The Relationship between Liberalisation in the Logistics Sector and Trade Facilitation

This study demonstrates that the improvement of the performance of logistics services through domestic liberalisation may generate a virtuour cycle, whereby international trade is increased and the this, in turn, may increase the deman for logistics services.Liberalisation, Logistics Sector, Trade Facilitation

A Comparative Analysis of Trade Facilitation in Selected Regional and Bilateral Trade Agreement

This study compared the treatment of trade facilitation in four selected regional trade agreements, AFTA, APEC, SAFRA and PACER, and in one bilateral free trade agreement being the Australia-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (ASFTA), with a view to determining model trade facilitation principles and measures which may be instructive for developing country negotiations and policy makers.Liberalisation, Logistics Sector, Trade Facilitation, AFTA, APEC, SAFTA, PACER, ASFTA

The Road Ahead for the U.S. Auto Industry

[Excerpt] In 2004, U.S. light vehicle sales were up slightly, reversing a moderate slide that began in 2001. The 1.3 percent gain brought the market total to 16.8 million units, approximately the same level as 2002, and the fourth highest sales on record. The trend, which began in 2001 of offering low or no cost financing along with high rebates has cast a cloud over the otherwise sunny sales outcome for the year. American consumers have continued the long-term shift towards a preference for light trucks over passenger cars. Trucks passed cars in 2001, hitting over half the market for the first time that year. In 2004, light trucks accounted for over 55 percent of the U.S. passenger vehicle market. Light truck sales reached 9.3 million units, up 3.6 percent over 2003. Passenger car sales were down 1.4 percent compared to 2003, reaching only 7.5 million units

McGovern, International Trade Regulation

International Trade Regulation is a work with many strengths and few weaknesses. One could nitpick about certain aspects of its organization, but basically the organization is sufficiently logical overall that the book could be read cover to cover and be a coherent introduction to the subject of international trade regulation for a novice in the field. At the same time, within each section, the exposition of the basic international rules, followed by a discussion of the related United States and EEC rules, works well

Digitalization of International Trade

The question this article addresses is how the WTO supports and deals with digital trade. The article then analyzes how existing WTO agreements have dealt with digital trade. The article also addresses recent trade agreements particularly the USMCA

The International Trade Network

Bilateral trade relationships in the international level between pairs of countries in the world give rise to the notion of the International Trade Network (ITN). This network has attracted the attention of network researchers as it serves as an excellent example of the weighted networks, the link weight being defined as a measure of the volume of trade between two countries. In this paper we analyzed the international trade data for 53 years and studied in detail the variations of different network related quantities associated with the ITN. Our observation is that the ITN has also a scale invariant structure like many other real-world networks.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

International Trade and Inequality

The impact of globalization on equality has become a serious concern for many countries. More evidence that challenges the theoretical prediction of positive impact of international trade on income distribution has increasingly become available recently. This paper addresses this subject, surveying the empirical findings on the impact of international trade on inequalities from various perspectives. The survey reveals that an increase in trade openness by developing countries appears to have contributed to narrowing the development gap vis-à-vis developed countries, while its impacts on income gap between developing countries are not clear. The impacts of increased trade or trade liberalization on within-country inequalities are mixed. In some cases, trade liberalization improved wage-inequality, but in some other cases, the opposite pattern was observed. Similar mixed patterns are found for regional inequalities. These mixed findings are consistent with the fact that theoretical predictions are also mixed. One reason for the mixed findings is the impact of other factors affecting inequalities, including labor market conditions, inflow of capital, and policy reforms. Government needs to implement appropriate policies to deal with the inequalities. Two of the most important are policies to promote human resource development and policies on income redistribution. The former improves quality of labor, with the support from a well-functioning and flexible labor market. The latter covers policies on social safety net or on tax system. The safety net pays some portion of adjustment costs borne by workers who are adversely e tax system (e.g., progressive and inheritance tax) helps distribute income more equally between the rich and the poor

International Trade: Rules of Origin

[Excerpt] Determining the country of origin of a product is important for properly assessing tariffs, enforcing trade remedies (such as anti-dumping and countervailing duties) or quantitative restrictions (tariff quotas), and statistical purposes. Other commercial trade policies are also linked with origin determinations, such as country of origin labeling and government procurement regulations. Rules of origin (ROO), used to determine the country of origin of merchandise entering the U.S. market, can be very simple, noncontroversial tools of international trade as long as all of the parts of a product are manufactured and assembled primarily in one country. However, when a finished product’s component parts originate in many countries, as is often the case in today’s global trading environment, determining origin can be a very complex, sometimes subjective, and time-consuming process. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the agency responsible for determining country of origin using various ROO schemes. Non-preferential rules of origin are used to determine the origin of goods imported from countries with which the United States has most-favored-nation (MFN) status. They are the principal regulatory tools for accurate assessment of tariffs on imports, addressing country of origin labeling issues, qualifying goods for government procurement, and enforcing trade remedy actions and trade sanctions. Preferential rules are used to determine the eligibility of imported goods from certain U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) partners and certain developing country beneficiaries to receive duty-free or reduced tariff benefits under bilateral or regional FTAs, trade preference programs (such as the Generalized System of Preferences), and other special import programs. Preferential rules of origin are specific to each FTA, which means that they vary from agreement to agreement and preference to preference. This report deals with ROO in three parts. First, we describe in more detail the reasons that country of origin rules are important and briefly describe U.S. laws and methods that provide direction in making these determinations. Second, we discuss briefly some of the more controversial issues involving rules of origin, including the apparently subjective nature of some CBP origin determinations, and the effects of the global manufacturing process on ROO. Third, we conclude with some alternatives and options that Congress could consider that might assist in simplifying the process. This report will be updated as events warrant