The study looked at how regional trade agreements affect trade costs in services industries. They analyzed data on trade costs and services commitments in trade agreements for 61 countries from 2000 to 2011. Despite the increase in services agreements, countries that signed them did not have significantly lower trade costs. This could be because it's hard to measure all types of services trade, it's tricky to tell domestic and foreign service providers apart, and these agreements may not actually give preferences to companies in partner countries. Overall, regional trade agreements in services don't seem to lead to trade preferences.