Abstract:
The thesis presents an institutional analysis of the effectiveness of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in ensuring deep market access commitments improving upon the status-quo multilateral obligations from countries participating in such PTAs. The thesis contends that PTAs are not effective tools in achieving such depth of commitments using an institutional analysis based on comparative assessment of commitments of India's PTAs with Malaysia, Japan, and Singapore. This analysis focuses on professional services and technical barriers to trade since they represent areas that have maximum interface with domestic regulation that impacts market access, and thus are areas where depth of trade commitments that requires resolution of market barriers resulting from domestic regulatory requirements remains critical to facilitating trade.
