Infrastructure development issues in regional trade agreement

Abstract

The article analyzes how infrastructure development issues are included in modern regional trade agreements (RTAs) and how this experience could be applied to the future Russia’s or EAEU RTAs. As the trade negotiations agenda expands, it becomes important to include infrastructure development issues in RTAs, as the lack of necessary infrastructure may hinder international trade (especially in the case of developing countries). Infrastructure development issues are also included in some RTAs between developed countries (as part of government procurement liberalization). The trend to include infrastructure development issues in modern “deep” RTAs is just emerging. In the future, RTAs may become a new tool for promoting and protecting Russian interests in the field of infrastructure development, as it was done in the framework of the on-preferential EAEU-China agreement.