Regional trade agreements

The Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA) began discussing the implications of RTAs for the multilateral trading system, as called for by the Tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi. In 2016, the WTO received 22 notifications of RTAs, up from 16 in 2015. The notifications involved 11 new RTAs. The Asia Pacific region and the Americas notified the highest number – five each. The WTO launched a new book on RTAs and their relationship with the WTO’s rules.