Economic research and trade policy analysis
The Doha Development Agenda
An underlying objective of the WTO is to promote economic development through effective participation in world trade. Three aspects of the WTO’s structure and rules are relevant to the question of how developing countries can derive greater benefits from participation in the trading system. First, the rules themselves, together with permitted exceptions and interpretations, are the foundation of the system and play a key part in determining the conditions and opportunities of trade. Second, there is the question of the coverage of the system. No examples exist of topics that the WTO has taken up and then discarded, so this is about the inclusion of new areas. Third, the pattern of protection facing a country’s exports also goes a long way in defining trading conditions and opportunities. In short, the nature of WTO rules, the reach of these rules, and conditions of market access are the three major areas that determine the quality and utility of the WTO for its Members. Not surprisingly, each of these three elements features prominently in the Doha Development Agenda.
Foreword
Any discussion today of international trade and investment policy that fails to acknowledge the centrality of global value chains (GVCs) would be considered outmoded and of questionable relevance. The idiom might vary – referring to trade in value-added, production sharing, supply chains, outsourcing, offshoring, vertical integration, or fragmented production instead of GVCs – but the core notion of internationally joined-up production is the same. Every international agency dealing with economic affairs as well as many governments are working on various aspects of GVCs in order to understand better their various dimensions. The central concern from this quarter, of course, is what GVCs mean for trade policy and for international cooperation in trade-related matters.
The role of international cooperation in building economic resilience
As responses to the 2008-09 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have shown, lack of cooperation among governments can create significant tensions and lead to suboptimal outcomes. In contrast, governments benefit from acting cooperatively to enhance their resilience, whether they are preparing for future disruptions, coping with shocks or stimulating the recovery. International cooperation in the trade area can play an important role in building economic resilience to shocks by leveraging synergies and supporting a more open, diversified, inclusive and predictable trade environment.
Labour Market Policy Responses Amid Globalization: The Case of South Africa
The South African economy is one mired in a long-run, low-level growth trap, which has entrenched high levels of structural unemployment. Further, and as is the case with many middle-income economies, it has struggled with the domestic consequences emanating from a variety of exogenous economic shocks. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of contagion effects from the 2008 global crisis and trade-induced shocks – within a world economy that is increasingly defined by its interconnectedness. For South Africa, the real economic impact has been most powerfully felt in the labour market, with current and future employment threatened through these shocks. Thus, the combination of high levels of structural unemployment and the adverse labour market effects associated with exposure to global shocks has necessitated the design of appropriate and effective labour market responses.
Remerciements
Le Rapport sur le commerce mondial 2008 a été rédigé sous la supervision d’Alejandro Jara, Directeur général adjoint. Patrick Low, Directeur de la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques, a dirigé l’équipe chargée de la rédaction. Les principaux auteurs du rapport sont Marc Bacchetta, Chad Bown, K. Michael Finger, Marion Jansen, Alexander Keck, Roberta Piermartini, Michele Ruta et Robert Teh. Les statistiques commerciales ont été fournies par les statisticiens de la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques, dont les travaux ont été coordonnés par Hubert Escaith, Julia de Verteuil, Andreas Maurer et Jürgen Richtering.
How have production networks changed development strategies in East Asia?
Production networks in East Asia, a result of “the second unbundling”, are currently the most advanced in the world, particularly in machinery industries A new type of international division of labour has fundamentally changed the development strategies of less developed countries (LDCs) as well as developed countries’ (DCs) approach to LDCs.
The trade situation in 2008-09
Signs of a sharp deterioration in the global economy were evident in the second half of 2008 and the first few months of 2009 as world trade flows sagged and production slumped, first in developed economies and then in developing countries. Although world trade grew by 2 per cent in volume terms over the course of 2008, it tapered off in the last six months of the year and was well down on the 6 per cent volume increase posted in 2007. World output measured by real gross domestic product (GDP) also slowed appreciably, falling to 1.7 per cent in 2008 from 3.5 per cent a year earlier.
Définir les politiques publiques axées sur linnovation et leur évolution à lère du numérique
Depuis la crise financière de 2008-2009, lemploi industriel dans certaines économies a diminué et la concurrence internationale dans les secteurs industriels matures sest resserrée ; lévolution de la productivité et des salaires a ralenti et une nouvelle économie reposant sur les technologies numériques est apparue. Dans ce contexte, les politiques industrielles et les politiques en matière dinnovation ont fait lobjet dun renouveau, et ces « nouvelles politiques industrielles » témoignent dune dualité inhérente à toutes les phases de la politique publique, dans la mesure où elles visent à accompagner la difficile modernisation des industries traditionnelles, tout en permettant aux économies de sadapter à la numérisation.
Foreword
The World Trade Report 2006 is the fourth in a series launched in 2002. As in previous years, the present Report has taken up a current issue in trade policy. This year we have looked at subsidies. The contribution we hope to make with these Reports is to aid understanding of complex trade policy issues facing governments. This is not intended primarily as a prescriptive Report, but rather as an invitation to deeper reflection, and it is aimed not just at policy-makers but also the public they represent and the individuals and organizations that actively seek to influence government policies. In addition to the core topic, the Report also takes a brief look at recent developments in trade and discusses some salient features of recent trade developments or a particular aspect of trade. This year, the Report looks briefly at trade in textiles and clothing, flows of international receipts and payments of royalties and license fees, trends in the trade of least-developed countries, and the impact of natural disasters and terrorist acts on international trade flows.
Acknowledgements
This volume has been produced under the WTO Chairs Programme (WCP), a WTO capacity-building programme launched upon the initiative of Hakim Ben Hammouda and Patrick Low in 2010. The WCP is jointly managed by the WTO’s Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation and Economic Research and Statistics Division under the direction of Bridget Chilala and Robert Teh, respectively. The editors thank Fatima Chaudhri and Gerardo Thielen for their contribution to the initial stages of this book project and Clémence Gros for editorial assistance. Anthony Martin and Helen Swain are thanked for managing the production process of the volume.
Gender Welfare Effects of Regional Trade Integration on Households in Ghana
Over the past two to three decades, a number of developing countries have pursued regional economic integration to harmonize trade policies and increase their weight in global trade. Economic integration, particularly in Africa, has also been seen as a way to diversify the structure of African economies, boost intra-African trade and investment, build supply capacity, and sustainably reduce poverty (Osakwe, 2015). These integration efforts have resulted in the creation of regional blocs such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), Southern African Customs Union (SACU), and Arab Maghreb Union (AMU). The trade-related objectives of these blocs include the establishment of custom unions, with a common external tariff (CET) as a major trade policy instrument.
WTO accessions: A market access perspective on growth – the approach of the European Union
A strong multilateral trading system is vital to developing countries’ longterm interests both for its rulebook and for the market access that it guarantees in all key markets. Markets are increasingly located in developing countries. Indeed, for the first time in recent history, South–South trade outweighs North–South trade, even though barriers to South–South trade are much more significant than those to developed countries’ markets. Through their WTO accession, acceding economies can reap the benefits of more and better access to most world markets – that of the European Union being among the biggest.
Avant-propos
À lère numérique, un nombre croissant de gouvernements a adopté des politiques visant à stimuler la croissance grâce à linnovation et à la modernisation technologique. Les conséquences économiques intérieures liées à la pandémie de COVID-19 conduit les pays à renforcer ces politiques. Le présent rapport examine ces tendances ainsi que le rôle que peuvent jouer le commerce et lOMC. Il montre que la coopération internationale a un rôle important à jouer pour aider les pays à atteindre ces objectifs plus efficacement, tout en limitant autant que possible les retombées négatives des politiques nationales.
Introduction
The world is continually changing, driven by technological innovations that affect the way we live and do business. The history of the world economy is intimately linked to technological progress. The invention of the steam engine mechanized production, the discovery of electricity enabled mass production, and the rise of the internet made it possible to coordinate various production stages at a distance, leading to a fragmentation of production that gave rise to global value chains.
The Policy to Mitigate the Effects of the 2008 Global Crisis on Textile, Clothing, Leather and Footwear Jobs in Morocco
This chapter aims to analyse the short episode of labour market adjustment policy in Morocco, adopted as a response to the global crisis of 2008 by the Moroccan Government. It focuses on the rationale, implementation and effects of this policy on the resilience of firms, employment and workers in the textile, clothing, leather and footwear (TCLF) sector.
Subsidies and the WTO
We have discussed the economic arguments for and against different kinds of subsidization earlier in the Report. Economic analysis tells us that market failures of various kinds can sometimes be addressed efficiently with subsidies. It also tells us that subsidies can distort trade flows if they give an artificial competitive advantage to exporters or import-competing industries. Whether a subsidy is viewed as a desirable intervention for correcting a market failure or as an undesirable trade distortion depends sometimes upon who is making the judgement. But economic analysis ought to be able to help, both in determining the desirability of an intervention from a welfare perspective, and in assessing the merits of alternative forms of intervention. Governments may, however, decide to grant certain kinds of subsidies that have little to do with efficiency considerations, and in such cases economic analysis based on a simple welfare analysis may be of limited use. Also in these cases, the analysis is probably most helpful in ensuring that policy-makers are aware of the costs of pursuing particular objectives and of alternative, lesser-cost ways of doing so. We also know that judgements about what to subsidize, by how much and for how long are complex technical questions on which governments frequently lack adequate information.
Remerciements
Le Rapport sur le commerce mondial 2010 a été rédigé sous la direction générale d’Alejandro Jara, Directeur général adjoint, et sous la supervision de Patrick Low, Directeur de la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques. Les principaux auteurs du Rapport sont Marc Bacchetta, Cosimo Beverelli, John Hancock, Alexander Keck, Gaurav Nayyar, Coleman Nee, Roberta Piermartini, Nadia Rocha, Michele Ruta, Robert Teh et Alan Yanovich. D’autres contributions écrites ont été fournies par Marc Auboin, Mireille Cossy et James Windon. Les statistiques commerciales ont été fournies par les statisticiens de la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques, dont les travaux ont été coordonnés par Hubert Escaith, Julia de Verteuil, Andreas Maurer et Jurgen Richtering.
Tendencias recientes en el comercio internacional
En 2005 la economía mundial creció el 3,3 por ciento, menos que en 2004, pero ligeramente por encima del promedio del último decenio. El crecimiento económico siguió siendo fuerte en la mayoría de las regiones, aunque no tan intenso como el año anterior. Sólo la economía europea siguió registrando un bajo crecimiento del PIB, menos de la mitad del registrado en América del Norte. A diferencia de Europa en el Japón se experimentó un fortalecimiento de la actividad económica. Debido a la disminución del crecimiento económico a escala mundial y a la evolución del mercado del petróleo, el crecimiento del comercio de mercancías -al igual que el del PIB- se desaceleró en términos reales, aunque siguió siendo superior al promedio del último decenio.
Sanitary and phytosanitary measures: Trends in accession plurilateral negotiations
Since 1947, effective levels of average tariff protection have declined, as regulatory protectionism – behind the border – has risen. To a large extent, the greater gains from continued trade opening lie in the area of procompetitive domestic regulatory reform, codified in duly enacted legislation with associated implementing regulations. In the practice of WTO accession negotiations, specific obligations have focused more on regulatory areas of the foreign trade regime. The evidence from thirty-three deposited Accession Protocols shows that there have been ninety-three specific obligations undertaken on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures. Pursuant to WTO Accession Protocols, these are now integral to the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO Agreement). The quantum of citation in WTO jurisprudence in the area of SPS is considerable: since 1995, 42 out of 494 WTO dispute settlement cases have cited the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures in the request for consultations. This chapter examines the evolution of accession results on SPS from 1995 to 2015, and their contributions to the enhancement of the existing WTO legal and policy framework on SPS. Specifically, this chapter focuses on the increasing importance of SPS regulatory issues in the foreign trade regimes of WTO members, the substance of specific SPS obligations undertaken by Article XII members and their relationship to the WTO Agreement, and the core questions that have emerged on the SPS accession treaty dialogue in the context of customs union agreements. As demonstrated in this chapter, SPS accession commitments undertaken by thirty-three Article XII WTO members have exercised a significant influence on WTO jurisprudence. To a large extent, this has further clarified and strengthened WTO law.