Economic research and trade policy analysis
Résumé analytique
Le Rapport sur le commerce mondial 2009 porte essentiellement sur certaines mesures contingentes auxquelles les Membres de l’OMC peuvent recourir lors de l’ importation et de l’exportation de marchandises. Le cadre juridique de ces mesures est beaucoup moins développé dans le domaine du commerce des services, mais il est également examiné.
Introduction
Services have become the most dynamic sector of world trade – but in ways that are not always recognized or understood. Just as services have come to dominate many national economies, they are playing a bigger role in the global economy as well. Many factors are driving this – including consumption, liberalization and investment – but the game-changer is technology. Services that were once difficult to trade, because they could only be delivered in person, are becoming far easier to trade, because they can be delivered digitally. The 2019 World Trade Report explores this globalization of services – why it is happening, how it is impacting economies, and where new policy approaches are needed.
Introduction
Product standards specify or pin down the characteristics of a product. These characteristics can include design, size, weight, safety, energy and environmental performance, interoperability, material, and even the process of production. Examples of standards include the dimensions of freight containers and of screw threads; safety performance of seat belts, air bags and medical devices; pasteurization of milk; and protocols that allow computers from different vendors to communicate with one another.
Resumen
El comercio internacional es parte esencial del proceso de globalización. Durante muchos años, los gobiernos de la mayor parte de los países han abierto cada vez más sus economías al comercio internacional, ya sea a través del sistema multilateral de comercio, de la intensificación de la cooperación regional o en el marco de programas internos de reforma. En términos más generales, el comercio y la globalización han reportado beneficios ingentes a muchos países y ciudadanos. El comercio ha permitido a muchas naciones obtener los beneficios de la especialización y hacer economías para producir a una escala más eficiente. Ha incrementado la productividad, impulsado la difusión del conocimiento y de nuevas tecnologías y aumentado la posibilidad de elección de los consumidores. Pero la opción de una mayor integración en la economía mundial no siempre ha gozado de popularidad y los beneficios del comercio y de la globalización no siempre han llegado a todos los sectores de la sociedad. El escepticismo sobre el comercio es cada vez mayor en determinados ámbitos y la finalidad del tema central del Informe sobre el Comercio Mundial de este año, titulado “El comercio en un mundo en proceso de globalización”, es recordar lo que sabemos sobre los beneficios del comercio internacional y los retos que plantea un nivel mayor de integración.
Improving the accounting frameworks for analyses of global value chains
The use of global input-output tables, and the creation of Trade in Value-Added (TiVA) statistics, has greatly improved our understanding of the fragmentation of global production through value chains. However, their application requires a number of assumptions that, in practice, typically understate the degree of interconnectedness. TiVA estimates implicitly assume identical production functions across firms within an industry, when in reality production functions differ considerably. Typically, larger (and foreign-owned) firms tend to be more trade oriented than smaller (and domestically-owned) firms. As a result, TiVA statistics underestimate the import content of exports for the economy as a whole, a key indicator characterizing global production. Moreover, TiVA analyses are based on basic price concepts, which provide an appropriate view of production through value chains, but are less well equipped to analyse consumption, particularly as they exclude significant distribution margins (in particular retail and wholesale activities, often including marketing activities and brands), which add value at the end of the chain. This can distort analyses using “smile curves”, which show the distance from final demand of different sectors within value chains, and in turn understate the scale of jobs supported by trade.
Compromisos de política comercial y medidas de contingencia
Los acuerdos comerciales definen las normas para la dirección de la política comercial. Esas normas deben establecer un equilibrio entre compromisos y flexibilidad. En tanto que una excesiva flexibilidad puede menoscabar el valor de los compromisos, un margen de flexibilidad demasiado estrecho puede hacer que las normas sean políticamente insostenibles. Esta tensión entre compromisos creíbles y flexibilidad está siempre latente en las negociaciones comerciales. Por ejemplo, la cuestión de un “mecanismo de salvaguardia especial” (la medida en que se autorizaría a los países en desarrollo a proteger a los agricultores frente al aumento brusco de las importaciones) fue decisiva en las deliberaciones de la minirreunión ministerial de julio de 2008, en la que se trató de acordar las modalidades de negociación -o un proyecto definitivo- para la agricultura y el acceso a los mercados para los productos no agrícolas (AMNA).
Actual and perceived effects of offshoring on economic insecurity: The role of labour market regimes
Despite broad public concern with the effect of firms’ offshoring behaviour on economic insecurity, there is scant research. Most analysis over the past 20 years – widely acknowledged as a period of rapid globalization – has focused on the impact of offshoring on workers depending on whether they are “skilled” or “unskilled”. The main research question has been the relative contribution of trade versus technological change to the rise in wage inequality in many industrialized countries. In this chapter we seek to broaden our understanding of the effect of offshoring on economic insecurity and also to connect the question of economic insecurity to national labour market institutions and to workers’ perceptions of globalization. We shift the focus to the effect of offshoring on the labour share of income rather than on its relative impact on high- and low-skilled workers. The labour share (or one minus the capital share) is affected by firm-level changes in productivity, labour demand and the distribution of value added. It is useful to capture profits and wages in the measure of economic security, since offshoring is driven by the corporations’ pursuit of higher profits and greater flexibility. Moreover, the labour share comprises workers’ earnings and employment, and analysis of the impact of offshoring on economic insecurity should include both.
Conclusions
Over the last few decades, services have become the backbone of the global economy and the most dynamic component of international trade. Services are increasingly easier to trade thanks in large part to digitalization. From online education to virtual law firms, technology is penetrating all services sectors, transforming services traditionally delivered face-to-face into remotely tradable services. Trade, long dominated by the exchange of goods, increasingly involves services, transforming the global economy in the process.
The economics of subsidies
The purpose of this Section is to assist the reader to better understand the twin questions of why governments use subsidies and how subsidies impact international trade. As is frequently the case in economic analysis, the starting point for what follows is a “benchmark” economy featuring perfectly competitive markets. This approach provides the basis for general insights into the impact of policy interventions such as subsidies. As discussed further below, under the condition of a perfectly competitive market, no case can be made for a subsidy. Introducing a subsidy or some other government measure within a perfect market framework will be inefficient and welfare-diminishing. But if the perfect market assumption is relaxed, situations may arise where a government measure like a subsidy improves welfare. An efficient subsidy would correct a market failure, bringing social and private costs and benefits into alignment.
Prólogo
En la era digital, son cada vez más los Gobiernos que han adoptado políticas encaminadas a impulsar el crecimiento por medio de la innovación y la modernización tecnológica. Las repercusiones económicas a nivel nacional asociadas a la pandemia de COVID-19 están llevando a los países a fortalecer esas políticas. En el presente informe se examinan esas tendencias y el papel que desempeñan el comercio y la OMC en este contexto. Se muestra asimismo que la cooperación internacional contribuye de manera significativa a que los países alcancen esos objetivos con mayor eficacia, minimizando al mismo tiempo los efectos indirectos negativos de las políticas nacionales.
Foreword
The World Trade Report 2004 is the second annual publication in the WTO Secretariat’s new series. As I indicated last year, the World Trade Report seeks to deepen public understanding of current trade policy issues and to contribute to more informed consideration of the options facing governments. Like last year, the Report begins with a review of recent world trade developments. This is followed by three shorter essays – on trade preferences, the temporary movement of natural persons, and geographical indications. The main topic of the Report this year is coherence.
Supply chains and trade finance
The issue of finance is an integral one in the supply chain context, given that supply chains embody flows of information, capital, goods, and labour. The concept of credit chains, reviewed here, directly addresses this. The supply chain concept has traditionally tended to emphasise the tangible/material dimensions of the chain. As a result, the financial dimension had been relatively neglected in the literature. This changed with the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. As both a potential aggravator and victim of the crisis, trade finance and supply chains became the subject of a new and rapidly growing body of literature. Previously, the subject had been largely addressed in the context of operations research and economic development. We review findings from all research areas in the literature, and observe significant merit in the credit chain concept of supply chain financial flows. Migration of the concept to other areas of supply chain research could potentially address financial dimensions of supply chains that are otherwise underemphasised in the literature.
Prefacio del director general
El Informe sobre el Comercio Mundial de este año se centra en la importancia del comercio en un mundo que durante los últimos decenios se ha caracterizado por una dependencia creciente entre los países. Esta interdependencia -que hoy llamamos globalización- es un fenómeno complejo y polifacético que comporta una intensa interacción política, social y económica a escala nacional e internacional. Pocos pondrían en duda los beneficios que ha producido la globalización en forma de una mayor prosperidad para centenares de millones de personas y una mayor estabilidad entre los países. Sin embargo, muchas personas de diferentes sociedades de todo el mundo han disfrutado poco o nada los beneficios de la globalización. Los retos a los que se enfrentan los gobiernos nacionales para administrar la globalización son formidables y para que se extienda la prosperidad se requiere una decidida unidad de miras.
Résumé analytique
Lors de la quatrième Conférence ministérielle de l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) organisée à Doha en novembre 2001, les Ministres ont engagé un large éventail de négociations commerciales multilatérales et adopté un programme de travail. Ce mandat - appelé parfois Programme de Doha pour le développement - témoigne de leur volonté commune de veiller à ce que le système commercial soit pertinent et adapté aux besoins des pays en développement. Les négociations et le programme de travail couvrent, entre autres, l’accès aux marchés des produits manufacturés, l’agriculture et les services, certaines règles (mesures antidumping, subventions et mesures compensatoires, accords régionaux), le commerce et l’environnement, les droits de propriété intellectuelle qui touchent au commerce, l’interaction du commerce et de la politique de la concurrence, la transparence des marchés publics, la facilitation des échanges et le règlement des différends. Les pays en développement sont pour beaucoup dans l’inscription à l’ordre du jour de questions telles que le commerce et le transfert de technologie; le commerce, la dette et les finances; les petites économies; les questions de mise en oeuvre (s’agissant en particulier des dossiers en suspens depuis le Cycle d’Uruguay) ou le traitement spécial et différencié. Les points de vue divergent encore sur les modalités – et, parfois, l’opportunité – de l’inclusion de toutes ces questions dans les négociations, dont la conclusion est prévue pour la fin de 2004.
The influence of international non-state actors in multilateral and preferential trade agreements: A question of forum shopping?
This chapter examines the influence that non-state actors (NSAs) seek to exert on trade policy formulation at the WTO multilateral level and at the national governmental level. The analysis focuses on international NSAs that have a substantial presence in Geneva, either because they are based there or because they seek to engage on a regularized basis with the WTO. The main objectives of this chapter are to explore how these NSAs seek to influence trade policy development, both at the WTO and the national level, especially in relation to the question of forum choice: that is, the relative benefits of negotiating multilaterally or preferentially. It also investigates whether those NSAs involved in trade policy-making consider the WTO versus PTAs as a form of ‘forum-shopping’ to pursue their particular agendas, interests and objectives.
Prólogo
El comercio ha mejorado el nivel de vida de miles de millones de personas, muchas de las cuales son mujeres. Numerosos datos empíricos demuestran que el comercio ha dado lugar a un aumento de la productividad, una mayor competencia, precios más bajos y un incremento de los ingresos y el bienestar. Sin embargo, como ha puesto de manifiesto la pandemia de COVID-19, el comercio puede verse gravemente perturbado. Existe el riesgo de que, a raíz de la crisis provocada por la COVID-19, se pierdan algunas de las ganancias económicas que han obtenido las mujeres gracias al comercio. Por consiguiente, la cooperación es esencial para mantener condiciones que permitan una rápida recuperación y para crear un comercio más inclusivo y sostenible en el futuro.
Thailand
The politicization of trade policy-making in Thailand is arguably more pronounced than elsewhere in the world, including at the global level where multilateral trade negotiations (MTNs) under the World Trade Organization (WTO) are currently stalled. Indeed, the Thai case of trade policy quagmire is quite dramatic for having adversely impinged on the country’s body politic to the extent that a popularly elected government was ousted in a military coup, and an anti-free trade agreement (FTA) bias worked its way into a new military-organized constitution, contributing to a prolonged and protracted political crisis. That Thai trade policy has become increasingly politicized over the first decade of the twenty-first century is attributable to a number of dynamics, some in parallel to trade policy experiences in the rest of the world, others more specific to domestic circumstances.
Introduction
Au cours des dernières décennies, Internet a fait irruption dans chaque recoin de notre vie des interactions sociales aux loisirs en passant par le travail et a fondamentalement remodelé nos économies, en réduisant considérablement le coût d’acquisition et d’échange de l’information. Il a alimenté la révolution numérique, modifiant radicalement notre façon de communiquer, de consommer et de produire, et il a profondément transformé le commerce international et ce qui est échangé, par qui et de quelle façon.
Mexico
In the last quarter of a century, trade policy in Mexico has undergone dramatic changes. After more than three decades dominated by an import substitution industrialization (ISI) strategy based on high trade barriers to protect the domestic market, in the early 1980s Mexico launched an ambitious process of trade liberalization. The levels of protection were reduced, first unilaterally, as part of the process of economic reform, and subsequently, through the negotiation of bilateral and regional preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with countries in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.
Foreword
In the digital age, a growing number of governments have adopted policies aimed at boosting growth through innovation and technological upgrading. The domestic economic fallout linked to the COVID-19 pandemic is leading countries to strengthen these policies. This report looks at these trends, and at how trade and the WTO fit in. It shows that there is a significant role for international cooperation to make countries’ pursuit of such goals more effective, while minimizing negative spill-overs from national policies.
Impacto del comercio en las mujeres y sus distintas funciones
Desde hace tres decenios, el mundo está cada vez más integrado. El comercio de mercancías como proporción del producto interior bruto (PIB) aumentó de cerca del 43% en 1995 a casi el 60% en 2017. Asimismo, los aranceles han ido disminuyendo desde el establecimiento del Acuerdo General sobre Aranceles Aduaneros y Comercio (GATT) en 1948. La liberalización unilateral y ocho rondas de negociaciones multilaterales han reducido considerablemente los aranceles aplicados por los Miembros de la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC). Los tipos de la nación más favorecida (NMF) aplicados han bajado de niveles superiores al 10% en 1995 a niveles ligeramente superiores al 7% en 2017 (gráfico 1.1). Los países que están abiertos al comercio internacional suelen crecer más rápidamente, innovar, mejorar la productividad y ofrecer mayores ingresos y más oportunidades a sus habitantes.
Executive summary
The World Trade Report 2005 begins with a brief review of salient trends in international trade, focusing firstly on recent developments and then examining medium-term developments in the oil sector and the pharmaceutical sector. Section II of WTR 2005 contains the core topic of this year’s Report, which is standards and trade in the context of the WTO. The Section looks first at the economics of standards and trade, and then at a range of institutional and policy issues. This is followed by a discussion of standards in the multilateral trading system. Section III of the Report takes up three discrete and topical issues of relevance to international trade. The three thematic essays in this Section are on the use of quantitative economics in WTO dispute settlement, trade in air transport services and offshoring services. The essay on the use of quantitative economic analysis in WTO dispute settlement procedures explains the kinds of quantitative techniques and econometric models that have been applied in various WTO legal disputes and discusses the use that was made of such analysis in a selected range of cases. The essay on trade in air transport services takes a close look at key characteristics of the industry and examines how it has evolved over time. The analysis also considers the economics of this sector, and a number of issues relating to competition, regulation, governance and trade in air transport services. Finally, the essay on offshoring services considers the economic characteristics of the activity, its scope and implications, and how it is relevant to the General Agreement on Trade in Services.
The future of Asia: Unleashing the power of trade and governance
Half a century ago, the future of Asia looked quite bleak. Civil and regional conflict ravaged many parts of the region. China was still closed to the world, and in the throes of its Cultural Revolution. India and Pakistan were recovering from wars, Indonesia and the Philippines were under authoritarian rule, and several Central Asian countries were mere shadow states of the former Soviet Union. Since then, Asia has surprised the world: Japan and the rest of East Asia have rapidly become industrialised, and successive years of high growth have been attained by other Asian countries, notably China, India and several countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. This growth has been driven in great part by rapidly expanding trade, with the liberalisation of China in the late 1970s and of India in the 1990s, greater integration among North-east and Southeast Asian countries, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Tendencias recientes en el comercio internacional
La economía mundial creció en 2004 el 4 por ciento, la tasa anual de crecimiento más elevada en más de un decenio. Por otra parte, el PIB mundial tuvo el año pasado una base regional más amplia que en los tres años anteriores, lo que constituyó una base sólida para la aceleración del crecimiento del comercio mundial. El comercio mundial de mercancías aumentó en 2004 el 9 por ciento en términos reales (el mejor resultado anual desde 2000) y más del doble que la producción mundial (PIB medido a los tipos del mercado). Además, el crecimiento del comercio superó con creces el promedio del crecimiento registrado durante el último decenio (véase el gráfico 1 y el cuadro 1).
Supply chains, upgrading and development
“Development” is a far-reaching term, and the subjects of the reviewed literature vary by geographical and organisational coverage, stage of socioeconomic development under study, and perspective adopted. More specifically and substantively addressed is increased participation in global value chains, including upgrading, as applied to firms, industries, and regions. This is driven by both the business practitioner’s and policy maker’s perspectives, and is addressed through the global value chain framework. In contrast to supply chains, value chains provide a better macro-scale perspective on matters such as distribution of income and power across firm networks, and the interlinkages between firms and their socioeconomic environments. Operationalisable typologies of upgrading and value chain governance reviewed here will be of interest to the business practitioner and policy maker. Our literature search also yields a niche body of literature on the subject of rural development and agriculture, which is reviewed near the end of the chapter.
Export diversification and economic growth: The case of Mauritius
The acceleration of global trade in the latter half of the 20th century has seen patterns of trade vastly differing from those predicted by classical trade theories built around perfect competition, comparative advantage and constant returns to scale (Krugman, 1980). Based on Adam Smith’s concept of division of labour and specialization for economic growth and development, and the Heckscher-Ohlin Samuelson (HOS) model of international trade, countries should specialize in producing those goods in which they have a comparative advantage. Recent literature, instead, has found that countries appear to diversify in terms of production and exports as they grow.
Acknowledgements
This publication, Trade and Food Standards, has been jointly prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Cómo determinan las limitaciones y oportunidades la función de las mujeres en el comercio
Las mujeres se podrían beneficiar del aumento del comercio, pero se enfrentan a obstáculos que les impiden o dificultan el acceso a esas oportunidades. Estas limitaciones explican en parte por qué las mujeres trabajan en determinados sectores, poseen y dirigen determinados tipos de empresas, consumen determinados tipos de productos o adoptan determinadas decisiones en el seno de sus familias, como se indica en el capítulo 1. El creciente protagonismo de los servicios en la economía y el comercio mundiales (en adelante, denominado terciarización), el auge de las cadenas de valor mundiales (CVM) y la adopción de nuevas tecnologías crean nuevas y excelentes oportunidades para que las mujeres puedan comerciar más y aprovechar mejor los beneficios del comercio. Examinar estas tendencias desde una perspectiva de género permite ilustrar cómo pueden las mujeres obtener una mayor proporción de los beneficios que ofrece el comercio.
Institutions and policy issues
This Section explains how standardization and conformity assessment work in practice and describes the relevant characteristics of standardization and conformity assessment infrastructures in various regions of the world. It starts with a discussion of the standardization process and considers where standardization takes place, how it is organized and who participates in the process. Subsection 2 discusses the organization of conformity assessment at the international, regional and national levels and describes the ways in which conformity assessment requirements may impact on trade.
El comercio de servicios en el futuro
Esta sección pretende ofrecer algunas orientaciones sobre cómo evolucionará la estructura del comercio. Para comenzar, se presentan mediante un enfoque novedoso las tendencias recientes de los costos del comercio relacionados con los servicios y se señalan los factores que afectan a esos costos. A continuación, se examinan las principales tendencias futuras en cuanto a tecnología, demografía, ingresos y cambio climático para explicar de qué modo pueden influir estas en las decisiones de los países sobre con qué servicios e interlocutores comerciar, así como sobre su forma de comerciar. Por último, se cuantifica la posible repercusión de estas tendencias en el comercio de servicios empleando el Modelo de Comercio Mundial de la OMC.
Appendix
To investigate the state of the industry, the authors conducted a quantitative survey to practitioners from banks, fintech companies, multilateral development banks, industry associations, trade governance bodies, consultancies and trade policy experts. In total, 105 responses were received.
Technical notes
WTO members are frequently referred to as “countries”, although some members are not countries in the usual sense of the word but are officially “customs territories”. The definition of geographical and other groupings in this report does not imply an expression of opinion by the WTO Secretariat concerning the status of any country or territory, the delimitation of its frontiers, nor the rights and obligations of any WTO member in respect of WTO agreements. The colours, boundaries, denominations and classifications in the maps of the publication do not imply, on the part of the WTO, any judgement on the legal or other status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of any boundary.
SPS standards and international competitiveness in Africa: The case of senegal
Despite a steady decline in its share of GDP and exports, the agricultural sector continues to play an important role in African economies, and in Senegal in particular, where it employs approximately 60 per cent of the labour force. It accounts for a quarter of national public investment, but contributed only 6 per cent to GDP between 2000 and 2009 (Ministère de l’Economie et des Finances du Sénégal, 2011). Horticulture is one of the promising sectors, as can be observed not only from a rapid growth strategy but also from many national agricultural development strategies, because of the vast range of products included and the high level of income it generates for producers, especially in urban and suburban areas. In addition, Senegal has both a favourable climate and a good geographical position for the export of tropical off-season products. These factors have enabled the country to increase the production and export of fruit and vegetables significantly. Horticultural production has experienced a boom over the last ten years, increasing from about 150,000 to 228,000 metric tons between 1992 and 2000 and to 429,000 metric tons in 2007, an increase of 5.5 per cent per year. In 2008, the production of vegetables (excluding potatoes and fresh tomatoes) recorded a growth rate of 8 per cent and the production of fruit experienced a growth rate of 81 per cent. Accordingly, exports have increased from 6,175 metric tons in 1995 to 9,000 metric tons in 2000 and 31,000 metric tons in 2009, an increase of about 5.5 per cent per year. The main target markets for exports are neighbouring countries and the European Union (Ndoye-Niane, 2004; Senegal, National Agency of Statistics and Demography, 2006–2010).
La situación del comercio EN 2008-2009
En la segunda mitad de 2008 y los primeros meses de 2009 empezaron a aparecer señales claras de un marcado deterioro de la economía mundial, con la reducción de los flujos comerciales mundiales y la caída de la producción, primero en las economías desarrolladas y después en las economías en desarrollo. Aunque el comercio mundial aumentó un 2 por ciento en volumen a lo largo de 2008, en los seis últimos meses del año su crecimiento se frenó, quedando muy por debajo del 6 por ciento de aumento en volumen experimentado en 2007. La producción mundial medida en función del producto interno bruto (PIB) real también sufrió una notable desaceleración: disminuyó a un 1,7 por ciento en 2008, frente al 3,5 por ciento registrado un año antes.
Trade and Poverty Reduction: New Evidence of Impacts in Developing Countries: Introduction and Overview
In recent years there has been an intensification of the long-running debate on the effects of trade integration. This debate has focused largely on the impact of trade in advanced economies, which has risked diverting attention away from the impact of trade on people’s lives in developing countries, and especially the extreme poor. This volume brings together new research, using a range of different analytical approaches, that examines how the extreme poor have fared following trade liberalization in various developing countries and regions and the challenges that poor people face in benefitting from trade.
Trade Multilateralism in the Twenty-First Century
Trade multilateralism in the twenty-first century faces a serious test as weakness in the global economy and fast-paced technological changes create a challenging environment for world trade. This book examines how an updated and robust rules-based multilateral framework, anchored in the WTO, remains indispensable to maximizing the benefits of global economic integration and to reviving world trade. By examining recent accessions to the WTO, it reveals how the growing membership of the WTO has helped to support domestic reforms and to strengthen the rules-based framework of the WTO. It argues that the new realities of the twenty-first century require an upgrade to the architecture of the multilateral trading system. By erecting its ‘upper floors’ on the foundation of existing trade rules, the WTO can continue to adapt to a fast-changing environment and to maximize the benefits brought about by its ever-expanding membership.
Multilateralizing regional trade arrangements in Asia
East Asian economies have grown rapidly over the last four decades, driven by the expansion of international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). They have now moved toward formal economic integration through bilateral and plurilateral free trade agreements (FTAs). The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is emerging as the integration hub for FTAs in East Asia, while the People’s Republic of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea also have formal economic ties with ASEAN, and India, Australia and New Zealand are joining the bandwagon. How can East Asia ensure that the region’s noodle bowl of FTAs can be consolidated into a single East Asian FTA – a stepping stone toward global integration?
Introduction
All over the world, governments are actively and openly intervening in economies to boost innovation, generate new technologies, and foster cutting-edge industries. These interventions can have positive or negative impacts, especially in today’s hyper-connected global economy. On the one hand, they can expand knowledge, enhance productivity and spread the essential tools of global growth and development. But on the other hand, they can also distort trade, divert investment and benefit one economy at the expense of others. International cooperation and rules are needed more than ever to ensure that governments’ new focus on innovation and technology policies maximizes positive spill-overs and minimizes negative ones – and to ensure that a race for technological leadership does not morph into a struggle for technological dominance. The 2020 World Trade Report looks at the role of innovation and technology policies in an increasingly digitalized world economy, and explains the role of the WTO in this changing context.
Le commerce des services dans l’avenir
Cette section vise à offrir quelques orientations sur l’évolution future de la structure du commerce des services. S’appuyant sur une approche originale, elle commence par exposer les tendances récentes en matière de coûts du commerce liés aux services et par recenser les facteurs qui influent sur ces coûts. Ensuite, les grandes tendances à venir en matière de technologie, de démographie, de revenu et de changement climatique sont examinées afin d’expliquer en quoi elles peuvent influer sur le choix des pays quant aux services qu’ils échangeront, avec qui ils les échangeront et de quelle manière. Enfin, l’impact potentiel de ces tendances sur le commerce des services est quantifié au moyen du Modèle du commerce mondial de l’OMC.
Coherencia
En el presente estudio, tomamos como punto de partida la premisa de que una serie de medidas de liberalización del comercio, bien diseñadas y adoptadas en el orden correcto, y un conjunto bien estructurado de normas comerciales pueden hacer una contribución positiva al crecimiento y al desarrollo. No obstante, el alcance de esa contribución también depende de otras políticas. En este estudio, el concepto de coherencia se emplea para describir una situación en que las políticas pertinentes apuntan todas en la misma dirección. En un mundo caracterizado por la multiplicidad de objetivos y prioridades en la esfera normativa y en el cual no existe un consenso sobre un régimen normativo ideal, el concepto de coherencia no se puede definir con absoluta precisión; más bien, ese concepto refleja el hecho de que en materia de políticas, la interdependencia es real y la ineficiencia o el descuido en una esfera puede reducir la eficacia de las medidas que se adopten en otra. El concepto de coherencia no se puede definir de manera precisa a menos que se establezca formalmente un conjunto de objetivos de política y se determine el orden de prioridades de esos objetivos para saber, llegado el momento, cómo se harán las concesiones mutuas necesarias. Para formular políticas plenamente coherentes también habría que indicar en la definición la índole exacta de todas las intervenciones pertinentes del Estado y el momento oportuno de hacerlas. Esa tarea va mucho más allá del alcance del presente estudio. En este contexto, el concepto de coherencia se refiere simplemente a la idea de que la aplicación de criterios que se apoyen mutuamente en esferas normativas conexas probablemente producirá una mayor armonía entre los objetivos y los resultados. En el contexto de este estudio, la coherencia es una cuestión de grado: los beneficios de una política comercial bien fundada serían mayores si hubiera más coherencia, es decir, si se adoptaran políticas complementarias en otras esferas.
Policy responses to promote women’s benefits from trade
Removing trade barriers that impede womens access to international markets can contribute to enhancing womens participation in trade and benefits from trade. Women would benefit from lowered tariffs and nontariff barriers and improved trade facilitation and access to trade finance.
Regulation of postal services in a changing market environment: Lessons from Australia and elsewhere
The digital revolution and the exponential growth of the Internet have led to radical changes in the ways in which countries conduct their commerce, communicate and store information. Coupled with the digital revolution, the last several decades have also seen a fundamental rethink of the role of the state in the economy. Broadly, the past reliance in many countries on state control and regulation has given way to a greater emphasis on competition, trade openness and market forces.
WTO accession negotiations: Trends and results in agriculture plurilaterals
Thirty-three members have acceded to the WTO since it was established in 1995. In the majority of these accession negotiations, reforms to the agriculture sector have featured as a particularly sensitive issue for acceding governments. Why is this the case? What are the existing members’ expectations of acceding governments in relation to agriculture? And how have acceding governments fared through this process? While agriculture trade accounts for less than 10 per wto_cent of world merchandise trade, the agriculture sector, particularly for many developing countries, can be significant in terms of its contribution to both gross domestic product and employment.
Wto Domestic Regulation and Services Trade
Domestic regulation of services sectors has a significant impact on services trade liberalization, which is why General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) disciplines are negotiated in the WTO. With the help of analyses and case studies from academics, regulators and trade experts, this book explores the scope and limits of WTO legal principles to promote domestic regulatory reform. Case studies discuss country specific challenges and experiences of regulating important service sectors, such as finance, telecommunications, distribution, legal, education, health, postal and logistics services, as well as the role of regulatory impact assessments. The findings will interest trade officials, policy makers, regulators, think tanks, and businesses concerned with the implications of domestic regulation on access to services markets, and with the opportunities for formulating trade disciplines in this area. It is also a useful resource for academics and students researching regulatory approaches and practices in services sectors.
Définition des subventions
Aux origines du GATT, on n’accordait peu d’attention aux incidences commerciales des subventions, mais les parties contractantes se sont vite rendu compte qu’elles devaient s’en préoccuper pour garantir la valeur des concessions tarifaires dont elles étaient convenues. Un pays peut très bien affaiblir les engagements qu’il a pris en matière d’accès aux marchés en accordant des subventions à des secteurs qui concurrencent les importations. Par ailleurs, les subventions accordées aux exportateurs concurrents de pays tiers peuvent détourner les échanges d’un pays qui comptait sur l’accès négocié à ces marchés. Ces préoccupations ont donné lieu à l’élaboration de disciplines plus strictes que celles qui étaient prévues initialement dans le GATT (de 1947). Une étape majeure a été la négociation du “Code des subventions“ plurilatéral durant le Tokyo Round, puis de l’Accord de l’OMC sur les subventions et les mesures compensatoires (Accord SMC ) et de l’Accord sur l’agriculture.
Trade in Intangible Assets along Global Value Chains and Intellectual Property Protection
Trade is becoming increasingly intangible, but current trade statistics do not capture the international trade in the services of intangible assets through global value chains (GVCs). The increasing importance of intangibles in international trade has made intellectual property (IP) protection an even greater area of concern. Intangible assets include patents, trademarks, copyrights, brand names, product designs, software, databases, and certain types of business organization structures (Cummins 2005).
Introduction
Quantitative and detailed trade policy information and analysis are more necessary now than they have ever been. In recent years, globalization and, more specifically, trade opening have become increasingly contentious. It is, therefore, important for policy-makers and other trade policy stakeholders to have access to detailed, reliable information and analysis on the effects of trade policies, as this information is needed at different stages of the policy-making process.
The Information Technology Agreement: Sui generis or model stepping stone?
The Information Technology Agreement (ITA), negotiated in 1996, is a remarkably successful sectoral agreement. Broad coverage of products was achieved ex ante, rather than by building up coverage over “rounds” of negotiations tariff line by tariff line. A schedule for staged reductions of tariffs to zero was achieved ex ante, rather than tariff-reduction formulas becoming subjects for negotiation in themselves in subsequent rounds. Multilateral country coverage was achieved nearly ex ante, in that the initial set of countries agreed on the rules, many additional countries joined bandwagon-style in the initial months following inception of the agreement, and nearly half of all WTO member countries have joined as of 2007.
Technological progress, diffusion, and opportunities for developing countries: lessons from China
The nature of technology used in products plays a major role in determining the governance structure of value chains and the benefits of participation for developing countries. Standardization through breaking production into modules with a high degree of functional autonomy (limited mutual interference between modules) can dramatically reduce the amount of research and development (R&D), learning by doing, and the number of complementary skills needed to produce a good. This greatly increases opportunities for developing country firms to participate in formerly capital-intensive industries through reducing entry costs into global value chains. However, widespread access to standardized products with little ability to modify technical features can lead to an excessive supply of homogeneous products in a local market, resulting in intense price competition and limited technology transfer. By contrast, technology that facilitates scope for product modification and greater interaction with technology owners can help boost technology transfer and product upgrading by developing country firms. The chapter illustrates this interaction between changes in technology and opportunities for developing countries through developments in the automotive and mobile phone handset industries, with a particular reference to China’s growth experience. It also finds that automation is likely to have only a limited impact on developing countries’ opportunities to participate in value chains through the offshoring of production by high-income countries, at least in the short term.
Recursos naturales: Definiciones, estructura del comercio y globalización
Esta sección es una amplia descripción del papel de los recursos naturales en la economía mundial. Comienza con un apartado dedicado a las definiciones y la terminología, que centra la atención en las características principales que distinguen a los recursos naturales de otros tipos de productos objeto de comercio. Estas características son su carácter agotable, su distribución geográfica desigual, la existencia de externalidades en las repercusiones de su extracción y utilización, el predominio del sector en muchas economías nacionales y la elevada inestabilidad de los precios de este tipo de productos. Se presentan diversos datos estadísticos relacionados con los recursos naturales para ilustrar la magnitud y dirección de las corrientes comerciales mundiales.
Natural resources: Definitions, trade patterns and globalization
This section provides a broad overview of the role that trade in natural resources plays in the global economy. It begins with a discussion of definitions and terminology, focusing on key features that distinguish natural resources from other types of traded goods. These features include the exhaustibility of natural resources, the uneven geographical distribution of resource endowments, the presence of externalities in the spillover effects of extraction and use of natural resources, the dominance of the natural resources sector in many national economies, and the high degree of price volatility in this class of goods. A variety of statistical data related to natural resources are presented in order to illustrate the magnitude and direction of global trade flows.
Quelques tendances et questions commerciales
L’Accord sur les textiles et les vêtements (ATV) est arrivé à expiration le 1er janvier 2005. L’incidence que la levée des restrictions contingentaires pourrait avoir sur la production et le commerce de ces produits a suscité beaucoup d’intérêt, et aussi beaucoup d’inquiétude. Pour la plupart des observateurs, il était évident que la libéralisation accrue ferait des gagnants et des perdants. Il est trop tôt pour dire comment évoluera le marché au-delà de la période relativement brève sur laquelle reposent nos observations; aussi allons-nous examiner ici l’évolution de la structure des échanges depuis la suppression (d’une grande partie) des restrictions quantitatives. Une mise en garde s’impose ici: même s’il ne fait aucun doute que l’expiration de l’ATV a influé sur la structure des échanges observée en 2005, nous n’avons pas élaboré d’approche analytique rigoureuse pour examiner les autres facteurs susceptibles de l’influencer.
Quel rôle pour la coopération internationale en ce qui concerne les politiques relatives au commerce des services ?
Le commerce des services ne cesse d’évoluer. La technologie et les réformes réglementaires entraînent une transformation fondamentale, en créant une nouvelle demande tout en contribuant à la réduction des coûts du commerce et en offrant de nouvelles possibilités en matière de commerce des services. Sous l’effet des chaînes de valeur mondiales, des évolutions démographiques, de l’augmentation du revenu par habitant dans les marchés émergents et des préoccupations environnementales, la demande de services fournis depuis l’étranger est en hausse. L’évolution des modes, des acteurs et de la composition du commerce des services accroît sa contribution possible à la croissance économique inclusive et au développement, mais elle engendre également un certain nombre de défis auxquels il faut répondre pour réaliser ce potentiel.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Michela Esposito for her comments and valuable research assistance. They also would like to thank Delina Agnosteva, James Anderson, Richard Barnett, Davin Chor, Gabriel Felbermayr, Benedikt Heid, Russell Hillberry, Lou Jing, Ma Lin, Antonella Liberatore, Andreas Maurer, Jurgen Richtering, Stela Rubinova, Serge Shikher, Costas Syropoulos, Robert Teh, Thomas Verbeet, Mykyta Vesselovsky, Joschka Wanner, Thomas Zylkin, as well as the seminar and workshop participants at the ifo Institute, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the U.S. International Trade Commission, Global Affairs Canada, the University of Ottawa, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the Tsenov Academy of Economics, and the National University of Singapore for helpful suggestions and discussions. Thanks also go to Vlasta Macku (UNCTAD Virtual Institute) for her continuous support to this project and her role in initiating this inter-organizational cooperation.
Acknowledgements
The World Trade Report has been written under the general direction of Patrick Low, Director of the Economic Research and Statistics Division. The main authors of the Report are Bijit Bora, K. Michael Finger, Marion Jansen, Alexander Keck, Patrick Low, Hildegunn Nordas, Roberta Piermartini and Robert Teh. Trade statistics and tariff information were provided by the Statistics Group of the Economic Research and Statistics Division, co-ordinated by Guy Karsenty, Julia de Verteuil, Andreas Maurer and Jürgen Richtering.
Resumen
El Informe sobre el Comercio Mundial 2005 comienza con un breve examen de las tendencias destacadas en el comercio internacional, centrándose primero en la evolución reciente, para examinar a continuación la evolución a medio plazo del sector del petróleo y del sector farmacéutico. La Sección II contiene el tema básico del Informe de este año: las normas y el comercio en el contexto de la OMC. Se analizan en primer lugar los aspectos económicos de las normas y el comercio, para abordar después varias cuestiones institucionales y de política. Seguidamente, se examinan las normas en el sistema multilateral de comercio. En la Sección III del Informe se estudian tres temas distintos y de actualidad que son importantes para el comercio internacional. Los tres ensayos temáticos de esta Sección se refieren a la utilización de la economía cuantitativa en la solución de diferencias en la OMC, el comercio internacional de servicios de transporte aéreo y la deslocalización de los servicios. En el ensayo sobre la utilización del análisis económico cuantitativo en los procedimientos de solución de diferencias de la OMC se explican las técnicas cuantitativas y los modelos econométricos que se han aplicado en la OMC en varios procedimientos de solución de diferencias y se examina cómo se ha utilizado este análisis en una serie de asuntos. En el ensayo sobre el comercio de servicios de transporte aéreo se analizan detenidamente las características básicas del sector y la forma en que ha evolucionado con el paso del tiempo. También se abordan los aspectos económicos de este sector y varias cuestiones relacionadas con la competencia, la reglamentación, la gobernanza y el comercio de servicios de transporte aéreo. Por último, en el ensayo sobre la deslocalización de los servicios se estudian las características económicas de la actividad, su alcance y sus consecuencias, así como su pertinencia para el Acuerdo General sobre el Comercio de Servicios.
Supply chains in the business literature
Changes in the structure of 20th century international industrial organisation that have incited research interest among economists have also driven a significant body of work in the business literature. Indeed, many of the factors driving the changing industrial structure are derived from business. Examples include the innovation and implementation of assembly lines, scientific management, modularisation, lean manufacturing, and just-intime production. While the economics literature has produced terminology such as “task trade”, “vertical specialisation”, and “production sharing”, the business literature tends to emphasise “supply chains”. This is in conjunction with terms from political economists and development theorists that include “value chains”, “global commodity chains”, and “global production networks”. Of these, the supply chain provides the most relevant perspective for the business practitioner. Networks of firms are viewed from a focal firm perspective, and the supply chain ontology adopts various dimensions to orient a firm with its network surroundings (for example, direct-extended-ultimate supply chains, horizontal tiers or degrees of separation, and vertical structures within each tier). Further functionalising the supply chain concept is the field of supply chain management (SCM). Born from multidisciplinary roots that include logistics, marketing, management, and sociology, SCM has developed into a distinct field of study over the past fifty years. SCM theory has only recently reached a state of maturation where it produces operationalisable concepts and tools, but progress is being made in advancing both the overarching field of SCM and the specific issues that fall under the SCM umbrella. This chapter will review the overarching field, while Part II and its chapters will address the specific issues.
Views of GVC operators
The chapters in this volume discuss different types and configurations of global value chains (GVCs). Authors have covered issues of scale and scope, risk, size and proliferation of supply chains — particularly in Asia. Many of these broader concerns look quite different viewed up close to business leaders operating in the thick of specific GVCs. This chapter, by contrast, focuses attention on some key points of interest in supply chains as seen from the perspective of business.
La situation du commerce en 2007
La croissance de la production et des échanges mondiaux s’est ralentie en 2007. La contraction de la demande dans les pays développés a ramené la croissance économique mondiale de 3,7 à 3,4 pour cent, soit à peu près le taux moyen enregistré au cours des dix dernières années. À 7 pour cent environ, la croissance des régions en développement a été près de trois fois supérieure à celle des régions développées et la contribution des pays en développement à la croissance de la production mondiale en 2007 a dépassé 40 pour cent. L’expansion économique des pays les moins avancés a été aussi forte en 2007 que celle des pays en développement pris collectivement, maintenant la tendance constatée depuis 2000.
Funcionamiento del mercado de trabajo
La finalidad de esta sección es contextualizar el debate sobre los efectos del comercio y la tecnología en el mercado laboral. El análisis aislado de esos efectos puede dar la impresión equivocada de que el comercio y/o la tecnología son los principales factores que influyen en el empleo y los salarios. Sin embargo, como se explica en esta sección, los niveles de empleo o desempleo y los salarios vienen determinados en gran medida por el funcionamiento del mercado de trabajo. Dicho de otro modo, los efectos de la tecnología o el comercio en el funcionamiento del mercado de trabajo dependen, en gran medida, de las condiciones institucionales del mercado de trabajo, de la evolución económica y de la diversificación de las oportunidades de empleo en caso de perturbación.
The WTO and the Changing State of the Global Economy
The world economy is showing signs of recovery after several years of lacklustre performance, although major policy uncertainties may easily upset this fragile trend. To jumpstart economies and trade after the financial crisis of 2008–9, governments across the world employed a traditional mix of fiscal, monetary and structural policies. These efforts helped to prevent a deeper crisis but fell short of pulling the world out of a period of stagnation in 2012–16. Trade, in particular, slowed relative to its historical performance and to overall economic growth. Meanwhile, political and social pressures have led to inward-looking policies in large countries. Other challenges – from civil and military conflicts to scattered terrorism – have also contributed to this inward turn. Against this background, this chapter discusses the need for a new and more flexible global economic architecture. It would require reforms at all levels, starting with revamping the structural foundations for growth and trade, applying solid, ground-level macroeconomic policies in individual countries, and rebuilding the upper floors of multilateral cooperation, i.e. upgrading it and making it more adaptable and responsive to the requirements of the twenty-first century. In the trade area, key pillars to support this structure include innovative mechanisms of trade liberalization in both new and traditional areas, increased inclusiveness of trade, recognition and financing of adjustment costs, effective communication on trade, a redefined role and functions for the WTO, upgraded multilateral rules and strong leadership. With radical changes needed, WTO accessions have already contributed, and could contribute even more, to each of these pillars.
Acknowledgements and Disclaimer
The World Trade Report 2018 was prepared under the general responsibility of Xiaozhun Yi, WTO Deputy Director-General, and Robert Koopman, Director of the Economic Research and Statistics Division. This year the Report was coordinated by Cosimo Beverelli and Emmanuelle Ganne. The authors of the Report are Marc Bacchetta, Eddy Bekkers, Cosimo Beverelli, Emmanuelle Ganne, John Hancock, Mark Koulen, Andreas Maurer, José-Antonio Monteiro, Coleman Nee, Roberta Piermartini, Stela Rubinova, Viktor Stolzenburg, Robert Teh and Ankai Xu (Economic Research and Statistics Division).
Recent trends
International trade rebounded in 2002 from its contraction in the preceding year, growing at about 2.5 per cent in volume terms, which was faster than the growth of global output. The rebound occurred despite the weakness of the global economic recovery, greatly reduced capital flows, major changes in exchange rates, increased restrictions on international trade transactions to mitigate risks from terrorism, and rising geopolitical tensions. Trade growth was strong in Asia and the transition economies, largely reflecting better economic performance in those regions. However trade was stagnant in Western Europe, and contracted in Latin America as a result of economic turmoil in a number of countries in the region. North America’s imports recovered in line with stronger domestic demand, while exports continued to decrease in 2002.
Services trade in the future
This section attempts to provide some guidance as to how services trade patterns will change. Using a novel approach, this section begins by showing recent trends in trade costs related to services and identifying the factors affecting these costs. Then, major future trends in technology, demography, income and climate change are examined with a view to explaining how these trends can affect the choice of which services countries trade and with whom they trade, as well as how they trade. Finally, the potential impact of these trends on trade in services is quantified using the WTO Global Trade Model.
Transforming Accessions Data into Knowledge
Accessions to the World Trade Organization (WTO) generate large amounts of data accumulated during accession negotiations and subsequent domestic reforms. Owing to differences in the structure of acceding economies, accession commitments vary across recently acceded, or Article XII, members, in the number of tariff lines bound, the level of bindings and the various accession-specific commitments and obligations. The depth of commitments and extent of post-accession implementation influence the effectiveness of benefits derived by new members from WTO accession. In spite of the generally positive economic performance exhibited by all Article XII members, disparities exist in their country-specific economic performance in terms of trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) and gross domestic product (GDP) growth. This chapter analyses the impact and depth of accession commitments to assess the economic effects of WTO accession. It explores how the data from accessions acquis can assist policy-makers in implementing structural reforms and integrating their countries into regional and global value chains. An Accession Commitment Index is proposed as a basis for a statistical exploration of the impact of WTO accession on a series of variables related to economic growth. Using an extension of the difference-in-difference methodological approach, the chapter finds that WTO accession generally has a positive and significant impact on the acceding economy’s trade and economic performance. The results also show that the impact of WTO membership on the trade/GDP ratio in developing countries is significantly higher than in previous studies.
Trade in natural resources: Introduction
Natural resources are fundamental for human life. Non-renewables such as oil and natural gas are transformed into the energy that is essential for the production of virtually any other good or service. Renewable resources such as forests, fisheries and aquifers are some of the world’s most precious natural assets. Properly managed, they also have the potential to provide an unending stream of products that contribute greatly to the quality of human life. Natural resources represent a significant and growing share of world trade and amounted to some 24 per cent of total merchandise trade in 2008. The volume of this trade has been quite steady over the past decade, but in value terms has grown annually at 20 per cent.
Política de innovación, comercio y desafío digital
Esta sección se centra en la política de innovación y examina sus justificaciones económicas y su repercusión en la innovación. Para que esta tenga lugar, hay que crear nuevos conocimientos mediante la inversión en investigación y a continuación divulgarlos a través del sistema educativo o de publicaciones, patentes e intercambios de ideas. Cuando las empresas o los Gobiernos fomentan el progreso tecnológico utilizando estos conocimientos, o su materialización a través de invenciones, para modificar procesos, comportamientos o tecnologías, el crecimiento económico puede verse afectado, en función de una serie de variables. En cualquier país, la difusión de nueva tecnología depende de las instituciones, el nivel de apertura económica y la inversión en educación e investigación.
Foreword
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted the world economy. Mobility restrictions, imposed by governments anxious to contain the virus, have profoundly impacted the networks of complex production-sharing known as global value chains. However, these networks were under pressure even before the pandemic. A general stagnation in the pace of globalization has persisted since the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, punctuated at times by trade disputes.
Trade Openness and Vulnerability to Poverty in Viet Nam under Doi Moi
Following the so-called “Asian option” of transition, from the early 1990s Viet Nam adopted the Doi Moi (renovation) process, a combination of liberalization, stabilization and structural reforms. This included two main waves of trade liberalization, one in the 1990s and a second in the 2000s (Coello at al., 2010). The first wave lasted from the initial opening of the country until approximately 2001 and foresaw the total abolition of trade licences and the removal of most quantitative restrictions (Thanh and Duong, 2009). The second wave—still ongoing—includes the full involvement of the country in the global network of reciprocal trade agreements (both multilateral, WTO accession in January 2007, and bilateral, such as agreements signed with the United States in 2001 as well as FTA negotiations with the EU concluded in 2016).
Higher Education Response to India’s IT Boom: Did State Governments Play a Role?
The contribution of information technology (IT) to India’s GDP increased from 1.2 per cent in 1997 to 9.3 per cent in 2015. A notable characteristic of this phenomenon is that the majority of the growth in this sector is driven by exports. Currently, more than 80 per cent of IT output is exported. This sector is thus very vulnerable to demand shocks in the world economy. Also, unlike the export of most goods, the export of IT services relies exclusively on the Internet, the expansion of which in the 1990s is a relatively recent phenomenon. The combination of worldwide rapid Internet growth along with rising demand for computing skills created an unprecedented demand for Indian IT services: from 1998, IT exports and employment doubled in a span of just two years.
Introduction to Part III
In Part III of this book, a number of case studies on domestic regulation in services sectors are presented. These case studies concern the following sectors: legal services, telecommunications, information and communications technology, mobile banking, financial services, higher education, logistical services, postal services and retail food distribution.
Why economic resilience matters
Over the past decades, natural hazard-related and man-made disasters have increased in both frequency and severity. The effects on society and on the economy of these disasters, and the prospect of even greater risks and disasters in the future, linked to the challenges of climate change, have underlined the factors and strategies needed to avoid, mitigate, adapt to and prepare for shocks, as well as to manage risks and vulnerabilities. The term “economic resilience” has become a popular one to describe these broad, diverse strategies.