The study supports Government efforts to introduce reforms to the insurance industry and its negotiations for accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). It provides a consolidated perspective about insurance services in Laos, with particular reference to the impact of possible Government...

Globalisation in the pharmaceuticals sector is entering a new phase. Many new drugs are marketed globally, and these revenues encourage further investment in research and development (R&D). The industry is undergoing substantial transition, with increased competition and downward pressure on...

Information and communications technology (ICT) has been seen as a major contributor to productivity growth and as a key tool for innovation. Trade liberalisation can play a role in encouraging ICT adoption by fostering competition and by reducing ICT prices. While the trade in ICT goods has...

The service sector is evolving. New services and new modes of delivering existing services have increased the complexities of services negotiations in the WTO and in FTAs. The WTO negotiations focus on market access but FTAs tend to go beyond market access to seeking regulatory commitments from...

China's early industrialization created distortions. This paper identifies major distortions in the Chinese economy in the pre-reform era and brings agricultural distortions into perspective. Comparison is made of the reform experience in Chinese industry and agriculture. It suggests that with...

This paper discusses both the potential contribution that trade policy initiatives can make towards the achievement of significant global carbon emissions reduction and the potential impacts of proposals now circulating for carbon reduction motivated geographical trade arrangements, including...

This paper evaluates the Eurpean Union's antidumping (AD) policy from 1995-2009 with a special focus on the 2008-9 crisis. Combining product-level data on AD cases with detailed import data, we fail to find clear signs of a major trade policy change since the outbreak of the crisis. Our findings...

The service sector is evolving. New services and new modes of delivering existingservices have increased the complexities of services negotiations in the WTO and inFTAs.The WTO negotiations focus on market access but FTAs tend to go beyond marketaccess to seeking regulatory commitments from...

This report presents the findings of the OECD indicators for assessing the economic and trade impact of specific trade facilitation measures in OECD countries. Twelve trade facilitation indicators (TFIs) have been constructed, corresponding to the main policy areas under negotiation at the WTO,...

The following article examines the Made-in-the-World initiative of the WTO from different angles. Methodological issues and methods for the conversion of foreign trade statistics on value-added basis are analyzed, primarily - those for the internationalization of the input- output accounts....