This paper reviews integration among the eight African Regional Economic Communities by comparing their characteristics and progress with three other South–South Regional Integration Arrangements. Three conclusions emerge: (i) slow progress towards meeting overly ambitious objectives; (ii)...

An open world trading system with low barriers to trade in Environmental Goods (EGs) and Environmental Services (ESs) accompanied by corrective SPS and TBT measures is necessary for the World Trading System to be compatible with the environmental objectives in the SDGs. So far, the political...

Decade-long negotiations on the reduction of tariffs on Environmental Goods (EGs) at the Doha Round using a list approach to define EGs, failed to produce an agreement. In July 2014, 14 countries entered plurilateral negotiations under the ambit of the WTO. If successful, the resulting...

Strong participation in Global Supply Chains (GSCs) (aka Global Value Chains (GVCs)) is an indication of the structural transformation at the heart of the 'Africa we want' described in African Union's Agenda 2063 project. We discuss challenges at measuring GSCs and report new input- output based...

Expansion of Global Value Chains (GVCs) is a mixed blessing for the environment. Effects of growth and emissions from transport associated with international trade have negative effects; but greater flows of knowledge and associated spillovers, and adoption of environmentally innovative products...

At the Davos forum of January 2014, a group of 14 countries pledged to launch negotiations on liberalizing trade in "green goods" (also known as "environmental" goods), focusing on the elimination of tariffs for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation list of 54 products. The paper shows that the...

Alternative approaches to estimating the effects of nontariff measures (NTMs) on trade flows are discussed and evaluated critically. Recent econometric studies point to three results: (i) NTM restrictiveness measures based on an aggregate of ‘core’ NTMs are more restrictive than existing...