What types of FTA are there?
02/10/2023 217Question: What types of FTA are there?
Answer:
There are no unified criteria or precise definitions to classify FTAs. In fact, FTAs are classified according to common criteria such as the number of members and content in the FTAs.
According to the criteria of number and geographical area of member economies:
- Bilateral FTA: is an FTA between two partners.
- Regional FTA: can be an FTA between many partners in the same region (for example, the ASEAN Free Trade Area Agreement among 10 countries in the ASEAN region); or an FTA in which one partner is an organization of many economies (for example the FTAs between ASEAN and China, India, Korea... - also known as ASEAN+).
According to the criteria of scope and commitment content:
- Traditional FTAs: These are FTAs negotiated and signed in the early stages, often with a narrow scope and limited degree of liberalization.
- New generation FTAs: These are FTAs that have been negotiated and signed recently, have a wide scope, and a strong degree of liberalization (namely CPTPP and EVFTA).
Center for WTO and International Trade