With the recent proliferation of bilateral PTAs and the emergence of mega-TAPs (broad regional trade agreements such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) or the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a global trading system managed exclusively within the framework of the WTO seems unrealistic and interactions between trading systems must be taken into account. The increasing complexity of the international trading system resulting from the proliferation of PTAs should be taken into account when considering the choice of forums used by countries or regions to promote their trade relations and environmental agenda. [2] TPAs have grown rapidly; In the 1990s, there were just over 100 PTAs. In 2014, there were more than 700. [3] Preferential Trade Agreements (ASPT) have spread around the world since the 1990s and today form a complex network of agreements that connect virtually every country in the world (Pauwelyn and Alschner 2015). While their number may vary depending on the definition used, the World Trade Organization (WTO) benchmark for regional trade agreements (SAAs) 291, notified to the WTO, lists the SAAs that can be considered a conservative floor. A free trade area is an area within a country or state where free trade rules apply (in general, but depending on the country and circumstances). These sectors are mainly intended for the import and export of goods and are useful for a country that imports one good as inputs, that produces another good, which reduces customs fees for producers. For most countries, international trade is governed by unilateral barriers of various types, including tariffs, non-tariff barriers and total bans. Trade agreements are a way to reduce these barriers and thus open up all parties to the benefits of increased trade. Several hundred bilateral SAAs have been signed since the beginning of the twentieth century. The Trend[6] project of the Canada Research Chair in International Political Economy lists approximately 700 trade agreements, the vast majority of which are bilateral. [7] In addition, these agreements have a higher degree of adaptation than BITs at the level of standardisation.
Finally, even ASPs, which are similar in overall design, usually have significant text variations in some chapters. We argue that textual measures of similarity are particularly appropriate for identifying fine-grained differences in contract design and find that the term PTA encompasses a number of very heterogeneous agreements that consistently differ in volume, content and language. In addition, unlike bilateral investment agreements (NTAs), which largely follow the development of model country-specific agreements of industrialized countries, PTAs are grouped into regional or interregional groups of similar agreements. In trade policy, textual similarities can help track the spread of contract design, which we will illustrate by following the spread of NAFTA throughout the Pacific region. In contrast, a preferential agreement is much less broad and covers preferential tariffs (i.e. other weak or lower countries) for a number of products or services. A preferential trade agreement can also be simply unilateral or for a number of years, etc. Finally, in the field of commercial law, textual similarity can shed new light on the normative processes of convergence.
Investment chapters in SAAs, for example, are generally seen as a contribution to the convergence of trade and investment rights, but, as our analysis shows, the two areas can also fragment. . . .