1 The impact of Free Trade Agreements on trade flows: lessons from Argentinean wine exports Andrea Dal Bianco a *, M. Jimena Estrella-Orrego b , Vasco Boatto a and Alejandro J. Gennari b a TESAF Department, University of Padova. Viale dell’Università, 16, 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy. b Department of Economics, Policy and Rural Management, National University of Cuyo. Almirante Brown, 500, Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina. * Corresponding author: andrea.dalbianco@unipd.it; +393406677180 Abstract: This article empirically investigates the Argentinean trade policy on wine sector over the last years and its effect on export flows. A gravity model is estimated through a Poisson pseudo- maximum likelihood estimator, in order to account for heteroskedasticity. The data used refer to Argentinean export of bottled wine towards all main importer during the period 1997- 2010, and accounts for more than 90% of total trade flows. Our results show how the join with Mercosur have promoted Argentinean wine export towards other Latin American countries, but may have been counter-productive as a whole. A more open trade policy could increase Argentinean export of bottled wine by more than 5.8%. In addition, considering the rise of wine consumption and import in countries with high tariff barriers, such as China, the reduced number of free trade agreements could penalize even more Argentinean export in the future. Topic: agricultural economics