Trade Agreements and Services Value Chain: The Case of India and Thailand

Abstract

Services sector is an important component of the world trade and production networks. With the opening up of world economy, the role of services in the global value chain and value added has expanded. Services liberalisation is becoming a crucial component of free trade agreements. This is particularly true for trade agreements between South and Southeast Asia. Given this background, the objective of this paper is to understand the scope of establishing services value chain between two countries in South and Southeast Asia - namely India and Thailand - by integrating the two markets through trade agreement. The analysis is based on secondary data, in-depth interviews with policy makers and stakeholders in India and Thailand and an examination of the existing trade agreements of the two countries. The paper found that the present level of integration between the two markets is low due to the existence of market access barriers and regulatory bottlenecks. The paper makes recommendation on how the two countries can reduce barriers to trade in services, thereby fostering greater integration and leveraging the development of a global value chain.