As regional free trade agreements proliferate in the Asia-Pacific, a new APEC Policy Support Unit report confirms that these agreements do make a difference in boosting exports. These preliminary findings were submitted to APEC Trade Ministers in Boracay over the weekend.
The number of regional and bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) in the Asia-Pacific region has multiplied since the 1990s with APEC members among the most active economies in negotiating FTAs. At present, APEC members have 144 enforced FTAs, approximately 53 percent of the global number of FTAs.
This has been excerpted from a 25 May 2015 news release by APEC and is available in its entirety at:
http://www.apec.org/Press/News-Releases/2015/0525_TradeMonitoring.aspx