Basel II may lead to far-reaching changes in the regulation and supervision of banks, risk management, and other aspects of banking practice; these changes may well be considered as one of the most important elements of the global financial system. This paper reviews prospects for the...

Trade between developing countries, or South-South trade, has been growing rapidly in recent years following significant reductions in tariff barriers. However, significant barriers remain, and there is currently reluctance in many developing countries to undertake further reductions, with a...

The relationship between trade liberalization and informal activity has not received the attention, whether theoretical or empirical, that it may deserve. The conventional view posits that trade liberalization would cause a rise in informality. This paper uses three different data sets to assess...

In the past 20 years, tariffs imposed on international trade have been decreasing both in virtue of multilateral agreements under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and of the proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) at the regional and bilateral level. The...

The aim of this paper is to explore the patterns of trade duration across regions and to identify its determinants. Using an extended Cox model, we evaluate the effects of country and product characteristics, as well as of trade costs on the duration of trade relationships from 96 countries from...

The paper aims to examine how trade rules aff ect a much greater array of domestic policies and institutions than ever before. The expanding scope of trade policy places an additional strain on policymaking and institution-building, especially for developing countries. By analysing WTO accession...

The European Union and the United States offer, simultaneously, preferential market access to exports of a group of African countries. Although similar regarding the extent of preferences for apparel, a key sector for least developed countries, these agreements differ as regards rules of origin...

This paper explores the opportunities for further economic cooperation between India, Brazil and South Africa in the context of the IBSA Trilateral Cooperation Forum. The IBSA integrative efforts are opening new avenues for South-South Cooperation in several areas, including on commodities,...

This paper examines the challenges posed by trade policymaking for all countries, especially developing countries. The task has become vastly more complicated in recent decades. Those complications stem primarily from an expanding view of what is tradable and, therefore, what topics fall within...

One of the consequences of the proliferation of preferential trade agreements is that an increasing share of international trade is not subject to the most favoured nation (MFN) tariff, but enters markets through preferential access. Preferential access affects trade because, by providing some...