Economic research and trade policy analysis
Wto Domestic Regulation and Services Trade
Domestic regulation of services sectors has a significant impact on services trade liberalization which is why General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) disciplines are negotiated in the WTO. With the help of analyses and case studies from academics regulators and trade experts this book explores the scope and limits of WTO legal principles to promote domestic regulatory reform. Case studies discuss country specific challenges and experiences of regulating important service sectors such as finance telecommunications distribution legal education health postal and logistics services as well as the role of regulatory impact assessments. The findings will interest trade officials policy makers regulators think tanks and businesses concerned with the implications of domestic regulation on access to services markets and with the opportunities for formulating trade disciplines in this area. It is also a useful resource for academics and students researching regulatory approaches and practices in services sectors.
Définition des subventions
Aux origines du GATT on n’accordait peu d’attention aux incidences commerciales des subventions mais les parties contractantes se sont vite rendu compte qu’elles devaient s’en préoccuper pour garantir la valeur des concessions tarifaires dont elles étaient convenues. Un pays peut très bien affaiblir les engagements qu’il a pris en matière d’accès aux marchés en accordant des subventions à des secteurs qui concurrencent les importations. Par ailleurs les subventions accordées aux exportateurs concurrents de pays tiers peuvent détourner les échanges d’un pays qui comptait sur l’accès négocié à ces marchés. Ces préoccupations ont donné lieu à l’élaboration de disciplines plus strictes que celles qui étaient prévues initialement dans le GATT (de 1947). Une étape majeure a été la négociation du “Code des subventions“ plurilatéral durant le Tokyo Round puis de l’Accord de l’OMC sur les subventions et les mesures compensatoires (Accord SMC ) et de l’Accord sur l’agriculture.
Trade in Intangible Assets along Global Value Chains and Intellectual Property Protection
Trade is becoming increasingly intangible but current trade statistics do not capture the international trade in the services of intangible assets through global value chains (GVCs). The increasing importance of intangibles in international trade has made intellectual property (IP) protection an even greater area of concern. Intangible assets include patents trademarks copyrights brand names product designs software databases and certain types of business organization structures (Cummins 2005).
Introduction
Quantitative and detailed trade policy information and analysis are more necessary now than they have ever been. In recent years globalization and more specifically trade opening have become increasingly contentious. It is therefore important for policy-makers and other trade policy stakeholders to have access to detailed reliable information and analysis on the effects of trade policies as this information is needed at different stages of the policy-making process.
The Information Technology Agreement: Sui generis or model stepping stone?
The Information Technology Agreement (ITA) negotiated in 1996 is a remarkably successful sectoral agreement. Broad coverage of products was achieved ex ante rather than by building up coverage over “rounds” of negotiations tariff line by tariff line. A schedule for staged reductions of tariffs to zero was achieved ex ante rather than tariff-reduction formulas becoming subjects for negotiation in themselves in subsequent rounds. Multilateral country coverage was achieved nearly ex ante in that the initial set of countries agreed on the rules many additional countries joined bandwagon-style in the initial months following inception of the agreement and nearly half of all WTO member countries have joined as of 2007.
Technological progress, diffusion, and opportunities for developing countries: lessons from China
The nature of technology used in products plays a major role in determining the governance structure of value chains and the benefits of participation for developing countries. Standardization through breaking production into modules with a high degree of functional autonomy (limited mutual interference between modules) can dramatically reduce the amount of research and development (R&D) learning by doing and the number of complementary skills needed to produce a good. This greatly increases opportunities for developing country firms to participate in formerly capital-intensive industries through reducing entry costs into global value chains. However widespread access to standardized products with little ability to modify technical features can lead to an excessive supply of homogeneous products in a local market resulting in intense price competition and limited technology transfer. By contrast technology that facilitates scope for product modification and greater interaction with technology owners can help boost technology transfer and product upgrading by developing country firms. The chapter illustrates this interaction between changes in technology and opportunities for developing countries through developments in the automotive and mobile phone handset industries with a particular reference to China’s growth experience. It also finds that automation is likely to have only a limited impact on developing countries’ opportunities to participate in value chains through the offshoring of production by high-income countries at least in the short term.
Recursos naturales: Definiciones, estructura del comercio y globalización
Esta sección es una amplia descripción del papel de los recursos naturales en la economía mundial. Comienza con un apartado dedicado a las definiciones y la terminología que centra la atención en las características principales que distinguen a los recursos naturales de otros tipos de productos objeto de comercio. Estas características son su carácter agotable su distribución geográfica desigual la existencia de externalidades en las repercusiones de su extracción y utilización el predominio del sector en muchas economías nacionales y la elevada inestabilidad de los precios de este tipo de productos. Se presentan diversos datos estadísticos relacionados con los recursos naturales para ilustrar la magnitud y dirección de las corrientes comerciales mundiales.
Natural resources: Definitions, trade patterns and globalization
This section provides a broad overview of the role that trade in natural resources plays in the global economy. It begins with a discussion of definitions and terminology focusing on key features that distinguish natural resources from other types of traded goods. These features include the exhaustibility of natural resources the uneven geographical distribution of resource endowments the presence of externalities in the spillover effects of extraction and use of natural resources the dominance of the natural resources sector in many national economies and the high degree of price volatility in this class of goods. A variety of statistical data related to natural resources are presented in order to illustrate the magnitude and direction of global trade flows.
Quelques tendances et questions commerciales
L’Accord sur les textiles et les vêtements (ATV) est arrivé à expiration le 1er janvier 2005. L’incidence que la levée des restrictions contingentaires pourrait avoir sur la production et le commerce de ces produits a suscité beaucoup d’intérêt et aussi beaucoup d’inquiétude. Pour la plupart des observateurs il était évident que la libéralisation accrue ferait des gagnants et des perdants. Il est trop tôt pour dire comment évoluera le marché au-delà de la période relativement brève sur laquelle reposent nos observations; aussi allons-nous examiner ici l’évolution de la structure des échanges depuis la suppression (d’une grande partie) des restrictions quantitatives. Une mise en garde s’impose ici: même s’il ne fait aucun doute que l’expiration de l’ATV a influé sur la structure des échanges observée en 2005 nous n’avons pas élaboré d’approche analytique rigoureuse pour examiner les autres facteurs susceptibles de l’influencer.
Quel rôle pour la coopération internationale en ce qui concerne les politiques relatives au commerce des services ?
Le commerce des services ne cesse d’évoluer. La technologie et les réformes réglementaires entraînent une transformation fondamentale en créant une nouvelle demande tout en contribuant à la réduction des coûts du commerce et en offrant de nouvelles possibilités en matière de commerce des services. Sous l’effet des chaînes de valeur mondiales des évolutions démographiques de l’augmentation du revenu par habitant dans les marchés émergents et des préoccupations environnementales la demande de services fournis depuis l’étranger est en hausse. L’évolution des modes des acteurs et de la composition du commerce des services accroît sa contribution possible à la croissance économique inclusive et au développement mais elle engendre également un certain nombre de défis auxquels il faut répondre pour réaliser ce potentiel.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Michela Esposito for her comments and valuable research assistance. They also would like to thank Delina Agnosteva James Anderson Richard Barnett Davin Chor Gabriel Felbermayr Benedikt Heid Russell Hillberry Lou Jing Ma Lin Antonella Liberatore Andreas Maurer Jurgen Richtering Stela Rubinova Serge Shikher Costas Syropoulos Robert Teh Thomas Verbeet Mykyta Vesselovsky Joschka Wanner Thomas Zylkin as well as the seminar and workshop participants at the ifo Institute the World Trade Organization the World Bank the U.S. International Trade Commission Global Affairs Canada the University of Ottawa the Kiel Institute for the World Economy the Tsenov Academy of Economics and the National University of Singapore for helpful suggestions and discussions. Thanks also go to Vlasta Macku (UNCTAD Virtual Institute) for her continuous support to this project and her role in initiating this inter-organizational cooperation.
Acknowledgements
The World Trade Report has been written under the general direction of Patrick Low Director of the Economic Research and Statistics Division. The main authors of the Report are Bijit Bora K. Michael Finger Marion Jansen Alexander Keck Patrick Low Hildegunn Nordas Roberta Piermartini and Robert Teh. Trade statistics and tariff information were provided by the Statistics Group of the Economic Research and Statistics Division co-ordinated by Guy Karsenty Julia de Verteuil Andreas Maurer and Jürgen Richtering.