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Two broad policy lessons can be drawn from OECD work in this area.
The first lesson is that many consequences of Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) activity bolsters the case for a strengthened multilateral framework. This applies particularly to the contribution of regionalism to divergence from the rules of the multilateral system, to the effects which the patchwork of regionalism can have on non-members of those agreements and to the role of regionalism in raising transaction costs for business.
These elements are compounded by the fact that regionalism has often failed to 'crack the hardest nuts'.
The second lesson we can draw from experience with regionalism is that while some consequences of RTA activity contribute to the case of strengthening the multilateral framework, there are features of regional approaches that may nevertheless complement such strengthening or even be drawn upon in designing strengthened multilateral rules.
The scope for complimentarity arises from the contribution which regional initiatives can make towards harmonisation of rule making; the scope for drawing upon arises from the extent to which RTAs go beyond the World Trade Organization (WTO). Together, these two elements have yielded highly effective synergies between approaches at the regional and the multilateral levels.
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