Over the last half century the world has seen historic changes in the international trade landscape, marked by increasing fragmentation of production processes through global value chains and deepening of trade relations through preferential trade agreements (PTAs). Based on the World Trade Organization (WTO) database, the number of trade agreements in force grew seven-fold from 50 in 1990 to 355 in 2022.
The sharp rise in trade agreements sparked a new research interest in the depth and scope of their contents. Before the mid 1990s, PTAs mostly invovled provisions for market access and preferential tariffs. In the last 30 years new forms of cooperation have spread and trade agreements have become deeper, making room for provisions outside the scope of the WTO mandate, such as data protection, intellectual property, human rights, and environmental laws.
This report provides a descriptive and empirical analysis of trade agreement networks. It focuses on characteritizing how the nature and scope of agreements have changed over time, identifying key actors that drive network dynamics, and determining factors that affect the formation of deep trade agreements.