Since countries have continued to liberalize trade both unilaterally and as part of the implementation of preferential trade agreements during the past decade, import tariff costs now often account for a very small share of the overall trade costs faced by traders in Asia and the Pacific –...

This chapter provides a picture of post-crisis trade and investment interventions in the Asia-Pacific region. It focuses not only on restrictions on merchandise trading, but also on new obstacles to services trade and movements of people, including service providers.

This chapter presents a set of stylized facts and PTAs features which are shared across the region’s economies. Agreements are routinely classified with respect to the level of development of partners, their number and regional proximity and contiguity. The other features of the agreements...

The Asia-Pacific region has shown resilience in the face of recent economic crises and, after a shortlived slowdown, has continued to attract FDI flows. FDI plays a central role in supporting the efforts of Asia-Pacific countries to build more sustainable development practices. Even though the...

The value of world exports of commercial services rose by 11% in 2011 to $4,170 billion, exceeding pre-crisis levels of $3,850 billion in 2008. Half of world exports of commercial services in 2011 consisted of travel receipts and other business services. Asia-Pacific as a region increased its...

This paper reports on the geographic extension of the Human Development Index from 177 (a several-year plateau in the United Nations Development Programme's HDI) to over 230 economies, including all members and associate members of ESCAP. This increase in geographic coverage makes the HDI more...

Since 1990, the Human Development Index has revolutionized discussions about human development. However, it suffers from two deficiencies, which can now be mitigated: geographic incompleteness and insufficiently “on-target” representation of economy, knowledge, and “a long and healthy...