Event Summary
The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) and the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Trade and Foreign Direct Investment launched the World Economic Forum study, "Mega-regional Trade Agreements: Game-Changers or Costly Distractions for the World Trading System?" on July 9, 2014. Presenters included Gary Clyde Hufbauer, PIIE, and members of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Trade and Foreign Direct Investment: Karan Bhatia, Uri Dadush, and Anabel González.
If current negotiations are successful, mega-regional trade agreements are poised to bring major changes to global trade and investment patterns and rules. Tearing down barriers in the Pacific and Atlantic economies, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have the prospect of fostering greater growth and efficiency while also encouraging closer relations among the partners. However, there are concerns that these and other mega-regional agreements might lead to fragmentation of the world trading system into exclusionary blocks or distract from efforts to liberalize trade at the global level.
Event Materials
Report: Mega-regional Trade Agreements: Game-Changers or Costly Distractions for the World Trading System?
World Economic Forum
July 2014
Presentation: Anabel González [pdf]