Economic research and trade policy analysis
Value chain governance in export commodities: The case of Indonesia
Indonesia has been regarded as one of the success stories of developing countries escaping the resource curse (Rosser, 2004; 2007). In many developing countries, instead of becoming a source of economic growth, abundant natural resources have been associated with stagnant growth, a condition known as the resource curse or the paradox of plenty. As argued by Sachs and Warner (1997), economies with abundant natural resources have tended to grow less rapidly than those with scarce natural resources. Similarly, the resource curse has been defined as “the phenomenon whereby a country with an export-driven natural resources sector, generating large revenues for government, leads paradoxically to economic stagnation and political instability” (ODI, 2006). This chapter will review the efforts undertaken by Indonesia to diminish its dependency on natural resources and to better connect to global value chains (GVCs).
Disclaimer
Any views given in this dictionary on WTO agreements, provisions, panel and Appellate Body reports, or any other information provided by the WTO, are the sole responsibility of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views of WTO Members, the WTO Secretariat or the Appellate Body. As such, the definitions in this dictionary do not constitute authoritative interpretations of the legal texts of the WTO. They are presented for illustrative purposes only.
The impact of the trade liberalization brought by the ITA
Participants in the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) significantly liberalized trade in information technology (IT) products by reducing the rates of both the bound (the maximum rate that a WTO member can legally levy on a certain product) and most-favoured nation applied tariffs (those applied in practice by governments).
Introduction
Le monde est en constante évolution, porté par les innovations technologiques qui influent sur notre façon de vivre et de faire des affaires. L’histoire de l’économie mondiale est intimement liée aux progrès technologiques. L’invention de la machine à vapeur a conduit à la mécanisation de la production, la découverte de l’électricité a permis la production de masse et, grâce à l’essor d’Internet, il est devenu possible de coordonner à distance les différentes étapes de la production, ce qui a entraîné la fragmentation de la production et l’apparition des chaînes de valeur mondiales.
Towards a new digital era
This section describes the rise of digital technologies and identifies the technological forces that have helped propel their growth. It examines how digital technologies are changing the economy by giving rise to new markets, goods and services, and discusses some of the concerns that have arisen in parallel regarding privacy, market concentration, the impact on productivity and the digital divide. The section also discusses the methodological and data challenges involved in trying to measure the value of digital transactions and digital trade, and provides estimates culled from international organizations and national authorities, as well as financial reports from a number of well-known firms.
Recent trends in international trade
The world economy expanded by 3.3 per cent in 2005, less rapidly than in 2004, but still slightly faster than the decade average. Economic growth remained strong in most regions although less buoyant than in the preceding year. Only Europe’s economy continued to record low GDP growth – less than half the rate observed in North America. In contrast to Europe, Japan experienced a strengthening of economic activity. In light of slower economic growth worldwide in 2005 and of oil market developments, merchandise trade growth – like GDP growth – decelerated in real terms, but still exceeded the average for the last decade.
Legal avenues to ‘multilateralizing regionalism’: Beyond Article XXIV
A core feature of regional trade agreements (RTAs) is that they offer, or are supposed to offer, WTO-plus liberalization. The question that this book examines is how these WTO-plus elements could be ‘multilateralized’. To give teeth to WTO-plus benefits in RTAs, most RTAs include regional dispute settlement. This chapter analyses how these regional dispute settlement systems, and the legal disciplines they enforce, interact with multilateral dispute settlement at the WTO. Failure to give effect to regional dispute settlement may endanger WTO-plus liberalization; finding a legal balance and mutual support between RTAs and the WTO can be one of the ways to ‘multilateralize regionalism’.
Prólogo del Director General de la OMC
En general, los servicios no se tienen suficientemente en cuenta en los debates sobre el comercio mundial, aunque representan la mayor parte del comercio en muchas economías desarrolladas y están creciendo con rapidez en numerosas economías en desarrollo. Esa menor atención se debe tal vez a que los servicios son menos tangibles, y las cuestiones relacionadas con el comercio de servicios suelen ser más complejas. Por ello, el presente Informe trata de desmitificar el comercio de servicios. Su objetivo es arrojar nueva luz sobre esa parte esencial del comercio mundial, ofrecer una descripción detallada del comercio de servicios en la actualidad y examinar de qué forma podría evolucionar en los próximos años, sobre todo a medida que las nuevas tecnologías hacen que algunos servicios sean cada vez más comerciables.
Supply chains and trade policy
Supply chains and trade policy are tightly linked to each other. Trade distorting effects of tariff and non-tariff barriers (which are levied on the gross value of imported goods, rather than value-added) are magnified in global supply chains; it takes many more cross-border transactions to provide a single unit of a final good than before. Global supply chains create new forms of cross-border spillover effects and have therefore generated a demand for deep forms of integration, which could make productionsharing activities less vulnerable to disruptions or restrictions. For instance, it is not possible to disentangle merchandise trade from services trade, and standards may need to be stipulated to make each stage of production compatible with the other. At present, “deep” provisions in international trade agreements – covering the areas of services, investment, competition policy and intellectual property, among others – are largely found at the regional level. “Deep” RTAs, in turn, may stimulate the further proliferation of global supply chains if they cover a sufficient number of economies and do not introduce distortions with third countries. However, the wild and tangled growth of RTAs and stringent rules of origin have created problems (“spaghetti bowl” trade). To the extent that RTAs are consolidated and gradually multilateralised, they might prove a useful step to achieving the first-best solution of multilateral trade liberalisation that goes beyond tariff reduction. Examples can be found in the field of technical barriers to trade, trade facilitation, the opening of markets for trade in services and the presence of contingency measures within trade commitments. The multilateral trading system faces the challenge of addressing the need for trade integration between countries while preserving non-discrimination between regulatory regimes.
Defining innovation-oriented government policies and their evolution in the digital age
Since the 2008-09 financial crisis, industrial employment in some economies has seen accelerated decline and international competition in mature industrial sectors has tightened; the evolution of productivity and wages has slowed; and a new economy enabled by digital technologies has emerged. In this context, industrial and innovation policies have undergone renewal, and these “new industrial policies” are reflecting a duality inherent to all government policy phases, as they aim to address the difficult modernization of traditional industries, while also aiming to bring about an adaptation of economies to digitalization.
Algunos rasgos de la evolución del comercio a medio plazo
El comercio internacional de combustibles y productos farmacéuticos ha crecido por encima de la media en los últimos años, afectando a la estructura de las corrientes mundiales del comercio de mercancías. A continuación se examinan estos aspectos.
Introduction
Les services sont devenus le secteur le plus dynamique du commerce mondial – mais d’une manière qui n’est pas toujours reconnue ou comprise. Non seulement ils dominent aujourd’hui de nombreuses économies nationales, mais ils jouent aussi un rôle plus important dans l’économie mondiale. Cela s’explique par de nombreux facteurs – dont la consommation, la libéralisation et l’investissement –, mais c’est la technologie qui a changé la donne. Les services qui étaient autrefois difficiles à échanger du fait qu’ils ne pouvaient être fournis qu’en personne deviennent de plus en plus faciles à échanger, car ils peuvent être fournis numériquement. Le Rapport sur le commerce mondial 2019 examine cette mondialisation des services – les raisons pour lesquelles elle se produit, son incidence sur les économies et les domaines dans lesquels de nouvelles approches politiques sont nécessaires.
Foreword by the WTO Director-General
The 2010 World Trade Report examines trade in natural resources. This is a topic of growing importance in international trade relations. Natural resources are at the root of much economic activity, they are a key component of many economies, and their share in world trade is growing. A number of features exclusive to natural resources explain why they occupy a special place in economic, political economy and policy analysis.
Policies to improve the supply chain: What needs to be done?
As the agenda of trade facilitation achieves more prominence on the international stage, the prioritization of interventions takes on increasing importance. Discussions of trade facilitation often take in anything that might promote trade other than tariff reduction. In its broadest sense, trade facilitation can include both eliminating nontariff measures (NTMs), often defined as policies other than tariffs that impede trade (compare UNCTAD, 2010), reforms to customs and border measures, improvements in transformation and communications infrastructure, regulatory issues, and broader improvements in transparency and accountability that could impact trade. From the business standpoint, the classification of methods of trade facilitation is not as important as taking action that will in fact promote trade.
Introduction
Over the past decades, trade flows have become increasingly global. Today, South- South trade represents around one-half of global trade and the top ranks of major traders are not exclusively occupied by industrialized countries (OECD, 2010). Trade now spans all major world regions and continues to grow within and across those regions. Trade also takes new forms as trade in goods is increasingly accompanied by trade in tasks. Capital flows more freely across regions and trade and capital flows together have contributed to an increased transfer of technological change across regions. There is a strong sense that companies and countries well integrated in these global networks are part of a virtuous circle involving technological progress and growth. Not being connected, however, can represent a very serious bottleneck for future growth and economic development.