Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION: COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE -- II. GROWING INTEREST IN THE REGION -- III. COPING WITH THE OBSTACLES TO THE REGION'S DEVELOPMENT -- IV. A FEW IDEAS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE REGION -- V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS -- References.

The literature measuring the impact of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTA) and WTO membership on trade flows has produced remarkably diverse results. Rose's (2004) seminal paper reports a range of specifications that show no WTO effects, but Subramanian and Wei (2007) contend that he does not...