Not All Agreements Are Equal: Heterogeneous Effects of RTAs on Latin American Agri‐Food Exports, 1990–2019

ABSTRACT Since the final decade of the 20th century, Latin American countries have increasingly regarded the signing of regional trade agreements (RTAs) as a promising strategy for expanding their exports. Within this context, the main objective of this study is to assess the impact of RTAs on agri‐food exports in Latin America over the period 1990–2019, during which such exports experienced significant growth. To this end, our analysis starts with an examination of the various trade agreements signed in the region and the export flows they have progressively channeled. Second, we estimate the effects of each type of agreement on agri‐food trade using gravity models and export data from 19 Latin American countries to their main trading partners (239 in total) between 1990 and 2019. Our main finding regarding the average effect of RTAs is that the estimates are robust to recent developments in gravity modeling. However, when we estimate the effects of each agreement type separately, we find considerable heterogeneity. This variation depends not only on the type of agreement, but also on the export destination region and the period under analysis.