Are There Any Benefits? Results of Trade Agreements with India for Partner Countries in Terms of Trade in Services

Being one of the world largest exporters of services, India also has a significant domestic consumption market, including households and companies, that attracts foreign services suppliers and investors. Many countries express significant interest in concluding comprehensive trade agreements with India to provide their national services (services suppliers) with preferential access to large national market of India. The paper provides analysis of the benefits accruing by partner countries from trade agreements with India that include trade in services. Consideration of the benefits of the agreements is carried out in two aspects: in terms of increasing the share of the presence of national services providers of partner countries in the Indian market, as well as in terms of having tangible improvement in the conditions of access to the Indian market. To assess the benefits in terms of market access conditions, a comparison of market access commitments taken by India in the framework of multilateral trading system and of preferential trade agreements with partner countries is carried out. The comparison is fulfilled both in the context of specific trade agreements and of specific services sectors.