the global trading system by dividing the world economy into competing trading blocks. Create incoherent rules because most of WTO members are part of one or two regional trade agreements, most of which contain agreement specific rules which are necessary to ensure that preferences go to the intended members. They create greater discrimination which end up hurting all the trading partners. The preferential trade agreement against competitors is short lived as other countries outside the agreement form an agreement with one of the country already in an agreement thus avoiding exclusion. For small developing countries entering into a bilateral trade with developed countries means have little or no leverage and a weaker negotiating position as compared to multilateral

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