Regional free-trade areas: sorting out the tangled spaghetti
指出歧视性区域自由贸易区扭曲贸易模式并造成囚徒困境，提出开放贸易安排和贸易透明委员会等解决方案，对研究贸易政策的经济学者有参考价值。
As a result of the difficulties in negotiating the liberalization of trade globally, countries seek liberalization among smaller groups. We describe open regionalism as one such attempt to do this, and show why after a decade of success it ran into the ground as a strategy. The formation of discriminatory regional free-trade areas (FTAs) is sometimes seen as another response to this problem. This paper point outs what is wrong with this response--that it distorts trade patterns and thereby sets up an unpleasant prisoner's dilemma--and suggests some ways forward. We propose the formation of open trading arrangements (OTAs) and the establishment of a Trade Transparency Commission in each country that is participating in an OTA. We also suggest global regulation of trade diversions caused by all FTAs, whether OTAs or not. Ultimately, the return to health of the global trading system will require expanded understanding of the basic insight of economics, that liberalization enhances the welfare of citizens of the liberalizing country.