On November 11, at the start of the week when U.S. and EU trade negotiators met to discuss the U.S.-EU free trade agreement, prof. Besedes presented his research trade agreements at the EU Commission in Brussels, Belgium. The paper examines the effects of trade agreements on the stability of trade at the highly disaggregated product level. The paper shows that trade agreements tend to improve the stability of trade relationships which began prior to the trade agreement, but reduce the stability of trade relationships started after the agreement. However, trade agreements induce additional trade relationships which otherwise would not occur. Prof. Besedes presented the same paper in a seminar at the University of Ghent in Ghent, Belgium, on November 13.