Trade And Structural Adjustment Policies In Selected Developing Countries

The experience of the five examined industries (agro-food in Chile, cut flowers in Kenya,garment in Lesotho and in Mauritius and seafood in Thailand) demonstrates that non-traditional industries can emerge and achieved strong growth rates in very diverse settings in terms of geography and initial economic and social conditions. In most of these cases, the government adopted a relatively export-oriented, business- friendly attitude and adapted its policies as the industries developed. Hence, a key factor for successful structural adjustment has been the pro-active role of government in establishing an enabling economic and policy environment that allows local firms to operate on a level-playing field and strengthen their competitive edge in international markets. This highlights the importance of implementing trade policies in the framework of comprehensive development strategies and establishing a consultative national policy-making process for ensuring a coherent approach to trade and structural adjustment. The case studies also underscore that countries (government and industry) are compelled to constantly adapt in light of new sources of competition, growing wage levels, environmental constraints, technological advances and demanding product and process standards. Policy-makers in most countries under review are aware of this challenge. As a consequence, some of them have taken the initiative to set up specific mechanisms or programmes for further enhancing the competitiveness of existing export sectors and/or promoting emerging non-traditional export industries.Trade and structural adjustment, export diversification, trade capacity building

A privatização no Brasil: o caso dos serviços de utilidade pública

Inclui bibliografiasEste livro colige os artigos elaborados para o seminário sobre o tema, promovido pelo BNDES e pelo Centro de Desenvolvimento da OCDE, realizado em abril de 1999, no Rio de Janeir

Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries: Does It Help Those Who Help Themselves

This paper reviews main S&D provisions for developing countries under the GATT-WTO trading system and discusses issues relating to the future of S&D treatment from the perspective of the least-developed countries (LDCs). It argues that negotiations on S&D provisions in the next trade round must take the question of trade capacity building seriously. This would require WTO Members to make binding commitments to meeting the special need of LDCs in terms of market access and technical assistance. Despite design flaws and deficiencies involved in various S&D provisions under the WTO Agreements, there is little reason to believe that the move back to the past approach to S&D treatment would be desirable for LDCs

Economic Regionalisation and Intra-Industry Trade: Pacific-Asian Perspectives

The present paper examines the trade development of Pacific-Asian economies during the past decade from the perspective of regional integration. Its main focus is on the development of intra-regional and intra-industry trade. It provides some statistical evidence for the often-heard argument that the remarkable development of Pacific-Asian trade in the 1980s should be seen as a case for the "flying-geese" pattern of trade development, which is basically of inter-industry type. It argues, however, that developments since the mid-1980s have provided a new dimension to the regional division of labour — increasing the opportunities for intra-industry trade (IIT) among the Pacific-Asian economies. The empirical analysis based on the Grubel-Lloyd index of IIT in manufactures suggests that large increases in the level of IIT in the developing economies of the region is a consequence of "globalisation" of corporate activities in the United States and, more recently, in Japan and the ... Cette étude examine le développement des échanges dans les économies du Pacifique asiatique, dans une perspective d'intégration régionale, au cours des dix dernières années. L'aspect intra-régional et intra-industriel du développement des échanges constitue le thème principal de l'étude. Elle fournit certaines preuves statistiques qui accréditent l'image souvent évoquée à propos du surprenant développement des échanges dans la région du Pacifique asiatique pendant les années 80, image d'un schéma de développement dit "vol d'oies sauvages" et qui est, en fait, un développement de type inter-industriel. L'étude soutient cependant que depuis la seconde moitié des années 80, ces développements ont apporté un nouveau regard sur la répartition de la main- d'oeuvre, augmentant ainsi les opportunités pour les échanges intra-industriels (EII) dans les économies du Pacifique asiatique. L'analyse empirique, basée sur l'indice de Grubel-Lloyd pour les produits manufacturés, indique que ...