The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) is the most successful legally binding instrument of the World Customs Organization (WCO) with 156 contracting parties. More and more countries and economic regions are applying the HS nomenclature worldwide. But not all member states...

Two issues stand out in this conversation. The first concerns the unfinished business of the global fight against the scourge of poverty, which impacts one region more than most: Africa. At the same time, a key pre-requisite for economic performance - affordable and efficient public...

To date, government procurement has been effectively carved out of the main multilateral rules of the WTO system. This paper examines the systemic and other ramifications of this exclusion, from both an economic and a legal point of view. In addition to relevant elements of the WTO Agreements,...

This report analyzes the specific factors that affect the competitiveness of developing countries in global value chains (GVCs), and how these factors differ across four major economic sectors: agriculture, extractive industries, manufacturing and offshore services. Although integration into...

The paper examines the implications of lower trade barriers for sectoral diversification and macroeconomic stability in developing economies with a large primary goods sector. It shows that lower trade barriers can have ambiguous effects on macroeconomic stability. It shows also that...

The paper develops a simple three-sector model of a developing country with nominal wage rigidity, in which one sector is thought of as the primary sector and the other two are sectors in which the country can diversify. The paper then analyzes the relationship between the market structure of...

This paper examines the relationship between mega-regional trade Agreements and diet-related health given that such Agreements aim to liberalize “substantially all trade and investment” that could potentially impact on health through tariff elimination and stronger intellectual property...

This paper models the trade creating and trade diverting effects of the COMESA free trade agreement (FTA) and MERCOSUR over time using several theoretically consistent gravity equations. The extensive sector-specific TradeProd panel data set from 1980 to 2006 is employed throughout. From the...

Increasingly, developing countries embrace foreign direct investment (FDI) and simultaneously pursue economic integration with developed countries. Foreign investment is subject to sovereign risk and it has been suggested that free trade agreements may serve as a commitment mechanism in order to...

This paper examines new trends in regional integration of developing countries. They are a transition from the policy of old regionalism to the policy of new regionalism with the predominance of the model of "industrial regionalism"; preferential notification within the WTO in accordance with...