Publication: Deep Services Trade Agreements and their Effect on Trade and Value Added
Date
2021-04
ISSN
Published
2021-04
Author(s)
Borchert, Ingo
Di Ubaldo, Mattia
Abstract
The majority of services trade is
currently transacted under the terms of preferential trade
agreements (PTAs) with increasingly ambitious provisions on
crossborder trade and investment in services. This paper
exploits novel and detailed information on the architecture
and depth of services PTAs (the World Bank Deep Trade
Agreements 2.0 database) to study which provisions, or
policy configurations, characterise an effective agreement.
The richness of policy information is crucial for being able
to identify those aspects that matter most, namely an
agreement's structure, its rules of origin for firms
and natural persons, and provisions that ensure
accountability. Ambitious provisions in these areas are
associated with 15-65 percent higher bilateral trade, driven
by regulation-intensive services. Services PTAs also lead to
an increase in services value added sourced from PTA
partners, through provisions that facilitate the exchange of
capital and people. This finding sheds light on how services
PTAs can affect the configuration of value chain trade.
Citation
“Borchert, Ingo; Di Ubaldo, Mattia. 2021. Deep Services Trade Agreements and their Effect on Trade and Value Added. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9608. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35403 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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