Liberalizing trade in agriculture : developing countries in Asia and the post-Doha agenda

The author provides an overview and data relevant to the interests of developing countries as they engage in continuing agricultural trade negotiations set forth in the World Trade Organization Ministerial held in Doha, Qatar in November 2001. He examines country performance in agricultural trade, income levels, and population characteristics, with a focus on developing country members of the Asian Development Bank. The author concludes that trends in agricultural trade in the past 10 years are quite heterogeneous across developing regions. Shares of agriculture in GDP are still high in the East Asia and Pacific and South Asia regions. Moreover, data indicate that trade reform in export partners, particularly OECD countries, will affect a significant share of the population in these developing countries, resulting in rural poverty alleviation. Trade liberalization is expected to benefit net exporter countries, particularly those that are highly open to trade. What is also important, but often neglected, is a country's pattern of specialization between domestic supply and exports. The impact of trade reform through the WTO negotiations, particularly reforms undertaken in exporting partners can therefore have important implications in the post-Doha development agenda.Trade Policy,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Research,Economic Theory&Research,Rules of Origin,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Trade Policy,Agricultural Research

Trade facilitation in ASEAN member countries : measuring progress and assessing priorities

This paper reviews recent progress and indicators of trade facilitation in member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The findings show that import and export costs vary considerably in the member countries, from very low to moderately high levels. Tariff and non-tariff barriers are generally low to moderate. Infrastructure quality and services sector competitiveness range from fair to excellent. Using a standard gravity model, the authors find that trade flows in Southeast Asia are particularly sensitive to transport infrastructure and information and communications technology. The results suggest that the region stands to make significant economic gains from trade facilitation reform. These gains could be considerably larger than those from comparable tariff reforms. Estimates suggest that improving port facilities in the region, for example, could expand trade by up to 7.5 percent or $22 billion. The authors interpret this as an indication of the vital role that transport infrastructure can play in enhancing intra-regional trade.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Free Trade,Economic Theory&Research,Trade Policy,Common Carriers Industry

Governance, corruption, and trade in the Asia Pacific region

This paper examines the impact of reducing corruption and improving transparency to lower trade costs in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation region. The authors find, based on a computable general equilibrium model, significant potential trade and welfare gains for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation members, with increased transparency and lower levels of corruption. Results suggest that trade in the region would increase by 11 percent and global welfare would expand by $406 billion by raising transparency to the average in the region. Most of the increase in welfare would take place in member economies undertaking reform. Among the reformers, the gross domestic product of Vietnam, Thailand, Russia, and the Philippines would increase approximately 20 percent. The benefits to Malaysia and China would also be substantial with increased transparency and lower levels of corruption.Economic Theory&Research,Free Trade,Trade Policy,Emerging Markets,Currencies and Exchange Rates

Global trade and food safety - winners and losers in a fragmented system

Food safety standards, and the tradeoff between these standards, and agricultural export growth, are at the forefront of the trade policy debate. How food safety is addressed in the world trade system, is critical for developing countries that continue to rely on agricultural exports. In a fragmented system of conflicting national food safety standards, and no globally accepted standards, export prospects for the least developed countries, can be severely limited. The authors examine the impact that adopting international food safety standards, and harmonizing standards would have on global food trade patterns. They estimate the effect of aflatoxin standards in fifteen importing countries (including four developing countries) on exports from thirty one countries (twenty one of them developing). Aflatoxin is a natural substance that can contaminate certain nuts, and grains when storage, and drying facilities are inadequate. The analysis shows that adopting a worldwide standard for aflatoxin B1 (potentially the most toxic of aflatoxins) based on current international guidelines, would increase nut, and cereal trade among the countries studied, by $6.1 billion, compared with 1998 levels. This harmonization of standards would increase world exports by$ 38.8 billion.Food&Beverage Industry,Health Economics&Finance,Labor Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Health Economics&Finance,Food&Beverage Industry,Economic Theory&Research

Aid for trade : building on progress today for tomorrow's future

Since 2005, donors and development agencies have increased the overall value of aid for trade and put in place several mechanisms to channel such aid and to ensure that it targets national priorities. This paper reviews recent trends in the allocation of aid for trade and analyses of its effectiveness. It identifies a number of opportunities for concerted action to enhance the impact of aid for trade initiatives, including greater involvement by middle-income countries in the initiative (through improved market access, investment flows, and knowledge transfers); deeper engagement with the private sector -- a key source of information on what works and what does not; a stronger focus on improving the"behind the border"policies that affect the efficiency of key services sectors and help determine firm-level competitiveness; and a stronger focus on monitoring and evaluation of results.Economic Theory&Research,Emerging Markets,Free Trade,Trade Policy,Trade Law

Regional integration in South Asia : what role for trade facilitation ?

The trade performance of countries in South Asia over the past two decades has been poor relative to other regions. Exports from South Asia have doubled over the past 20 years to approximately USD 100 billion. In contrast, East Asia's exports grew ten times over the same period. The low level of intraregional trade has contributed to weak export performance in South Asia. The empirical analysis in this paper demonstrates gains to trade in the region from reform and capacity building in trade facilitation at the regional level. When considering intraregional trade, if countries in South Asia raise capacity halfway to East Asia's average, trade is estimated to rise by USD 2.6 billion. This is approximately 60 percent of the total intraregional trade in South Asia. Countries in the region also have a stake in the success of efforts to promote capacity building outside its borders. If South Asia and the rest of the world were to raise their levels of trade facilitation halfway to the East Asian average, the gains to the region would be estimated at USD 36 billion. Out of those gains, about 87 percent of the total would be generated from South Asia's own efforts (leaving the rest of the world unchanged). In summary, we find that the South Asian region's expansion of trade can be substantially advanced with programs of concrete action to address barriers to trade facilitation to advance regional goals.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Transport and Trade Logistics,Common Carriers Industry,Trade Policy,Free Trade

Weathering the storm : investing in port infrastructure to lower trade costs in East Asia

The world economic crisis of 2008 presents clear challenges to prospects for economic growth in developing countries. This is particularly true for emerging economies in East Asia that have relied to a great extent over the past decade on export-led growth. What steps to facilitate trade promise a relatively strong return on investment for East Asia to help sustain trade and growth? The authors examine how port infrastructure affects trade and the role of transport costs in driving exports and imports for the region. They find that port congestion has significantly increased the transport costs to East Asia from both of the United States and Japan. The analysis suggests that cutting port congestion by 10 percent could cut transport costs in East Asia by up to 3 percent. This translates into a 0.3 to 0.5 percent across-the-board tariff cut. In addition, the estimates suggest that the trade cost reduction of investment in port infrastructure in East Asia that translates into higher consumer welfare would far outweigh the cost for physical expansion of the ports in the region.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Common Carriers Industry,Transport and Trade Logistics,Economic Theory&Research,Ports&Waterways

Foreign aid and business bottlenecks : a study of aid effectiveness

This paper proposes a new framework to analyze aid effectiveness. Using World Bank firm survey data and OECD aid flow data, the authors analyze whether aid targets areas that firms in developing countries have identified as obstacles for their growth and whether aid actually improves firms'perceptions of those areas. The analysis finds that aid does target the areas that firms have identified as obstacles; aid funding trade related projects is particularly effective in targeting the correct countries. For the most part, aid has a positive impact on improving firms'perceptions, particularly in the business environment. And for each target area, smaller aid disbursements tend to be more effective at improving firm perceptions than larger disbursements.Environmental Economics&Policies,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness,Disability,Gender and Health,School Health

Trade Facilitation and Expanding the Benefits of Trade: Evidence from Firm Leval Data

Existing empirical studies on trade costs and trade facilitation largely focus on aggregate impacts of reform due to data availability. We take a step toward filling in this gap in literature. Using the World Bank Enterprises Surveys, the study extends the scope of empirical literature to firm dimension with a focus on SMEs.Trade Facilitation, Expanding the Benefits of Trade