The past eight years witnessed China's phenomenal growth and integration into the world economy, expedited by its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. The accession greatly accelerated China's domestic reforms. By the end of 2007, China was ranked the second largest exporter...

Georgia became a member of WTO in June 2000. It has low import tariffs and no quantitative restrictions. The VAT (20 percent) and excise taxes are equally applied to imports and domestic output. However, the implementation of trade policies is undermined by corruption and poor customs and tax...

Climate Friendly Technologies (CFT) reduces the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by reducing the carbon content of economic activity. Climate change due to greenhouse gases is expected to affect many sectors, and present risks to many Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies in...

Iran's economic performance in the last two decades has been very disappointing. This is highlighted by the fact that per capita GDP was 16 percent lower in 1998 than in 1979. However, the most important single reason for this poor performance was not any domestic economic policy, but the long...

The main objectives of this study are the following: 1) foster a better understanding of key drivers of recent trade performance; 2) assess current trade policies and provide additional recommendations to strengthen the Government's trade integration strategy; 3) identify core bottlenecks in the...