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In the post-war period American governments tended to side with the purists.
在戰后時期，美國政府傾向支持純粹主義者。
But according to Anne Krueger of Johns Hopkins University, writing in the Journal of Economic Perspectives,
但是約翰霍普金斯大學的安妮·克魯格在《經濟展望雜志》中寫道，
by 1982 gridlock in multilateral talks meant it switched to a twin-track approach, simultaneously pushing for multilateral deals and negotiating preferential ones.
到1982年，多邊會談中的僵局意味著其轉向雙軌制，力圖多邊貿易的同時又協商特惠協議。
Chief among these was the North American Free Trade Agreement,
其中為首的就是北美自由貿易協定，
which came into force in 1994 and is due to be replaced by the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement (USMCA).
其于1994年生效并將被美墨加三國協議（USMCA）所取代。
The approach spread. Nearly 300 preferential trade deals are now recorded by the WTO.
這種方式傳播開來。WTO現在記錄了近300份特惠貿易協議。
Many go beyond tariff-cutting to include rules on state-owned enterprises, intellectual property and trade in services.
很多協議遠不止關稅減讓，還包括針對國有企業的規則、知識產權以及服務貿易。
Having grown into an integrated trading area, the EU became an enthusiastic proponent,
EU已成長為了一個綜合的貿易區，它變成了一位熱情的支持者，
striking many reciprocal deals, including with Canada, Mexico and Singapore. In June it started talks with Australia.
和包括加拿大、墨西哥以及新加坡在內的多國簽署了互惠協議。今年6月，EU開始和澳大利亞進行會談。
As such deals proliferated, economists studied their impact. One fear had been that they might divert custom from more efficient producers in third countries.
隨著這種協議的激增，經濟學家研究了它們的影響。擔憂之一是它們可能會轉移第三國更高效生產商的關稅。
But a paper by Aaditya Mattoo, Alen Mulabdic and Michele Ruta of the World Bank, published in 2017,
但世界銀行的阿迪蒂亞·瑪圖、艾倫·穆拉比奇以及米歇爾·魯塔于2017年發表的一篇論文發現
found that shallow deals do little to reduce trade with third countries, and deep ones tend to increase it.
這種淺薄的協議和減少第三國貿易關系不大，并且深入協議易于增加第三國貿易。
This, they think, is because rules on competition policy, subsidies and standards are hard to apply in a discriminatory way.
他們認為這是因為針對競爭政策、補貼和標準的規定很難以一種歧視性的方式進行。
But there is also reason to fear that preferential deals weaken the impetus towards comprehensive liberalisation.
但還是有理由擔心特惠協議會削弱全面自由化的動力。
Nuno Limao of the University of Maryland, and others,
馬里蘭大學的Nuno Limao以及其他人發現
have found that America and the EU offered less tariff liberalisation in multilateral talks in product areas where they had already granted preferential tariffs in bilateral deals.
美國和歐盟已經在一些產區的雙邊協議中實施了特惠關稅，而在這些地區的雙邊會談中，美國和歐盟提供的關稅自由更少。
Though previous American administrations were sometimes frustrated with the WTO, they viewed it as the foundation of the trading system.
雖然之前的美國政府對WTO偶感失望，但是他們將這視為貿易體系的基礎。
Preferential deals were an instrument of diplomacy. TPP was intended to create a template for a trading system that might eventually include China,
特惠協議是一種外交手段。TPP曾旨在為一種最終包括中國的貿易體系創造模板，
and perhaps give reform-minded Chinese policymakers something to aim for.
并且有可能為決心改革的中國決策人提供目標。
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