PREFERENČNÉ REGIONÁLNE OBCHODNÉ DOHODY AKO UPREDNOSTŇOVANÝ NÁSTROJ ZAHRANIČNOOBCHODNEJ POLITIKY

Submitted article presents macroeconomic analysis of motivating global framework for using preferential regional trade agreements (RTAs) as preferred the foreign trade policy instruments of the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries. Their surge has continued unabated since the early 1990s. There were some 200 in 2004 and by the end of 2006 the total number of RTAs in force might well overflow 300. Author focuses on selected issues related to a RTAs proliferation and a changing impacts as well as influence of RTAs in comparison with multilateral trading system, in the context of the ongoing globalisation tendencies within the world economy.