FTA Underutilization Report: Holding the Right Research Frame

Saket researched FTA underutilization as a solo project at Trademo, covering why a significant share of available trade agreements go unused by the businesses they are designed to benefit. The report required him to define the scope of what counted as an active regional trade agreement, a question that turned out to be more contested than it first appeared.

He initially pulled data from the World Trade Organization database and quoted approximately 370 active regional trade agreements. During the review process, a question arose about whether agreements still under negotiation should be included alongside those already in force. He updated the number to reflect the broader count.

After further reflection, Saket went back to the original framing. The report was studying why existing agreements were underutilized, which meant the relevant population was agreements already in force, not those still being negotiated. Including in-progress agreements would have distorted the denominator and weakened the analysis.

He grounded his position by cross-referencing how other credible researchers had approached the same question, including a published PwC paper on FTA underutilization that used the same in-force definition. That external validation gave him the confidence to push back a second time and revert to his original methodology. The report was published with the correct frame intact.