when negotiations for a multilateral trade agreement are unsuccessful many nations will negotiate bilateral treaties instead however new agreements often result in competing agreements between other countries eliminating the advantages the free trade agreement fta confers between the original two nations 
bilateral trade agreements also expand the market for a country s goods the united states vigorously pursued free trade agreements with a number of countries under the bush administration during the early 2000s 3in addition to creating a market for u s goods the expansion helped spread the mantra of trade liberalization and encouraged open borders for trade however bilateral trade agreements can skew a country s markets when large multinational corporations which have significant capital and resources to operate at scale enter a market dominated by smaller players as a result the latter might need to close shop when they are competed out of existence examples of bilateral tradein october 2014 the united states and brazil settled a longstanding cotton dispute in the world trade organization wto 4 brazil terminated the case relinquishing its rights to countermeasures against u s trade or further proceedings in the dispute brazil also agreed to not bring new wto actions against u s cotton support programs while the current u s farm bill was in force or against agricultural export credit guarantees under the gsm 102 program because of the agreement american businesses were no longer subject to countermeasures such as increased tariffs totaling hundreds of millions of dollars annually in march 2016 the u s government and the government of peru reached an agreement removing barriers to u s beef exports to peru that had been in effect since 2003 5the agreement opened one of the fastest growing markets in latin america in 2015 the united states exported 25 4 million in beef and beef products to peru removal of peru s certification requirements known as the export verification program assured american ranchers expanded market access the agreement reflected the u s negligible risk classification for bovine spongiform encephalopathy bse by the world organization for animal health oie the united states and peru agreed to amendments in certification statements making beef and beef products from federally inspected u s establishments eligible for export to peru rather than just beef and beef products from establishments participating in the usda agricultural marketing service ams export verification ev programs under previous certification requirements 