Regional trade agreements may hinder fair competition and economic integration.
Preferential trading agreements are including more rules to deepen integration, like common antitrust regulations. The focus is on creating a single market, not just getting rid of unfair trade practices like antidumping. Some agreements still use antidumping within the group to prevent unfair competition. Governments worry about partners using unfair policies, so they keep antidumping as a defense. But getting rid of antidumping in these agreements could help address the real trade issues caused by government interventions, rather than just blaming unfair dumping.