當杜哈回合談判仍延宕並遲遲無任何進展時，自由貿易區已成為貿易結盟主要趨勢。根據2008年世界貿易組織統計，自由貿易區形成數量已超過230個且數量持續增加中。雖然引力模型已被廣範被運用來探討加入自由貿易區後所帶來效益，然而卻鮮少文獻是使用橫斷面時間序列資料來評估台灣經貿流量，特別是針對台灣與中美洲國家簽定自由貿易區。
因此，本研究收集1990至2008年各官方數據資料再結合引力模型與SPSS 15軟體系統，來評估台灣與自由貿易區國家與非自由貿易區貿易伙伴的貿易流量變化。而研究報告指出貿易流量會受多種因素影響，例如平均國民所得、距離、語言、人口與宗教信仰。再者，大多數文獻與學者們認為加入自由貿易區域所帶來的正面效益並沒有顯現在此研究中。
本研究結果可給其他研究者另一個不同的探討空間；同時也給政府官員日後簽定自由貿易區施政方針參考。

Free Trade Area becomes the trend of trade alliances since the Doha Development Round has been stalled. According to WTO’s statistics of 2008, there were more than 230 FTAs have been formed and numbers are still increasing. Most scholars argued that joining an FTA would bring trade creation benefits; however, few researches have been done by using cross-section time series data to examine the trade flows about Taiwan, especially for trade flows among Taiwan, CAFTA and main trading partners.
To evaluate the changes of trade flows among non-FTA trading partners and FTA trading partners, data were firstly collected from official publications from 1990 to 2008. Then SPSS 15 software was used to process outputs. From the studying results, it indicates that trade flows were influenced by various variables, such as GDP per capita, distance, language, population and religion. Besides, the benefits of FTA which were argued by scholars and researchers were not found in this study.
This studying result can lead researchers a different point of views to discuss the real benefits of FTA. Also, it also could be a reference for government when FTA wants to be signed in the future.

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