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Strawman misses the real problems with bilateral trade agreements. Often they cause trade diversion, rather than trade creation, thus leading to no efficiency benefits for the importing country but causing it to lose tariff revenue. Also, the rules of origin that go along with them are costly to negotiate and comply with. The fact that bilateral trade deals undermine the benefits of WTO membership and thus make it more difficult
to get "real" trade reform should also not be discounted.
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