Deep Trade Agreements - Analyzing non-tariff dimensions

During the last three decades, Preferential Trade Agreements have increasingly been covering policy areas that do not directly fall under the domain of traditional trade policy. This thesis investigates the sources of increasing depth of these non-tariff dimensions in PTAs, focusing on environmental provisions. The literature identifies electoral incentives, pollution, and economic protectionism as the primary sources of environmental provisions in trade agreements. Building on the TREND dataset, country- and year fixed-effects models provide empirical support for the former two, whereas protectionist motives are not found to drive up environmental provisions. Given the crucial role of international trade in shifting towards environmentally sustainable economic growth, more comprehensive empirical research needs to be undertaken to further guide policymakers.