This insightful volume is a careful selection of the major contributions to the controversy as to whether regional trade agreements harm the multilateral system of trade negotiation. It focuses on key topics such as: the theory of preferential trade agreements; regionalism and multilateralism; the effects of regionalism on the multilateral system; the effects of multilateralism on regionalism; rules of origin and empirical analyses. Scholars and practitioners alike will find this an invaluable set of papers.