Mia Mikic

English

Research Papers in Economics

203
Part VII
Research agenda that matters to
developing country policymakers205
Chapter VII
RESEARCH AGENDA THAT MATTERS TO DEVELOPING
COUNTRY POLICYMAKERS:  REPORT FROM
THE POST-DOHA RESEARCH AGENDA
FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WORKSHOP
The Macao Regional Knowledge Hub (MARKHUB) in Support of Sustainable Trade
and Development held its first workshop, entitled “Post-Doha Research Agenda for Developing
Countries”, on 30 and 31 October 2006.  The objective of the workshop was to discuss
current and upcoming research questions on trade policy reforms of importance to developing
countries in the Asia-Pacific region.  The workshop included a presentation of papers and
discussions on the following topics:
• Multilateral governance of global trade;
• Regionalism as a challenge to multilateralism;
• Services liberalization as a development opportunity;
• Non-tariff barriers and the role of WTO in taming them;
• Behind the border measures and their impact on further liberalization; and
• Trade liberalization and poverty reduction.
The workshop concluded with a panel discussion involving Patrick Low, Christopher
Findlay  and  Evan  Due,  and  a  floor  discussion  involving  Simon  Evenett,  Biswajit  Dhar,
Ramesh Sharma, Gloria O. Pasadilla, Mustafizur Rahman, Rajesh Sharma, Andrew Stoler,
Myrna Austria and Florian Alburo.  The discussions dealt with the importance of selecting
research topics and devising analytical frameworks that would produce research relevant
to decision-making by policymakers, and which would contribute to their work on sustainable
trade reforms in developing countries of Asia and the Pacific.
The underlying premise of research under the MARKHUB project is the regional
relevance  of  trade  policy  and  its  applicability  to  current  and  emerging  issues  in  trade
policymaking  in  developing  countries.    The  identification  of  topics  was  driven  by  the
fundamental question of “what information would a contemporary policymaker need when
making decisions and designing policies in the area of international trade”.  The ensuing
discussion resulted in a number of research topics being proposed that would strengthen
policy responses and measures over the short, medium and long term.
In summary, a process of more research-based and informed policymaking would
require, inter alia:206
• Information  on  trade  policymaking  in  other  countries  –  trading  partners,
including processes, key players and stakeholders and their interaction, and
institutional settings;
• Empirical evidence together with analyses of economic and social impacts of
various scenarios of multilateral trade negotiations under the Doha Development
Agenda;
• Empirical evidence together with analyses of the economic and social impacts
of bilateral and regional trade agreements;
• Systematic information on constraints and opportunities for forming regional
horizontal and vertical linkages in the production and supply of manufactures,
particularly in relation to the high economic growth rates of China and India;
• Estimates of the impacts of trade liberalization on the poor, and in particular
the impacts of distributional changes on the various categories of poverty;
• Evidence of the impact of regulatory systems and behind-the-border measures
on economic efficiency.
To provide such inputs into policymaking, research should focus on:  (a) regional
and multilateral trade liberalization; (b) liberalization of services trade and impact of services
on economic reform; (c) non-tariff barriers and behind-the-border barriers; (d) the movement
of people; (e) democratization of trade policy design; and (f) advances in methodology.
(a) Regional and multilateral trade liberalization, including:
• More analytical work, including number crunching, to tackle the impacts
of different types of preferential agreements (e.g., WTO+, WTO-) and
allow  for  a  sound  comparative  analysis  and  derivation  of  policy
recommendations;
• Analytically-friendly databases that would allow some econometric and
quantitative analysis;
• Consideration of the political-economy approach in studying the dynamics
of the negotiating process;
• The study of sectoral agreements at the regional/bilateral level (e.g.,
services, investment and labour mobility), and the possibility of pooling
them into wider and more comprehensive schemes/frameworks;
• Assessment  of  the  extent  to  which  WTO  is  a  viable  instrument  for
further trade liberalization.
(b) Liberalization of services trade and impact of services on economic reform,
including:
• Assessment of the extent to which GATS can induce further liberalization
in services;207
• Subsectoral  studies  (air  transport,  logistics  and  distribution  services,
and mode 4 in relation to poverty;
• Measurement issues and data collection related to services;
• Empirical studies of the links between economic development and service
sector liberalization.
(c) Non-tariff barriers and behind-the-border barriers, including:
• The systematic study of these barriers, including inventories of measures/
barriers;
• The impact of mutual recognition agreements on conformity and trade;
• The identification of lead factors relevant to harmonizing standards.
(d) The movement of people.  This includes:
• The impact of demographic differences in the region on movements of
labour and (regional) management of labour movement;
• The implications of increasing population in urban areas;
• The implications of shifting demography on trade in health and education
services provision (across all GATS modes of delivery).
(e) Democratization of trade policy design.  This includes:
• The role of interest groups and lobbying in policy design, particularly
the  role  of  consumers,  producers,  legislators  (parliamentarians)  and
policymakers as well as their interactions;
• Political economy of trade policy formulation in major economies (including
the United States, the European Union and Japan);
• Institutional settings and economic change;
• The impact of interregional linkages on process and quality of policy
design;
• Assessment of resistance to trade policy reform.
(f) Advances in methodology.  This includes:
• Expanding the measurement limits;
• A more extensive use of case studies that are based on systematically
collected evidence;
• Primary data collection using survey instruments;
• Cost-benefit analysis;
• Estimation of data reliability.208
MARKHUB has own web-page at  http://www.must.edu.mo/markhub hosted on the Macao
University of Science and Technology website.  The web-page provides information on:
• purpose and objectives of MARKHUB;
• list of events such as research workshops or policymakers’ consultations;
• publications including the MARKePAPERS – working paper series;
• links helpful to policymakers and researchers alike;
• and contacts for further information both at the local partner – Macao University
of Science and Technology and ESCAP. 
P.S.

FUTURE TRADE RESEARCH AREAS THAT MATTER TO DEVELOPING COUNTRY POLICYMAKERS

http://www.unescap.org/tid/publication/tipub2467_part7.pdf

FUTURE TRADE RESEARCH AREAS THAT MATTER TO DEVELOPING COUNTRY POLICYMAKERS

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Research Papers in Economics