From 1990 there was a proliferation of Preferential Trade Agreements notified to the World Trade Organization and this study aims to identify whether this new regionalism led to trade creation or trade diversion to their participants, using a gravity model based on panel data over the period 1990-2009. The results suggest the existence of trade creation and export diversion due to the formation of Mercosur. With regards to NAFTA, besides being the only bloc that showed an anticipatory effect on their trade flows within the region, there are signs that the growth of trade occurred due to trade creation. Nevertheless, there are indications that the Asean and PAFTA caused trade diversion. Finally, the way that trade flows evolved within each bloc (ex ante and ex post) was quite different, not only in terms of trade volume but also on how quickly they responded to their formation, with its effects arising immediately in some cases and in others taking a few years.
regional integration; gravity model; panel data
