Ukraine's Trade Policy identifies the key drivers of Ukraine's recent trade performance, assesses current trade policies, and proposes recommendations to strengthen the Ukraines trade integration ...strategy. It also identifies core bottlenecks in the ongoing integration processes, including global and regional integration. The study concludes that the main obstacles to furthering Ukraines trade integration are domestic, and relate to deficiencies in the business environment. Problems in customs administration, standardization, and administrative barriers for new entry require immediate attention. The report highlights specific policy issues that hamper WTO accession, such as trade legislation, protection of intellectual property rights, government support for specific industries, and export restrictions. It also recommends improvements in the structure of Ukraines import tariffs, reform of both the regime of free economic zones and mechanism of VAT refund, and investment in a major upgrade of government capacity for investment and export promotion. The report also draws attention to the importance of the post-WTO accession agenda for Ukraine. To take advantage of WTO membership, the Government will need to undertake significant institutional reforms to implement WTO regulatory rules in ways that facilitate integration into the world economy and provide benefits to private sector participants.
When the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was signed by 23 nations in 1947, the goal was to establish a rules-based world trading system and to facilitate mutually advantageous trade ...liberalization. As the GATT evolved over time and morphed into the World Trade Organization in 1993, both goals have largely been achieved. The WTO presides over a rule-based trading system based on norms that are almost universally accepted and respected by its 163 members. Tariffs today are below 5 percent on most trade, and zero for a very large share of imports. Despite its manifest success, the WTO is widely regarded as suffering from a deep malaise. The main reason is that the latest WTO negotiation, the Doha Round, has staggered between failures, flops, and false dawns since it was launched in 2001. But the Doha logjam has not inhibited tariff liberalization—far from it. During the last 15 years, most WTO members have massively lowered barriers to trade, investment, and services bilaterally, regionally, and unilaterally—indeed, everywhere except through the WTO. For today's offshoring-linked international commerce, the trade rules that matter are less about tariffs and more about protection of investments and intellectual property, along with legal and regulatory steps to assure that the two-way flows of goods, services, investment, and people will not be impeded. It’s possible to imagine a hypothetical WTO that would incorporate these rules. But the most likely outcome for the future governance of international trade is a two-pillar structure in which the WTO continues to govern with its 1994-era rules while the new rules for international production networks are set by a decentralized process of sometimes overlapping and inconsistent mega-regional agreements.
This paper examines the role of Japan against that of China in the exchange rate regime in East Asia in light of growing interest in forming a currency union in the region. The analysis suggests that ...currency unions with China tend to generate higher average welfare gains for East Asian countries than currency unions with Japan or the United States. Overall, Japan does not appear to be a dominant player in forming a currency union in East Asia, and this trend is likely to continue if China's relative presence continues to rise in the regional trade.
Trade policies create both 'winners' and 'losers', as some actors stand to benefit and others are left behind. More often than not, it has been women who have borne the negative impacts of ...international trade policy and it is thus imperative that future trade policy is negotiated and implemented with an eye toward women's interests. This collection represents an innovative systematic evaluation of the debate relating to international trade law, policy, and gender equality. It analyses the role of WTO as a trade policy setter, current debates and possibilities for gender-inclusive trade agreements and emerging topics such as e-commerce and gender-responsive standards. With a range of interdisciplinary contributions and national and regional case studies, this collection offers a comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of the intersections between trade law and gender, and is vital to ensuring that both men and women 'win' from trade policy in the future. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Preferential trade agreements have become common ways to protect or restrict access to national markets in products and services. The United States has signed trade agreements with almost two dozen ...countries as close as Mexico and Canada and as distant as Morocco and Australia. The European Union has done the same. In addition to addressing economic issues, these agreements also regulate the protection of human rights. InForced to Be Good, Emilie M. Hafner-Burton tells the story of the politics of such agreements and of the ways in which governments pursue market integration policies that advance their own political interests, including human rights.
How and why do global norms for social justice become international regulations linked to seemingly unrelated issues, such as trade? Hafner-Burton finds that the process has been unconventional. Efforts by human rights advocates and labor unions to spread human rights ideals, for example, do not explain why American and European governments employ preferential trade agreements to protect human rights. Instead, most of the regulations protecting human rights are codified in global moral principles and laws only because they serve policymakers' interests in accumulating power or resources or solving other problems. Otherwise, demands by moral advocates are tossed aside. And, as Hafner-Burton shows, even the inclusion of human rights protections in trade agreements is no guarantee of real change, because many of the governments that sign on to fair trade regulations oppose such protections and do not intend to force their implementation.
Ultimately, Hafner-Burton finds that, despite the difficulty of enforcing good regulations and the less-than-noble motives for including them, trade agreements that include human rights provisions have made a positive difference in the lives of some of the people they are intended-on paper, at least-to protect.
According to World Trade Organization rules, countries may adopt regulations under the Agreements on Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). We analyze the structure ...of these measures in agricultural trade. The inventory approach suggests that European countries have among the lowest coverage ratios of all OECD countries. Using a gravity equation, we also estimate their stringency. Our results suggest that they significantly reduce developing countries' exports to OECD countries, but do not affect trade between OECD members. Furthermore, European imports are more negatively influenced by SPS and TBTs than imports of other OECD countries.
Challenges of CAFTA Jaramillo, C. Felipe; Daniel, Lederman
2006, 06-27-2006
eBook, Book
Open access
The report provides a preliminary assessment of DR-CAFTA, with particular attention to three key themes: (i) expected trade and non-trade benefits, (ii) actions that Central American countries need ...to pursue to capitalize optimally on the new opportunities, and (iii) identification of the population groups that may require assistance to adapt to a more competitive environment. The Introductory Chapter reviews the main findings of the report. Chapter II places DR-CAFTA in the historical context of the economic reforms that Central America has been undertaking since the late 1980s. Chapter III provides a summary overview of the recently negotiated DR-CAFTA. Chapter IV reviews various analyses that assess the potential impacts of DR-CAFTA in Central American countries. Chapter V focuses on the identification of potentially affected populations from the easing of trade restrictions in sensitive agricultural products and analyzes policy options to assist vulnerable groups. Chapter VI reviews evidence related to key macroeconomic implications of DR-CAFTA, namely the potential revenue losses and effect on the patterns of business-cycle synchronization. Chapter VII reviews evidence from each Central American country in the areas of trade facilitation, institutional and regulatory reforms, and innovation and education, in order to identify key priorities for the complementary agenda for DR-CAFTA.
Lessons from NAFTA Lederman, Daniel; Maloney, William F; Serven, Luis
2004, 11-15-2004, 2004-11, 2011-12-05 00:00:00
eBook, Book
Open access
Analyzing the experience of Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Lessons from NAFTA aims to provide guidance to Latin American and Caribbean countries considering free trade ...agreements with the United States. The authors conclude that the treaty raised external trade and foreign investment inflows and had a modest effect on Mexicos average income per person. It is likely that the treaty also helped achieve a modest reduction in poverty and an improvement in job quality. This book will be of interest to scholars and policymakers interested in international trade and development. "The best quantitative evaluation of NAFTA¯where it paid off, where it didnt, and where we don't know. Indispensable for every Latin American and Caribbean country considering a free trade pact with the United States." Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Reginald Jones Senior Fellow Institute for International Economics "Lessons from NAFTA is a well-articulated and insightful book that covers many of the relevant areas related to the Agreement. In a hemisphere plenty of trade negotiations among Latin American countries and United States, this report written by leading trade and development researchers will be a crucial reference to analyze the impact of these agreements. As the authors mention, to grasp the new opportunities requires countries to be aware that 'improving macroeconomic performance and institutions and putting in place an education and innovation system' are areas that cannot be solved through FTAs. The onus remains on domestic policy." Jose Luis Machinea, Executive Secretary of the United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, former Finance Minister of Argentina.
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