As the intra-ASEAN tariffs are virtually eliminated, it is the non-tariff measures and trade costs associated with moving goods and services across border that hinder intra-ASEAN trade. This paper focuses on reviewing the state of trade facilitation initiatives in ASEAN, especially on customs...

Addressing technical barriers to trade is a key priority of ASEAN as part of trade facilitation in achieving the Single Market and Production Base under the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 and building an effective and competitive Economic Community beyond 2015. Standards and conformance...

The current status of trade facilitation measures including the ASEAN Single Window initiative is reviewed and assessed. Similar initiatives for trade facilitation in other parts of the world are also appraised, and recommendations for further enhancements for ASEAN trade facilitation are proposed.

While the impact of globalization on income inequality has received a lot of attention, little is known about its effect on the gender wage gap (GWG). This study argues that there is a systematic differece in GWG between exporting firms and non-exporters. By the virtue of being exposed to higher...

The number of bilateral and plurilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) in East Asia has increased rapidly after the 2000s behind the world trend of RTAs. Many studies tackled the challenge of figuring out the impact of FTAs in this region by applying various methodologies. The first half of this...

This paper uses a disaggregated (product-level) gravity approach to estimate the effect of ASEAN’s product-specific rules of origin (RoO) on regional trade, using original data on rules applicable at the six-digit level of the harmonized system. Overall, we find that the average ad-valorem...

Business views on the most important barriers to trade facilitation are taken from two region-wide surveys in 2006 covering the ASEAN priority integration sectors, namely: agro-based, fisheries, automotive, electronics, e-ASEAN, healthcare, rubber, textile and apparel, wood-based, air travel,...

Hong Kong proposed its possible accession to the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) in November 2011. This report examines how much Hong Kong's accession to ACFTA will impact on the trade in goods between ASEAN and China. It is likely that the direct impact of Hong Kong's accession will be...

We conduct a set of global computable general equilibrium (CGE) simulations to evaluate economic effects of Hong Kong’s accession to the ASEAN-China FTA (HK-ACFTA) by implementing tariff elimination, logistics, enhancement, and reduction in service trade barriers. All the participating...

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of the effects of one-sided tariff cuts on firms’ export product scope. The theoretical model explicitly incorporates cost of management in addition to the commonly used production cost. The analysis predicts that the home country’s...