Economic research and trade policy analysis
Specific health issues and WTO agreements
As noted in the preceding Chapter, several WTO agreements are relevant to health policy. Generally, the positive growth and income effects of more open and predictable trade regimes can provide the resources, as well as goods, services and information, for effective health systems. The WTO agreements explicitly allow governments, in pursuing national health and other policy objectives, to take measures to restrict trade in order to protect health. This is legitimate as a matter of principle. The emphasis in WTO rules is on how policies are pursued without questioning the underlying objective. For example, is a measure applied or enforced in a way that discriminates between trading partners or between imported products and products produced domestically? Are there ways of implementing policy that would be less restrictive on trade? Thus, it is the manner in which government pursue specific health policies in practice which might have trade-related implications, which are examined in this Chapter.
Can Blockchain revolutionize international trade?
The number of headlines claiming that Blockchain can revolutionize various areas of international trade, from trade finance to customs procedures and intellectual property, are legion. The transparent, decentralized and immutable nature of Blockchain has sparked the interest of private actors – and governments – to explore the potential of this technology to enhance the efficiency of trade processes, and a myriad of proofs of concepts and pilot projects using Blockchain have been developed in virtually all areas of international trade.
Integrating into the multilateral trading system and global value chains: The case of Russia
For most countries, foreign trade makes a critical contribution to the national economy, and the Russian Federation is no exception to this. Over the last five years the world economy has been strongly affected by the global economic crisis, which also seriously affected the Russian economy in general and its foreign trade in particular.
The COVID-19 pandemic: impact on DLT projects in trade
COVID-19 has uprooted processes and established outlooks in many industries around the world. To gain a detailed understanding of the impact that the global pandemic has had on DLT projects in trade, the WTO and TFG conducted a supplementary survey of projects featured in the 2020 Periodic table update.
Executive Summary
Over recent decades, the global economy has experienced a profound transformation, mostly as a result of the joint forces of trade integration and technological progress, accompanied by important political changes. Increased trade integration has helped to drive economic growth in both high-and low-income economies, lifting millions out of poverty in emerging and developing countries. Since the global financial crisis of 2007–08, however, trade, productivity and income growth have decelerated. At the same time, trade is increasingly perceived as leaving too many individuals and communities behind.
WTO accessions: A rules perspective on growth – the approach of the European Union
In today’s difficult economic conditions and in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, growth is more than ever the priority of governments. Economic growth, employment, wealth, health and political stability are intrinsically linked notions, and each is essential for the others. Trade and economic integration have been credited as core means to deliver growth. The heads of the EU member states have recently reiterated the importance of free, fair and open trade for growth, and have highlighted the European Union’s objective to promote, among other things, international regulatory convergence. Trade liberalisation is a major structural reform in itself, creating incentives for investments, modernisation and increased competitiveness. Moreover, in a world of increasing production interdependence as a consequence of global supply chains, achieving regulatory convergence is not a question for consideration but an imminent necessity if trade and growth are to be preserved and stimulated. The WTO offers both a beacon for economic reforms and an unprecedented forum for economic partnership.
Supply chains and services
Supply chain production has likely made production more services-intensive. Only recently has the extent of reliance on services in supply chains become evident, particularly since global trade statistics measured in value-added terms were developed. However, a full understanding of the role of services in supply chains remains elusive. Recent work reported here attempts to capture the multiplicity of distinct services implicated in supply chain production; the interdependent nature of markets; the tendency towards reliance on networks and the resultant bundling or modularising of product offerings that combine different goods and services; the role of services as a driver of innovation; services as a potentially untapped source of value-added capture, and a range of data challenges that will take time to resolve.Supply chain production has likely made production more services-intensive. Only recently has the extent of reliance on services in supply chains become evident, particularly since global trade statistics measured in value-added terms were developed. However, a full understanding of the role of services in supply chains remains elusive. Recent work reported here attempts to capture the multiplicity of distinct services implicated in supply chain production; the interdependent nature of markets; the tendency towards reliance on networks and the resultant bundling or modularising of product offerings that combine different goods and services; the role of services as a driver of innovation; services as a potentially untapped source of value-added capture, and a range of data challenges that will take time to resolve.
The economics of standards and trade
We live in a world profoundly reliant on product standards. Faxes can be sent around the world because fax machines obey a common protocol. Computer files can be shared because computers employ various standardized hardware and software formats. The need for product standards is not a new phenomenon. In biblical times, the lack of a common (standardized) language wreaked havoc at the Tower of Babel (Shapiro, 2000). In more recent times, during the great Baltimore fire of 1904, fire fighters called in from neighbouring cities were unable to fight the blaze effectively because their hoses would not fit the hydrants in Baltimore.
Foreword
The World Trade Report 2005 follows the pattern established in previous years and takes up a number of key trade policy issues facing the international trading system for analysis and discussion. The underlying objective of the Report is to contribute to a deeper understanding of trade policy issues facing governments. The core topic in this year’s report is standards and international trade. Shorter essays have been prepared on three other topics – the use of quantitative economic analysis in WTO dispute settlement, international trade in air transport services, and offshoring services.
Introduction
Over the last 50 years, the remarkable opening and integration of the world economy, in combination with the rapid pace of technological change, has contributed to raise the living standards of billions of people around the world, including some of the poorest. But this process of globalization has necessarily been accompanied by economic change, churn and displacement as labour, together with other factors of production shifted from declining industries to expanding ones.
Introduction
Subsidies are one of many policy instruments subject to rules in the multilateral trading system, but they present more complex issues for policy-makers than many other instruments subject to GATT /WTO rules. One reason for this is that subsidies can be defined in different ways. Another is that that they are used in pursuit of a wide array of objectives. Even where they are not aimed at trade, they can affect trade flows. The kinds of subsidies of primary concern to this Report are those that impart an advantage to some domestic producers and thereby affect trade. The challenging task of determining which sorts of subsidies are problematic from the perspective of the trading system, and what might be done about them, has occupied an important place on the agenda of the WTO /GATT system.
Colombia
It is usual for both governments and organizations from the private and civil society sector of developing countries to dedicate more time and resources to bilateral and regional negotiations than to multilateral negotiations. In principle, this contradicts the classic theory of trade in which the greatest welfare gains are to be found in the multilateral field and in which preferential trade agreements (PTAs) can lead to trade diversion and welfare losses.