Successful entry into export markets and the subsequent survival of export flows are crucial if a country is to grow and diversify its export base. The accumulated experience of firms that export a particular product or serve a specific destination can provide valuable information. When more of...

The Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations has been ongoing for 10 years, and given political cycles in major countries, there is not much hope for a rapid conclusion. The topics on the table are important, and in principle there is enough substance for all countries to...

Despite rapid economic growth, gender disparities in women’s economic participation have remained deep and persistent in India. What explains these gender disparities? Is it poor infrastructure, limited education, or the composition of the labor force and industries? Or is it deficiencies in...

Since the mid-1990s, Brazil has struggled, with limited success, to reform its intergovernmental financing arrangements. Over the last few years, Brazil’s growth has significantly decelerated. Accompanying this slowdown, a change in commentary on Brazil’s economic future has emerged, and is...

The World Bank and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) jointly prepared a new global data set of bilateral trade costs based on trade and production data. Accessible on the World Bank Open Data Web site, it opens new analytical possibilities for...

The combination of an increasing trade imbalance, concerns about deindustrialization after several years of booming commodity prices, and rising imports of intermediate inputs and capital goods over the last decade has triggered new restrictive trade measures that have been gaining ground in...

Brazilian exports of goods and services have grown sharply in recent years, with sales nearly three times higher in 2010 than in 2000. However, Brazil faces considerable competitiveness challenges: its export performance depends mostly on favorable geographical and sector composition effects....

Real growth in global trade has decelerated significantly since its sharp recovery in 2010. Year-on-year growth in global real trade decelerated from 13.3 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2010, to 9.9, 3.1, and 0.5 percent at the end of the first quarters of 2011, 2012, and 2013,...

As tariff levels have reached all-time lows in recent decades, non-tariff measures (NTMs) have taken a central role in the international trade agenda. In a nutshell, NTMs are all types of trade regulations, other than tariffs, that directly or indirectly affect international trade. The World...

The extent to which developing countries benefit from foreign direct investment (FDI) depends on whether they are able to realize the productivity-enhancing benefits of knowledge and technology spillovers from foreign investors. To date, the experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa have been largely...