Regional trade agreements (RTAs)

The WTO uses the term Regional trade agreements (RTAs) as a generic name for all reciprocal agreements such as customs unions, FTAs, and partial scope agreements. This can be explained by the fact that, initially, such treaties were within the jurisdiction of the WTO’s Committee on Regional Trade Agreements. In reality, such trade agreements do not have to include members from the same region (e.g. the EU-Canada or Peru-South Korea FTAs).