As preferential trade agreements are growing in number and depth, assessment of their economic impacts has become more important to inform policy-makers facing a multitude of potential preferential trade agreements. This paper provides novel ex ante estimates of the impacts of two key...

This paper uses data on directional trade flows and Regional Trade Agreements (RTA) to i) estimate the effects of RTA on trade flows and ii) assess the importance of Global Value Chains for these effects. Based on a Difference-in- Difference identification strategy, we find that RTAs are...

The production of export goods has become increasingly unbundled, and countries positioning to become more integrated in the global economy are increasingly looking toward global value chains. This paper uses the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/World Trade Organization's...

Preferential trade agreements today are more numerous and deeper than they were a quarter century ago. Do deep agreements promote countries' integration into global value chains? What are the economic mechanisms? How do countries choose their trade agreement partners? Would the undoing of deep...

How does geographic distance affect the impact of trade agreements on bilateral exports, and through what channels? This paper examines this questions in a gravity model context for different types of goods for 185 countries over the period 1965-2010. Three stylized facts emerge. First, although...

Deep trade agreements matter for economic development. The rules embedded in DTAs, along with the multilateral trade rules and other elements of international economic law influence how countries transact, invest, work, and, ultimately, develop. Trade and investment regimes determine the extent...

The MEM is the World Bank's biannual flagship publication on Malaysia. It provides analysis of recent economic developments and the near-term outlook for Malaysia. Each publication also focuses on a special topic related to Malaysia's transformation into a high-income economy. Malaysia is at the...

Barber B. Conable, President of the World Bank and International Finance Corporation addressed the topic of the importance to development of trade and the need for a full role for developing countries in the negotiations. The latest general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT) statistics show...

This paper assesses and compares economic impacts of four actual and potential free trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific Region; Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP, sometimes also called TPP-11), the original Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP-12), the...

This paper draws the attention to the chapter on trade in services and investment of these agreements and their country-specific sets of commitments. This comprehensive approach is necessary as the disciplines in the text of the agreement set out the rights and obligations for the parties, but...