Free trade vs. regional trade agreements revisited

In a previous post, I argued against confusing or conflating free trade agreements and regionally preferential trade areas like Nafta. In a letter to the editor in today's Financial Times by Arvind Panagariya, a respected international trade economics professor at Columbia University entitled 'Safta can distract from global concerns' about the South Asia Free Trade Area. It is a good explanation for the potential pitfalls of preferential trade agreements, especially those formed among countries accounting for a very small share of global GDP.