Replication data for: When Do Trade Blocs Block Trade?

In practice, however, the modal agreement is not multilateral but regional or bilateral. The prevalence of "minilateralism" begs the question: Do minilateral agreements help or hinder multilateral cooperation?

I investigate this question by examining the impact of regional free trade agreements (FTAs) on multilateral trade liberalization in 30 countries from 1988 to 1998. I find that FTAs have important but contradictory conditional effects: they promote multilateral liberalization when members' intra- and extra-FTA comparative advantages are similar but impede such liberalization when these comparative advantages are different.