The Anatomy of the New Trade Regionalism: An Analysis and Driving Forces

The global trade system has entered a phase increasingly called “reglobalization.”

A World of Multiple “Clubs,” Not a “Single Market”

This is not just growth in the number of agreements. Their function is changing fundamentally. If in the 1990s–2000s such agreements were a tool for deepening liberalization within the logic of a “large global market,” today they increasingly serve as instruments of geopolitics, risk management, and “insurance” for market access. Western sanctions, tariff wars, and the paralysis of the WTO Appellate Body have pushed countries toward a strategy of “club” diversification: instead of betting on a single hegemon or on universal rules, they are building a network of flexible bilateral and mini-multilateral pacts. It is telling that EAEU analysis directly states: “Trade instruments today have become instruments of policy, geopolitics, and industrial transformation.”

Let us consider just two examples illustrating different strategies within the same trend, and then Russia’s place and its course toward multipolarity in this new architecture.

Vietnam–EFTA (VEFTA): Betting on “High-Standard Rules”

On October 18, 2026, in Hanoi, Vietnam and the European Free Trade Association (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) signed a free trade agreement after 14 years of negotiations. The agreement is comprehensive: it covers not only tariffs on goods but also trade in services, investment, intellectual property, government procurement, competition policy, small and medium-sized enterprises, dispute settlement, and—critically—“trade and sustainable development.”

What is Vietnam’s strategic logic? An emerging-market country is voluntarily taking on obligations under standards traditionally associated with developed economies. This is not a “concession” but an investment in “positioning within value chains.” EFTA is not merely a high-income market; it is a set of jurisdictions with advanced technologies, innovation ecosystems, and demanding consumers. Access to them on “high-bar” terms allows Vietnamese enterprises not to remain stuck in assembly and raw materials but to aspire to higher stages of processing. The agreement is expected to open opportunities for diversifying export and import markets, improving........

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