Studies have examined why countries have diverted their negotiating energies into RTAs or FTAs. The reasons include the slow progress of the WTO talks, snowballing and domino effects as a result of which countries do not want to be left behind and political and strategic reasons. A principal reason for the proliferation of FTAs is the increasing perception that these arrangements promote trade liberalisation among the negotiating partner countries. According to Pal (2008), a developing country is motivated to enter into an FTA with a developed country if its competitors can supply goods to the developed country through a preferential trade agreement. If the developing country cannot form an FTA with the developed country, it attempts to create its own market by signing an RTA with other excluded members. This creates a bandwagon effect where no country wants to be left out of major regional groupings. There has also been a surge in investment agreements due to the WTO’s failure to agree on direct investment issues; several nations have entered in Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) or Bilateral investment Promotion Agreements (BIPAs).