Resources and trade: Linking the Pacific through bilateral free trade agreements (FTA)

In the last decade, China has embraced the negotiation of free trade agreements (FTA), increasingly across the Pacific. It has agreements with Chile, Peru and Costa Rica. Economists have highlighted the limited outcomes from FTAs. Latin American states can gain better access to China's market in FTAs, but China faced few restrictions in these countries. This article analyses trade and investment flows, and the negotiated agreements to investigate the rationale behind these, and explores the possibility that these are politically motivated agreements to reward diplomatic allies, extend norms, as opposed to the EU/US norm-dominated WTO, and balance the influence of the USA.