What are the implications of the proliferating preferential trade agreements (PTAs) for the liberal trade order? Many scholars and practitioners see large increases in PTAs as a destabilizing factor that undermines core features of the post‐war international trade system. By contrast, this paper argues that the accelerated growth of PTAs since the mid‐1990s enhances the resilience of the liberal trade order. PTAs increase the ability of the order to accommodate heterogeneous preferences and distributive conflicts. They represent a continuation of a longer path of liberalization set in motion by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). This path‐dependent development created conditions for a gradual expansion of the membership and the regulatory scope of the GATT/WTO system, but also heightened levels of preference heterogeneity and distributive conflicts. By enabling groups of states with homogenous preferences to layer new rules on top of the multilateral GATT/WTO system, PTAs enable the continuation of the liberalization path. Consequently, PTAs have served as complements rather than to undermine the WTO.

中文翻译：

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打破僵局：路径依赖分层如何增强全球贸易治理的弹性

激增的优惠贸易协定 (PTA) 对自由贸易秩序有何影响？许多学者和从业者将 PTA 的大幅增加视为破坏战后国际贸易体系核心特征的不稳定因素。相比之下，本文认为自 1990 年代中期以来 PTA 的加速增长增强了自由贸易秩序的弹性。PTA 增加了秩序适应异质偏好和分配冲突的能力。它们代表了关税和贸易总协定（GATT）启动的更长的自由化道路的延续。这种路径依赖的发展为 GATT/WTO 体系的成员和监管范围的逐步扩大创造了条件，但也加剧了偏好异质性和分配冲突。通过使具有同质偏好的国家集团能够在多边 GATT/WTO 体系之上分层新规则，PTA 使自由化路径得以延续。因此，PTA 起到了补充而不是破坏 WTO 的作用。