Economic research and trade policy analysis
Introduction
Over the last few decades the internet has entered every corner of our lives from social interactions to entertainment and work and has fundamentally reshaped our economies slashing the cost of acquiring and trading information. It has fuelled the digital revolution fundamentally changing the ways in which we communicate consume and produce and it has profoundly transformed international trade in terms of what we trade how we trade and who is trading.
Foreword by the Director-General
This year’s World Trade Report explores the role of trade in a world characterized over the last several decades by increasing dependence among nations. This inter-dependency – what we all call globalization today – is a multi-layered and complex phenomenon involving intensive political social and economic interaction nationally and internationally. Few would contest the benefits that globalization has brought in terms of greater prosperity for hundreds of millions as well as greater stability among nations. But many individuals in different societies across the world have shared little or not at all in the benefits of globalization. The challenges facing national governments in managing globalization are formidable and success in spreading prosperity more widely requires a strong common purpose.
Algunos objetivos declarados por los gobiernos para la utilización de subvenciones
En esta Sección se examinan los principales objetivos que alegaron los gobiernos para seguir concediendo subvenciones entre otros el desarrollo industrial la innovación y la ayuda a las grandes empresas nacionales la protección del medio ambiente y la redistribución. En la categoría general de “redistribución” se examinan tres objetivos más específicos: la utilización de subvenciones para fines de política regional el apoyo a ramas de producción en decadencia para el ajuste y las obligaciones de servicio universal. Esta selección no pretende ser exhaustiva pero comprende algunos de los objetivos más importantes que tratan de alcanzar los gobiernos de los países en desarrollo y desarrollados.
Executive summary
This report deals with the relevant WTO Agreements and the way they may influence health and health policies. In undertaking this joint study the WHO and WTO Secretariats seek to examine the linkages between trade and health policies so as to enable both trade and health officials to better understand and monitor the effects of these linkages.
Responding to trade-related changes in skills demand
In recent decades global and regional trade policies have helped less developed countries in pursuing comparative advantages in higher-productivity activities and in exploiting these to drive development raise income levels and give workers a better standard of living. Skills development has had and continues to have an important enabling role in this process.
The economics of how digital technologies impact trade
This section focuses on how new technologies are transforming international trade creating new opportunities for a more inclusive trading system and raising new challenges. The section opens with a discussion of how digital technologies affect international trade costs. This is followed by an assessment of how digital technologies change the nature of what is traded how we trade and who trades what. Finally the potential impact of important trends in technological development is quantified and long-term projections on international trade are made using the WTO Global Trade Model.
Acknowledgments
The Global Value Chain Development Report 2021 the third in the series draws on contributions from 25 background papers presented and discussed at the First Authors’ Workshop for the Global Value Chain Development Report 2021 during 8–9 October 2020. The drafts of the report’s six chapters were presented at the Chapter Authors’ Workshop for the Global Value Chain Development Report 2021 during 26–28 May 2021 (Appendix). The Asian Development Bank (ADB) organized both online workshops. The editors thank the authors of these papers and the chapters and the discussants and participants at the two workshops for their insightful comments and suggestions.
Los efectos del comercio en el funcionamiento del mercado de trabajo
En esta sección se examinan datos empíricos sobre los efectos del comercio en los salarios y el empleo y se plantean las siguientes cuestiones cruciales: ¿qué datos hay sobre la repercusión de la competencia de las importaciones y la deslocalización en los salarios y el empleo? ¿Cómo afectan al empleo un mayor acceso a los mercados de exportación y el abaratamiento de los insumos importados? ¿Cómo pueden compaginarse datos empíricos heterogéneos de diferentes países? ¿Cómo afecta la naturaleza del mercado de trabajo a los resultados? ¿De qué magnitud son los costos de ajuste a los cambios ligados al comercio? Esta sección se centra en particular en los salarios y el empleo porque la investigación sobre otros aspectos del mercado de trabajo como la estabilidad y la seguridad en el empleo está mucho menos avanzada debido a la falta de datos nacionales lo que impide examinar la incidencia del comercio y la tecnología sobre estas otras variables.
Aid for Trade and building trade capacity: The case of Morocco
The aim of this chapter is to examine the broad framework which has been evolved for the reception of Aid for Trade (AFT) in Namibia. The economic situation before this period included the prevalence of poverty the HIV/AIDS pandemic low educational opportunities and a very highly skewed or unequal distribution of the wealth of the country which has increased income inequalities and unsustainable economic growth as outlined in Namibia Vision 2030 (Namibia Office of the President 2004). In this regard Namibia shares this economic dependency at the regional level and most trade and economic relationships are mainly with Botswana Lesotho Swaziland and South Africa all of which are members of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and Southern African Development Community (SADC). The objective is to create a free trade area in the Southern Africa region.
WTO Accessions and Trade Multilateralism
What have WTO accessions contributed to the rules-based multilateral trading system? What demands have been made by original WTO members on acceding governments? How have the acceding governments fared? This volume of essays offers critical readings on how WTO accession negotiations have expanded the reach of the multilateral trading system not only geographically but also conceptually clarifying disciplines and pointing the way to their further strengthening in future negotiations. Members who have acceded since the WTO was established now account for twenty per wto_cent of total WTO membership. In the age of globalization there is an increased need for a universal system of trade rules. Accession negotiations have been used by governments as an instrument for domestic reforms and one lesson from the accession process is that there are contexts which lead multilateral trade negotiations to successful outcomes even in the complex and multi-polar twenty-first-century economic environment. The contributions in this volume illuminate the pressing question regarding why some trade negotiations fail some stall and others succeed.
Some stated objectives of governments for using subsidies
This Section discusses the main objectives governments claim to pursue with subsidies including industrial development innovation and support for national champions environment related objectives and redistribution. Under the broad category “redistribution” three more specific objectives are examined: the use of subsidies for regional policy purposes adjustment support for declining industries and universal service obligations. This selection does not pretend to be exhaustive but it covers some of the most important objectives pursued by governments in developing and developed countries.
Understanding Supply Chain 4.0 and its potential impact on global value chains
The reorganization of supply chains using advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) big data analytics and autonomous robotics is transforming the model of supply chain management from a linear one in which instructions flow from supplier to producer to distributor to consumer and back to a more integrated model in which information flows in an omnidirectional manner to the supply chain. While e-commerce is uniquely suited to many of these techniques they also hold the promise of improving efficiency in brick-and-mortar stores. These technologies are generating enormous benefits through reducing costs making production more responsive to consumer demand boosting employment (employment in supply chain sectors where such technologies are most likely to be applied has grown much more rapidly than in other supply chain sectors and in the economy as a whole) and saving consumers’ time. The impact of these technologies on the length of supply chains is uncertain: they may reduce the length of supply chains by encouraging the reshoring of manufacturing production to high-income economies thus reducing opportunities for developing countries to participate in GVCs or they may strengthen GVCs by reducing coordination and matching costs.
El comercio en un mundo en proceso de globalización
La integración económica avanza en todo el mundo a un ritmo sin precedentes. La globalización ha reportado ingentes beneficios a muchos países y ciudadanos pero algunos han salido perdiendo en el proceso y está creciendo por muchas razones la oposición a una mayor integración. El comercio es solamente un aspecto de la globalización y los nexos con los elementos económicos políticos y tecnológicos más generales son múltiples y complejos. Algunos argumentos contrarios al comercio abierto son alimentados por distintos factores -incluido un temor general a los cambios- que poco tienen que ver con una mayor apertura del comercio. Los gobiernos que tratan de responder a las presiones contra el comercio basadas en los argumentos opuestos a la globalización corren el riesgo de equivocarse al decidir sus políticas. Sin duda el escepticismo frente al comercio es motivo de preocupación particularmente ahora que los Miembros de la OMC están tratando de culminar la Ronda de Doha. En este momento crucial parece conveniente volver a considerar los argumentos en favor del comercio y preguntarnos si los argumentos tradicionales favorables al libre comercio siguen siendo válidos.
A world of opportunities and challenges
Research published by the European Parliament in 2017 claimed that Blockchain could “change our lives” (Boucher 2017). What the various blockchain applications that are being developed in areas as diverse as trade finance trade facilitation trade in services intellectual property and government procurement show is that Blockchain has the potential to impact both the traders and the government agencies involved in international trade significantly. Opportunities are multifaceted but will only be realized if several key challenges are addressed.
Integrating small African economies into global value chains through foreign aid: The case of Namibia
The aim of this chapter is to examine the broad framework which has been evolved for the reception of Aid for Trade (AFT) in Namibia. The economic situation before this period included the prevalence of poverty the HIV/AIDS pandemic low educational opportunities and a very highly skewed or unequal distribution of the wealth of the country which has increased income inequalities and unsustainable economic growth as outlined in Namibia Vision 2030 (Namibia Office of the President 2004). In this regard Namibia shares this economic dependency at the regional level and most trade and economic relationships are mainly with Botswana Lesotho Swaziland and South Africa all of which are members of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and Southern African Development Community (SADC). The objective is to create a free trade area in the Southern Africa region.
A historical perspective on regionalism
This chapter explores the development of regionalism from a historical perspective with a view to understanding how the world ended up with some 350 regional trade agreements (RTAs) (so far) of varying degrees of coverage complexity and efficacy. Understanding the history of regionalism may shed light on how to multilateralize it; and an understanding of the factors that led nations to conclude trade agreements outside the multilateral trading system may help to identify some lessons for dealing with the increasing proliferation of RTAs.
The Republic of Korea’s Trade Adjustment Policies and their Effects on Labour Market Adjustment
The Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea) has been actively opening its markets since the early 1990s making its first bilateral trade agreement with Chile effective from 3 April 2004. It has since arranged such agreements with 52 countries that now cover more than 77 per cent of the world’s GDP. Given the little progress made in multilateral negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) much of the progress in market liberalization has taken the form of regional trade agreements (RTAs). It has been through an extensive network of these arrangements with partners such as the EU the US and the People’s Republic of China (hereafter China) that the Korean Government has been pursuing sustained growth.
Remerciements
Le Rapport sur le commerce mondial a été rédigé sous la supervision de Kipkorir Aly Aza Rana Directeur général adjoint. Patrick Low Directeur de la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques a dirigé l’équipe chargée de la rédaction. Ses principaux auteurs sont Bijit Bora Zdenek Drabek K. Michael Finger Marion Jansen Alexander Keck Patrick Low Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås Roberta Piermartini et Robert Teh. Barbara d’Andrea de la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques est coauteur de la section IB. Jeffrey Gertler de la Division des affaires juridiques a contribué à la rédaction de la section IB. Mukela uanga de la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques a fourni une précieuse assistance à certains des auteurs principaux. Les données sur le commerce et les informations sur les droits de douane ont été fournies par les statisticiens de la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques dont les travaux ont été coordonnés par Guy Karsenty Julia de Verteuil Andreas Maurer et Jürgen Richtering.