Proliferation of Free Trade Agreements and Some Systemic Issues - In Relation to the WTO Disciplines and Development Perspectives

In recent decades, free trade agreements have been proliferated and have become a major part of the global trading system, along with the multilateral framework represented by the World Trade Organizations. This article discusses some of the major issues with FTA in relation to the WTO disciplines and also examines their implications for developing countries from the perspective of economic development. A global FTA network is proposed as a means to coordinate different, often conflicting rules among different FTAs and to promote common interests and concerns of developing countries.