Encouraging the employment of refugees through trade preferences

Trade preferences provide a potential policy tool for supporting the integration of refugees in countries of first asylum. Thus, the EU-Jordan Compact, agreed following the London conference of February 2016 on ‘Supporting Syria and the Region’, eased the rules of origin for Jordanian exporters employing a minimum share of Syrian refugees. The debate on the use of trade preferences to encourage the labour-market integration of refugees has been reactivated by a similar proposal made recently by Turkey in the WTO context. The experience with the Qualifying Industrial Zones initiative, launched in 1996 by the US for Egypt and Jordan, suggests that trade preferences, if properly designed, can be a powerful instrument for generating export growth and employment. However, both this experience and the so far disappointing impact of the EU-Jordan agreement on rules of origin show the limits and drawbacks of this type of scheme. This Policy Brief discusses the conditions under which trade preferences can prove an effective instrument for refugee integration and puts forward some concrete policy recommendations

Latin America's integration processes in the light of the EU's experience with EMU

The paper assesses the advisability of subregional monetary integration in Latin America by looking at EU experience with EMU and by applying the theory of optimum currency areas as well as other criteria proposed by the more recent literature. It also discusses the extent to which EU fiscal policy architecture could be recreated in Latin America.monetary integration, optimum currency areas, Latin America, dollarisation, exchange rates, fiscal policy coordination, Temprano Arroyo

Implications of EMU for Global Macroeconomic and Financial Stability

The paper examines the implications of EMU for world macroeconomic and financial stability, distinguishing EMU effects from other global factors at work. It concludes that EMU is having on the whole stabilising effects on the world economy, particularly in neighbouring regions.EMU, macroeconomic volatility, euro, international monetary system, implications of EMU for world macroeconomic and financial stability, Economic Papers, D�hring,

Using EU aid to address the root causes of migration and refugee flows

The book looks at the potential use of the EU's external financial instruments to address the root causes of migration and refugee inflows. After providing an updated survey of the literature on aid and migration and looking at the actual responsiveness of EU aid to migration and refugee pressures, the book takes stock of the different financial instruments the EU has at its disposal, including new facilities such as the trust funds for Africa and for the Syrian refugee crisis, the Facility for Refugees in Turkey and the EU's External Investment Plan. It also looks at the relevance of climate finance for developing countries as an instrument to ease forced displacement and at the role of migrant remittances, which although not an official flow, are four times larger than ODA and can be influenced by public policy. The last part of the study discusses whether aid effectiveness can be strengthened through bilateral cooperation with recipient countries in the context of migration or refugee compacts. This sets the scene for assessing the design and results obtained by the EU through a number of such cooperation agreements, notably the EU-Jordan Compact, the EU-Turkey Statement and the new Partnership Framework with Third Countries on Migration.-- List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction; 2. Can aid work? A fresh look at the academic debate; 3. Is EU ODA responding to the migration challenge?; 4. The EU’s new trust funds and facilities for refugees; 5. Other external financial instruments of the EU; 6. The new multilateral facilities for refugees; 7. The relevance of climate change finance; 8. The role of remittances; 9. Increasing aid effectiveness through compacts; 10. Conclusions and policy recommendations; -- References; -- Annexe

The Evolution of Economic Governance in EMU

This paper examines the benefits of co-ordination in EMU in a stylised manner and how these benefits have shaped the co-ordination framework in EMU. It then discusses in detail the co-ordination experience in four areas that are particularly important for the functioning of EMU: (i) fiscal policy co-ordination under the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP); (ii) the co-ordination of structural policies under the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs; (iii) the representation and co-ordination of euro-area positions in international financial fora; and (iv) the co-ordination of macroeconomic statistics. The thrust of the findings is that EMU's system of economic governance has, overall, proven fit for purpose. The current policy assignment to the institutions and instruments that govern the conduct of economic policy in EMU is sound, even though further progress is necessary in several areas, particularly as regards external representation.Governance, EMU, euro area, co-ordination, van den Noord, D�hring, Langedijk, Nogueira-Martins,Pench, Temprano-Arroyo, Thiel

Integración monetaria: experiencia europea y perspectivas para Latinoamérica

Este trabajo examina la conveniencia de la integración monetaria regional en América Latina a partir de la experiencia de la Unión Monetaria Europea, y mediante la aplicación de la teoría de las áreas monetarias óptimas y otros criterios propuestos por la literatura económica más reciente. El análisis sugiere que, con la posible excepción de la zona del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, ninguna de las regiones examinadas reúne aún las condiciones para proceder a la integración monetaria ya que se ven sometidas a frecuentes perturbaciones asimétricas y, excepto en el caso de los países del TLC de América del Norte, presentan un grado de integración comercial y financiera y de convergencia macroeconómica insuficiente. No obstante, la ampliación del análisis a otros factores afecta en cierta medida a las conclusiones, en particular en lo que se refiere a la idoneidad de una integración monetaria en Centroamérica basada en el dóla

Promoting labour market integration of refugees with trade preferences : beyond the EU-Jordan Compact

Trade preferences provide a potential policy tool for supporting refugee employment in countries of first asylum. Thus, in the context of the EU-Jordan Compact agreed in 2016, the EU eased the rules of origin for Jordanian exporters employing a minimum share of Syrian refugees. The use of trade preferences to encourage the labour market integration of refugees is consistent with the new, developmental approach to refugee protection advocated by the recent literature and enshrined in the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework adopted by the UN in 2016. The paper looks at the so-far disappointing impact of the EU-Jordan agreement on rules of origin, as well as the experience with two relevant U.S. preferential programmes (the Qualified Industrial Zones initiative for Egypt and Jordan and the African Growth and Opportunity Act) that have generated substantial export growth and employment. It then discusses the conditions under which trade preferences can prove an effective instrument for refugee integration and makes some concrete policy recommendation

Selected Transition and Mediterranean Countries

Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has a number of institutional implications for the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe and selected Mediterranean countries that aspire to join the European Union (EU). After describing the current institutional framework for their relations with the EU, the paper examines two basic categories of institutional effects: those stemming from the need to satisfy the Maastricht convergence criteria before joining the euro area, and those stemming from the need to adopt the EU’s institutional and legal provisions in the area of EMU.

Impact of EMU on Selected Non-European Union Countries

In the Summer of 1998, the Executive Board discussed a set of three papers prepared by the staff that focused on the likey impact of EMU on selected non-EU countries. In recognition of the contribution these papers could make to the literature and discussion of EMU, the Board requested that this collection of papers be published. This Occasional Paper presents the three papers in one volume Chapter 1 provides an analysis of the likely impact of EMU on three regions: Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and the African CFA zone. Chapter 2 focuses on the trade and financial effects of EMU on selected transition and Mediterranean countries. And Chapter 3 considers the possible implications of EMU for the Middle East and North Africa region.