Free trade area

Over the past ten years, an increasing number of countries are initiating, negotiating and agreeing new trade agreements between two countries or amongst a group of countries. These are commonly known as free trade agreements or “FTAs”1, and they are promoted as providing significant economic benefits to signatory countries through the removal or reduction of barriers to trade in goods and services. Many political leaders have indicated that they would prefer to remove or reduce trade barriers through the multilateral system in a way that benefits all countries belonging to the World Trade Organization.