Browse by: "T"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
The dramatic collapse in world trade in 2009 is, this report shows, mainly due to: the drop in demand for highly traded products; the drying up of trade finance; and the vertically integrated nature of global supply chains. Contrary to expectations, protectionist measures were relatively muted and did not play a significant part. In fact, because of their sheer size, stimulus measures may have had more impact on trade than direct trade policy measures Nevertheless, dollar for dollar, direct trade restricting measures have the most strongly negative impacts on growth and employment: a one dollar increase in tariff revenues results in a USD 2.16 drop in world exports and a USD 0.73 drop in world income.
The analyses presented here suggest that exit strategies from measures to deal with the crisis will be most effective in boosting growth and jobs if they first roll back measures that discriminate between domestic and foreign firms and those that target specific sectors. General demand stimulus measures and active labour market policies are preferable under current conditions.
This book focuses on the role of exchange rate regimes, market imperfections and trade policy to support the strengthening and diversification of the tradable sector in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Moreover, it analyses the agro-food sector, one of the pillars of the tradable sector in the region, and the role of foreign direct investment and competition policy. Overall it provides an integrated and original policy perspective on the factors underlying international competitiveness.
The links between trade policy and competition policy have become more important in recent years. With tariff reductions, trade negotiators are looking increasingly at non-border policies that distort trade and at non-governmental barriers to trade. And, as official barriers to trade and investment fall, firms may have a greater incentive to engage in anti-competitive conduct to protect markets. Hence the need for coherent trade and competition policies. Trade and competition policies each seek to improve the allocation of resources; they complement and reinforce each other. These papers from the OECD Joint Group on Trade and competition examine aspects of those complementarities and relationships and in so doing draw on the OECD’s capacity to analyse questions in a multidisciplinary way. This book -- which includes a whole chapter on the telecommunications sector -- throws new light on all these issues in the lead up to the WTO's new round of negotiations. But whatever the outcome of Seattle, the questions raised in this volume will remain relevant.
The OECD Joint Group on Trade and Competition was established in 1996 to help deepen understanding of the complex issues arising at the interface of these two policy domains against a globalising backdrop and explore how best to ensure that both sets of policies are mutually supportive in promoting greater economic efficiency. This publication, the third to arise from Joint Group activities, brings together a series of working papers that Member countries’ trade and competition authorities have considered during the past two years. The objective of the publication is to share with a broader audience the tangible progress made recently by the two communities in the analysis of important issues at the interface between trade and competition policies.
This publication presents a synthesis of recent work of the OECD Joint Group on Trade and Competition focussing on the interface between these two policy domains against the backdrop of an increasingly globalised economy. A Global Forum hold on May 2003 presented an occasion to explore some of the complex issues arising at the trade and competition interface.
It also contains a report of those discussions prepared by Dr. Simon Evenett of the World Trade Institute. This book is structured around a number of key themes, including capacity building, combatting hard core cartels, co-operation between competition authorities and core principles for a multilateral framework.
Education and media services both provide services that embody local cultures, in which there is extensive public sector participation and significant domestic regulation. At the same time, they are dramatically affected by the information and communication technology revolution. The production of information content now involves huge costs in terms of research and development or artistic talent, while the cost of making such products available to other consumers is very low. This in turn challenges the effectiveness of domestic regulation and raises fundamental questions about its purpose, calling for an increased scope for international trade and investment, and the development of supply chains. This book provides readers with a comprehensive and consistent treatment of policy in the higher education and media services sector across a range of Asian economies little studied in the existing literature. It gives an overview of global trends in each area, followed by detailed, country-specific studies. Through comparative work, it identifies common elements across these sectors and highlights critical implications for trade policy.
This book analyses the role of regional governments in the trade policy of the Russian Federation. It examines regional trade-related policies, such as subsidies, taxes and licensing, and their implications for Russia's international trade commitments, and in particular its negotiations for accession to the World Trade Organisation. In effect, when the Russian Federation accedes to the WTO, it will be required to ensure that the laws and administrative practices of its sub-national governments are in conformity with its WTO commitments.
International conventions designed to combat global environmental problems -- known as Multilateral Environmental Agreements or MEAs -- often use trade measures, among other instruments. But in fact the term trade measures covers a variety of provisions, ranging from simple reporting requirements of transboundary movements to the use of trade sanctions imposed to change a country’s environmental behaviour. MEA use of trade measures has not been without controversy in both trade policy and environment policy circles. In order to try and disentangle the various strands of this important set of trade and environment issues, the OECD Joint Session of Trade and Environment Experts focused on the actual experience with the use of trade measures in three universally subscribed MEAs -- CITES (on endangered species), the Montreal Protocol (on ozone layer depleting substances) and the Basel Convention (on hazardous wastes). Whilst the case studies unsurprisingly reveal varying experiences, common issues and main themes, as well as a series of lessons learned, could nonetheless be drawn together from the case study analyses and have been assembled in the concluding chapter of this volume.
Central Asia's trade performance has displayed remarkable resilience to recent economic shocks. Nevertheless, the region’s dependence on a limited number of export commodities and a narrow range of trading partners exposes it to significant risks. Central Asian governments are therefore prioritising improved connectivity to integrate better into global value chains, reduce geographical disadvantages, and increase imports and exports. Trade facilitation plays a pivotal role in achieving these goals by reducing trade costs and fostering integration. However, Central Asia still faces substantial challenges, and, despite significant improvements in recent years, it falls behind most of the regions covered by the OECD's Trade Facilitation Indicators (TFI). This report takes stock of TFI progress in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, presents preliminary results for Turkmenistan for the first time, and showcases areas of TFI improvement. It also evaluates remaining trade barriers and provides recommendations to for trade facilitation reforms, including the need to prioritise trade community feedback to streamline procedures, digitalise and harmonise standards, and implement systemic border agency co-operation mechanisms. A co-ordinated approach to improving trade facilitation across the region could reduce trade costs substantially, lifting both trade turnover and growth.
In a globalised world, where goods cross borders many times as intermediate and as final products, trade facilitation is essential to lowering overall trade costs and increasing economic welfare, in particular for developing and emerging economies. Facilitation efforts undertaken by various countries around the world also show that the benefits of such measures clearly compensate the costs and challenges posed by their implementation.
This study provides a number of case studies that illustrate how the international trade system has been exploited by criminal organisations. It also presents the results of a survey gathering information on the current practices of more than thirty countries in fighting money laundering. This information focuses on the ability of various government agencies to identify suspicious activities related to trade transactions, to share this information with domestic and foreign partner agencies, and to act on this information.
People in many countries, especially advanced countries, are expressing growing discontent about globalisation. They feel that its benefits have accrued mostly to a small and already well-off segment of the population. In addition, many citizens are dissatisfied with the way economic integration has been advanced. They complain about too little transparency and too many conflicts of interests between policy makers and firms. Several of the negative effects feeding the discontent have more to do with technological change than with globalisation per se, but the two are closely intertwined. Moreover, the policies put in place to alleviate negative impacts of economic openness on some groups, industries and regions have not always worked as intended, and global rule-making has not kept up with reality. Given its many benefits, reversing economic integration is not a solution. Rather, we need to find ways to make it work for all. This report sets out what needs to be done to advance a fairer and more inclusive globalisation – at the global level, at the European level and within Germany.
The path towards Arab and Euro-Mediterranean integration is challenging for all countries involved but the potential long term benefits are substantial. Multilateral trade initiatives which run parallel to "open" regional integration with the European Union and among Arab states can generate higher economic growth by promoting free trade in goods, services and assets between developed and developing countries. However these agreements have profound implications for Arab states in the region raising old and new issues in the political economy of regional co-operation and development. The body of evidence presented suggests that if these regional trade arrangements combined, allow for "deeper" forms of integration, competitiveness and cohesion can improve well beyond the Eastern and Southern borders of the EU.
Poverty reduction through economic growth is becoming a more urgent shared objective at this time of crisis and represents another potential long term benefit from deeper Euro-Med and Arab integration. In negotiating free trade agreements the EU must therefore strive to make such agreements as equitable as possible; in implementing them, partner countries must focus reform efforts to ensure their efficacy. Arab and Euro-Mediterranean integration can ideally maximise benefits for all countries involved, in spite of signficant legal, institutional and administrative hurdles that will have to be overcome to make such relationships workable.
The new issues examined in this book (the dynamics of open regionalism, the expansion of domestic markets from increased FDI and monetary stability, and the optimal mix of regional trade agreements) build on conclusions from previous studies regarding modest gains from shallow integration. Deeper regional agreements can be good for growth and stability in a region which has experienced very little of both in recent years.
Latin America is looking towards China and Asia -- and China and Asia are looking right back. This is a major shift: for the first time in its history, Latin America can benefit from not one but three major engines of world growth. Until the 1980s, the United States was the region’s major trade partner. In the 1990s, a second growth engine emerged with the European investment boom in Latin America. Now, at the dawn of the new century, the increasing global economic importance of Asia, and in particular China, potentially provides a third engine of growth.
This book describes the opportunities and challenges that Latin American economies will face as Chinese importance in the world economy -- and in Latin America's traditional markets -- continues to grow.
The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) was a turning point in the reform of the agricultural trade system. It imposed disciplines on trade-distorting domestic policies and established new rules in the areas of market access and export competition. How effective have the three disciplines contained in the URAA been in bringing about a reduction in the level of production-related support and protection? Which elements of the disciplines have proved effective and which ineffective? What policy lessons can be drawn from the experience so far? What might be inferred about opportunities and challenges for further trade liberalisation? This report provides some answers to these questions for all OECD countries.
A key conclusion of the report is that the immediate quantitative effects of the URAA on trade and protection levels have been modest. The reasons for this include the weakness of many specific features of the URAA including implementation and methodological issues.
Countries have already embarked on a new round of multilateral trade negotiations on agriculture. The challenge facing policy makers is to build upon the foundation of the URAA to further reduce trade distortions. This requires strengthening the disciplines already established under the URAA and addressing those weaknesses of the current agreement which have been identified in this study.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of major reforms undertaken between 2014 and 2018 to promote micro, small and medium-sized enterprise development in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia. The report focuses on five strategic areas for SME policy making: SME definitions, statistics and institutions; improving business environments for SMEs and entrepreneurs; fostering access to finance; nurturing start-ups and SME growth; and the development of entrepreneurial human capital.
The report aims to showcase good practices and to point to areas where more efforts are needed. It provides valuable guidance for governments, private sector organisations, multilateral bodies and other stakeholders to intensify their efforts to support SMEs as essential vehicles for jobs and competitiveness. This is particularly relevant in a region striving to boost economic diversification, employment creation and the inclusion of youth and women in the economy.
The report is the result of a process of close collaboration among governments, the OECD, the European Training Foundation and the European Commission.
This report aims at assisting tax authorities in designing and implementing an effective Value Added Tax/Goods and Services Tax (VAT/GST) policy response to the growth of the sharing and gig economy. The rise of this phenomenon, powered by digital platforms, has transformed a number of industries within just a few short years. It involves large numbers of new economic operators (often private individuals), who monetise (often) underutilised goods and services by offering these, via digital platforms, for temporary (“shared”) use by primarily private consumers. Questions have been raised whether existing VAT/GST policy and administration frameworks are sufficiently capable of dealing with this new economic reality notably with a view to protecting VAT/GST revenue and minimising economic distortions. This report sets out the core components of a comprehensive VAT/GST policy strategy for tax authorities to consider in response. It analyses the key features of the sharing and gig economy and its main business models; identifies the associated VAT/GST challenges and opportunities; and presents a wide range of possible measures and approaches to support an effective policy response. This includes detailed guidance on the possible role of digital platforms in facilitating and enhancing VAT/GST compliance in the sharing and gig economy.
Agricultural trade disputes over issues such as beef hormones and genetically modified organisms have received wide public attention and illustrated the trade-off between domestic and international policy objectives. This report examines pertinent issues at the interface between domestic policy objectives, technical regulations and agricultural trade. It also discusses approaches to measuring the trade impacts of food safety and other technical measures, and presents empirical evidence concerning the trade effects of resolving controversial food safety issues.
The Impact of Regulation on International Investment in Finland examines what drives FDI into Finland and which domestic regulatory aspects may discourage foreign investment. The report analyses trends in FDI flows towards Finland and other Nordic-Baltic countries and discusses the benefits of foreign investment for the Finnish economy. It provides a comparative overview of the regulatory frameworks in force in Finland and its Nordic-Baltic peers, outlining both economy-wide and sector-specific findings, and explores how changes in these regulatory frameworks are linked to changes in FDI inflows in the region. Foreign investors’ views on Finland’s business environment complement these findings. The report underlines potential areas for reform and suggests policy actions that could further improve Finland’s investment climate and contribute to attracting and retaining more FDI, while also strengthening its positive impact.