The United States has another multilateral regional trade agreement: the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). This agreement with Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua eliminated tariffs on more than 80% of the United States. Exports of non-textile industrial products. First, tariffs and other rules for trade with non-parties to this free trade area in each of the free trade countries applicable at the time of the creation of this free trade area must not be higher or more restrictive than tariffs and other rules applicable in the same signatory countries prior to the creation of the free trade area. In other words, the creation of a free trade area to give preferential treatment to their members is legitimate under WTO law, but parties to a free trade area are not allowed to treat non-parties less favourably than before the creation of the territory. A second requirement under Article XXIV is that tariffs and other trade barriers must be eliminated primarily for all trade within the free trade area. [10] In the 1990s, free trade agreements became popular, with a “wave of regionalism” (Dieter 1998: 207). Many free trade agreements have been concluded in the event of Uruguay Round`s failure to reach the General Collective Agreement and Trade, the predecessor of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It wasn`t just ambitious projects like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) or the Free Trade Area of the Americas (CETA) that were on the agenda.
In addition, inter-regional agreements should be concluded as a free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur. For peripheral countries, free trade agreements such as Pacto Andino or Mercosur were instruments for strengthening regional cooperation and integrating countries into the global market. In the 1990s, the driving force was “the question of the efficiency of the global economy” (Dieter 1998: 206). Between 1957 and 1990, Sez/Valds had 30 regional trade agreements registered with the WTO. It was only between 1991 and 1997 that there were 61 signed (Sez/Valds 1999: 90) Very often, free trade agreements, as they undermine WTO efforts to liberalize world trade1. [9] Although GATT Article XXIV authorizes WTO members to establish free trade zones or to conclude interim agreements necessary for their establishment, there are several conditions relating to free trade zones or interim agreements leading to the creation of free trade zones.