Special Economic Zones and WTO Compliance: Evidence from the Dominican Republic

Special economic zones (SEZ), one of the most important instruments of industrial policy used in developing countries, often impose export share requirements (ESR). That is, firms located in SEZ are required to export more than a certain share of their output to enjoy a wide array of incentives -apractice prohibited by the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. In this paper we exploit the staggered removal of ESR across products and over time in the SEZ of the Dominican Republic -a reform driven by external commitments to comply with WTO disciplines on subsidies- to evaluate how ESR effect export performance at the product- and firm-level. Using customs data on international trade transactions from the period 2006 to 2014, we find that making the Dominican SEZ regime WTO-compliant made SEZ more attractive locations for exporters to be based in. The reform, however, did not have a significant effect on the country's exports nor on the share of export value originating from SEZ

Producer services and trade liberalization

Trade liberalization and recent advances in communication and information technologies increasingly permit the trade of producer services across borders. This entry discusses research on the nature and importance of such trade, and on the consequences of services trade liberalization. Trade in producer services now accounts for close to 70% of services trade and 14% of total world trade. Services trade liberalization has figured prominently in multilateral negotiations in the World Trade Organization and in many regional trade agreements. Progress in liberalizing services trade has been slow, however, and has been achieved mainly via unilateral initiatives. As a consequence, important barriers remain across many countries and types of services. This is despite the fact that a small but growing body of research has shown that trade liberalization in producer services can have substantial positive economic effects

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Descripción: Los países exportadores de productos agrícolas se enfrentan con limitantes de acceso a los mercados internacionales debido a las dificultades para cumplir con las regulaciones vinculadas con los límites máximos de residuos de plaguicidas químicos. Para ello, este proyecto se enfoca en desarrollar investigación y herramientas de extensión y capacitación para encontrar alternativas biológicas complementarias en el control de plagas para poder mantenerse en los mercados de exportación. Así mismo, esta iniciativa es el tercer capítulo de un proyecto global que inició en Asia y África, el cual se implementará en 11 países de América Latina y trabajará con el sector oficial, privado y la academia como estrategia interinstitucional. Objetivo General: Promover el uso de bioplaguicidas y otras opciones de manejo integrado de plagas en cultivos de exportación de América Latina y el Caribe, para mejorar el cumplimiento de los límites máximos de residuos de plaguicidas y así facilitar el comercio agrícola

Are non-tariff measures a substitute for tariffs in agricultural trade? Recent evidence from southern Mediterranean countries

[EN] The significance of and interest in non-tariff measures (NTMs) have increased as a consequence of the reduction in agricultural tariffs. This paper analyses the relationship between NTMs and tariffs in southern Mediterranean countries (SMCs) through two complementary analyses. First, the authors construct a taxonomy of protection for products, distinguishing between high protection, transparent protection, low protection and disguised protection. The low protection category is most widely represented, and the disguised protection category is also important. Second, the policy substitution hypothesis between tariff and non-tariff protection is tested. This hypothesis appears in the literature as the possibility that countries implement NTMs for protection purposes, as a result of the progressive reduction in the tariffs levied. Policy substitution is found in some SMCs, which is consistent with an upward trend of non-tariff protection as tariff liberalization progresses in the region.The authors are grateful for support from the European Commission through FP7 'Sustainable agri-food systems and rural development in the Mediterranean Partner Countries' (SUSTAINMED, FP7-KBBE-2009-3-245233), and from the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (PAID-06-12).Tudela Marco, L.; García Alvarez-Coque, JM.; Martinez Gómez, VD. (2014). Are non-tariff measures a substitute for tariffs in agricultural trade? Recent evidence from southern Mediterranean countries. Outlook On Agriculture. 43(4):235-240. https://doi.org/10.5367/oa.2014.0187S23524043

Associating Turkey with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: A costly (re‐) engagement?

Policy debate on the implications of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) for Turkey has focused almost exclusively on “how” Turkey can/will take part in a forthcoming transatlantic deal. Turkey's association with a TTIP has largely been conceived as an inevitable and beneficial policy choice to re‐engage Ankara with the Atlantic alliance and emerging transatlantic trade framework. The arguments for extending TTIP to Turkey have mostly been built upon a conventional understanding of preferential trade agreements. The debate has not provided a comprehensive assessment of costs and benefits for Turkey's exclusion from or joining TTIP as it dismissed multiple dimensions of the “deep integration” agenda which underpinned the transatlantic talks. This paper intends to contribute to the “why” debate with a thorough analysis of critical issues on the transatlantic agenda by evaluating economic and policy implications of TTIP both for exclusion and association scenarios together with associated compliance and adjustment costs

Growth in Environmental Footprints and Environmental Impacts Embodied in Trade: Resource Efficiency Indicators from EXIOBASE3

Most countries show a relative decoupling of economic growth from domestic resource use, implying increased resource efficiency. However, international trade facilitates the exchange of products between regions with disparate resource productivity. Hence, for an understanding of resource efficiency from a consumption perspective that takes into account the impacts in the upstream supply chains, there is a need to assess the environmental pressures embodied in trade. We use EXIOBASE3, a new multiregional input-output database, to examine the rate of increase in resource efficiency, and investigate the ways in which international trade contributes to the displacement of pressures on the environment from the consumption of a population. We look at the environmental pressures of energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, material use, water use, and land use. Material use stands out as the only indicator growing in both absolute and relative terms to population and gross domestic product (GDP), while land use is the only indicator showing absolute decoupling from both references. Energy, GHG, and water use show relative decoupling. As a percentage of total global environmental pressure, we calculate the net impact displaced through trade rising from 23% to 32% for material use (1995¿2011), 23% to 26% for water use, 20% to 29% for energy use, 20% to 26% for land use, and 19% to 24% for GHG emissions. The results show a substantial disparity between trade-related impacts for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries. At the product group level, we observe the most rapid growth in environmental footprints in clothing and footwear. The analysis points to implications for future policies aiming to achieve environmental targets, while fully considering potential displacement effects through international trade

Shaping our future: animal health in a global trading environment

Ireland is currently experiencing both the positive and negative effects of global trade in agricultural products. With increasing global competition, there is little doubt that Irish agricultural product must increasingly compete on the basis of quality, rather than price

Some Bad News is Good News for Foreign Investors: The Case of Intellectual Property Rights Infringement in China

Despite China's attractiveness to foreign investors, intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in China has not caught up with international standards. This research aims to quantify the relationships between IPR violations, government effectiveness, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the context of China. Our econometric modeling and estimation based on provincial level data over 2002‐2012 show that in an early development stage of law and regulatory enforcement, the bad news of a rising number of IPR dispute cases signals the good news of an improvement in law and regulatory enforcement, which encourages IPR owners to raise legal cases. By contrast, in the later development stage, when law and regulatory enforcement has become much more effective, the bad news of a rising number of IPR disputes manifests itself as very bad news. Furthermore, this study confirms that FDI inflows enhance IPR protection through improving government effectiveness, and government effectiveness is one of the key factors promoting FDIs

Lewis revisited : tropical polities competing on the world market 1830-1938

Since the seminal work by W.A. Lewis, exports of primary products have been deemed the main or sole source of growth in tropical countries before the Great Depression. This conventional wisdom, however, relies on very limited evidence. This paper analyses the growth of exports with a constant market share analysis for 84 tropical polities. Exports grew a lot, but less than total trade, while relative prices of tropical products remained roughly constant. We thus tentatively infer that the decline in the tropical shares on world trade reflects an insufficient demand for tropical products. Asia mastered well these headwinds throughout the whole period, while African polities blossomed after World War One. The loser was (South) America, and most notably the Caribbean former slave colonies especially before 1870