The varieties of preferential trade agreements have increased in recent decades. Regional blocs concluding deals with third-party actors have contributed immensely to these changes in trade agreements. These varieties have motivated our reexamination of the breadth–depth trade-off in trade agreements. We argue that a breadth–depth trade-off is present in initial plurilateral agreements. Large groups of states at this initial stage exhibit greater preference heterogeneity that discourages deeper cooperation. Conversely, we expect the breadth–depth trade-off to be absent in follow-up plurilateral agreements and region-to-third-party agreements. For the former, the initial pacts serve a learning function that enables deeper cooperation. For the latter, institutional mechanisms lessen preference heterogeneity and transforms negotiations to approximate bilateral trade talks that alleviate the breadth–depth trade-off. Our test on 234 trade agreements finds support for our argument. Our paper highlights the importance of distinguishing trade negotiation configurations to better understand how membership affects the depth of agreements.

中文翻译：

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优惠贸易协定的广度与深度权衡与种类

近几十年来，优惠贸易协定的种类有所增加。与第三方参与者达成交易的区域集团对贸易协定的这些变化做出了巨大贡献。这些品种促使我们重新审视贸易协定中的广度和深度权衡。我们认为，最初的诸边协议中存在广度和深度的权衡。在这个初始阶段，大量的国家群体表现出更大的偏好异质性，这阻碍了更深入的合作。相反，我们预计后续诸边协议和地区与第三方协议中不会出现广度和深度的权衡。对于前者，最初的协议具有学习功能，可以实现更深入的合作。对于后者，体制机制减少了偏好的异质性，并将谈判转变为近似于双边贸易谈判，从而缓解了广度和深度之间的权衡。我们对 234 项贸易协定的测试为我们的论点找到了支持。我们的论文强调了区分贸易谈判配置以更好地了解成员资格如何影响协议深度的重要性。