Economic research and trade policy analysis
Recent Trends in Global Value Chains
The last few years have been challenging for globalization. While the world has benefited from the fragmented networks of production-sharing known as global value chains (GVCs) concerns are being raised over their risks. Chapter 1 of the Global Value Chain Development Report 2019 pointed to a rise in protectionism in general and a brewing trade conflict between the United States (US) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in particular. More obstacles have since emerged from the sudden and simultaneous closure of borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic that exposed vulnerabilities in some supply chains rattling policymakers (Chapter 5). Despite these challenges GVCs—for supporters and detractors alike—remain a reality that cannot be ignored. Indeed the very vaccines crucial to ending the COVID-19 pandemic rely on multinational partnerships for the over 200 components that go into them (Irwin 2021).
Resumen
El Informe del Comercio Mundial 2006 comienza con un breve resumen de las tendencias más destacadas del comercio internacional basado en un Informe anterior de la Secretaría publicado en el mes de abril. También ofrecemos breves comentarios analíticos sobre algunas cuestiones comerciales de actualidad que este año se refieren a las recientes tendencias en el comercio de los textiles y el vestido un examen de la evolución de los pagos internacionales de regalías y derechos la evolución del comercio de los países menos adelantados y un análisis de los efectos de los desastres naturales y los actos de terrorismo sobre las corrientes comerciales internacionales. El tema básico del análisis que se aborda en el Informe del Comercio Mundial 2006 es el de las subvenciones. En el Informe se examina esta esfera de políticas y se estudia la manera en que se definen las subvenciones qué es lo que puede decir la teoría económica acerca de ellas por qué los gobiernos las utilizan cuáles son los principales sectores en los que se aplican las subvenciones y la función del Acuerdo sobre la OMC en la regulación de las subvenciones en el contexto del comercio internacional.
Multilateralizing regionalism: Lessons from the EU experience in relaxing rules of origin
Over the last fifteen years or so the world trading system has witnessed the dramatic emergence and rise of regional or preferential trading agreements (RTAs/PTAs). This appears to be a significant shift away from the principle of multilateralism that the world trading system has been built around since the Second World War. There are a number of posited reasons for this emergence of regionalism which between them suggest that liberalizing trade regionally rather than multilaterally may be easier to achieve and that regional agreements may be able to ‘reach the parts that multilateralism cannot reach’ – i.e. that they might be able to go significantly further in key policy areas.
What do we know about skills and trade?
The level of skills of a country’s workforce can influence its comparative advantage. One theory of comparative advantage predicts that countries endowed with more skilled labour would be likely to specialize in the production and export of relatively more skill-intensive products. The dispersion of skill levels also affects countries’ comparative advantage.
South Africa
Trade policy-making is a complex affair. In all countries a host of factors influence the outcome with the mix varying according to domestic circumstances and the relationship of the country concerned with the global economy. As the introductory chapter of this book attests strictly state-centric explanations regarding how trade policy decisions are made are no longer sufficient in a world where international trade negotiations increasingly impinge on domestic policies. Therefore a nuanced understanding of how trade policy is made is required and must interrogate the roles of non-state actors (NSAs) institutions and ideas and their interactions with each other in shaping preferences and policy.
Conclusion
Ce rapport se proposait de couvrir un vaste domaine. Le résumé analytique sur lequel il s’ouvre expose les grandes lignes des principaux secteurs abordés et les observations essentielles faites sur chacun d’eux. Un document de ce type est en soi un résumé de questions complexes et doit s’appuyer largement sur d’autres travaux analytiques plus approfondis auxquels il a été fait référence dans le corps du texte. Beaucoup des questions évoquées ici sont des «cibles mouvantes» en particulier lorsqu’elles concernent des domaines où les Membres de l’OMC font en permanence des choix stratégiques qui influent sur les résultats des discussions et sont activement engagés dans une négociation commerciale d’envergure.
¿Pueden las cadenas de bloques revolucionar el comercio internacional?
Son muchos los titulares en los que se sostiene que la cadena de bloques puede revolucionar diversas esferas del comercio internacional desde la financiación del comercio hasta los procedimientos aduaneros y la propiedad intelectual. El carácter transparente descentralizado e inalterable de la cadena de bloques ha despertado el interés de los agentes privados -y de los Gobiernos- en explorar las posibilidades que ofrece esta tecnología para mejorar la eficiencia de los procesos comerciales por lo que ya se han realizado multitud de estudios de viabilidad y proyectos piloto utilizando la cadena de bloques en prácticamente todos los ámbitos del comercio internacional.
The ITA and the international digital economy
Over the past 20 years the ITA has led to the wider use of new technology by cutting the costs of key ICT goods. The ITA expansion further opens up trade on 201 new-generation IT products and technology.
One-page case summaries
A one-page case summary is devoted to each of the 316 GATT disputes identified by this publication.
¿Cómo prepararse para la transformación del comercio asociada a la tecnología?
En la presente sección examinamos cómo puede la cooperación comercial internacional ayudar a los Gobiernos de todo el mundo a aprovechar las tecnologías digitales y las nuevas oportunidades comerciales que estas generarán tanto para las empresas grandes como para las pequeñas. En la sección D.1 se resumen las principales oportunidades y retos asociados a la expansión del comercio electrónico. En la sección D.2 se ofrecen ejemplos de políticas que aplican los Gobiernos para explotar esas oportunidades y abordar esos retos. Por último en la sección D.3 se analiza en qué medida (y de qué manera) puede la cooperación internacional ayudar a los Gobiernos a explotar los beneficios derivados del comercio electrónico y a afrontar los retos sin renunciar al logro de sus objetivos de política pública actuales y futuros.
Aid for Trade and export diversification: The case of Barbados
Although Morocco is one of the main beneficiaries of Aid for Trade (AFT) – the first in the Maghreb and among the top ten in the world – researchers and national academic experts have not shown much interest in it.
Acknowledgements
The editors would like to extend their thanks to the participants of the ILO/WTO workshop on research in global trade and employment in Geneva October 2009 for contributing to shaping this project and to the four anonymous referees for their helpful comments. Thanks also go to David Cheong for his editorial and research assistance.
Post-Accession Support Platform
WTO obligations including notification requirements and specific accession commitments are complex. Most of them become effective from the date of WTO membership. From a centralized accession process new members now suddenly have to adapt to a decentralized WTO procedures and participate in parallel in its multiple bodies. The twenty years of post-accession experience of Article XII members suggests that many especially least-developed countries (LDCs) have faced major implementation challenges until a system of post-accession support was introduced recently. This chapter reviews the Post-Accession Support Platform (PASP) a framework developed by the WTO Secretariat to facilitate the transition from acceding economy to full-fledged WTO member. The PASP offers individual post-accession implementation strategies technical assistance and capacity-building best international practices a dedicated website and internal Secretariat procedures that can be used to support new WTO members. The chapter reviews the use of the PASP by two recently acceded LDCs – Afghanistan and Liberia – and finds early signs of improved effectiveness in the WTO post-accession transition process.
Multilateralizing Regionalism
Regional trade agreements (RTAs) have proliferated around the world in the past two decades and now virtually all the members of the WTO are party to at least one. Besides tariffs and rules of origin regulating trade in goods many RTAs now include provisions on services investment technical barriers to trade and competition rules as well as a host of issues not directly related to trade. The geograph-ical reach of RTAs is expanding with transcontinental agreements spreading forcefully alongside intraregional agreements.
Appendice statistique
La définition des ressources naturelles donnée dans la sous-section 1 est suffisante pour bon nombre d’analyses mais une définition statistique plus précise est nécessaire pour traiter de façon cohérente les données sur les flux commerciaux analysées dans la sous-section 2. Dans le cas des produits non exportés une conception plus large des ressources naturelles est nécessaire. Cet appendice donne des précisions sur les différentes définitions possibles des ressources naturelles puis présente des tableaux récapitulatifs du commerce par pays ainsi que des cartes illustrant divers aspects de l’offre et du commerce des ressources naturelles.
Conclusions
Dans le présent Rapport nous avons examiné quatre questions fondamentales relatives au commerce des ressources naturelles. Nous avons d’abord étudié comment les principales caractéristiques économiques des ressources naturelles et la manière dont elles sont échangées influent sur la structure du commerce des produits de cette catégorie. Nous avons ensuite examiné dans quelle mesure l’absence d’obstacles au commerce est un moyen efficace d’assurer l’accès aux ressources naturelles et leur durabilité à long terme. Puis nous avons analysé les incitations qui s’offrent aux gouvernements dans l’élaboration de la politique commerciale dans le secteur des ressources naturelles et les conséquences de ces incitations. Enfin nous nous sommes demandés comment la coopération internationale influe sur la gestion du commerce des ressources naturelles en mettant plus particulièrement l’accent sur le rôle de l’OMC.
Coherence
The starting point for this study is that appropriately designed and sequenced trade liberalization measures and a well crafted set of trade rules can make a positive contribution to growth and development. But the extent of that contribution also depends on other policies. The notion of coherence has been deployed in this study to characterize a situation in which relevant policies are pulling together in the same direction. In a world of multiple policy objectives and priorities and one where no consensus exists on the ideal policy set the concept of coherence cannot be given operational precision – rather it is indicative of the reality that policies are inter-dependent and that poor policy or neglect in one area can undermine the efficacy of efforts in another. Coherence cannot be uniquely defined unless a set of policy objectives is formally established and the objectives ranked in terms of priorities that indicate how trade-offs are to be made when these are necessary. A precise specification of a fully coherent policy set would also identify the exact nature and timing of all relevant government interventions. Any such undertaking is well beyond the scope of this study. Instead coherence in this context simply refers to the idea that mutually supportive approaches in related areas of policy are likely to produce greater harmony between intent and outcome. Coherence as discussed here is a matter of degree and more coherence means that the benefits of sound trade policies are greater than they would be without supportive policies in other areas.