Promotion of foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade liberalization on both global and regional levels has been considered to be beneficial for the economic development of developing countries. Current WTO rules support regional trade liberalization and prohibit certain trade-related...

The proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in the recent decades threatens the future of the multilateral trading system (MTS) because the exclusive trade preferences of RTAs, although approved under the provisions of Article XXIV General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), are...