The role of international trade was irreplaceable at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, especially the trade in medical supplies and food for all affected countries. Trade as a part of this crisis, certainly should not be an element of further countries' closing and new trade barriers...

We estimate the effects of trade facilitation on export diversification, as measured by two extensive margins: the number of products exported by destination and the number of export destinations served by product. To address the issue of causality, we employ an identification strategy whereby...

Improvements in the land route between India and Pakistan can help lower transaction costs which can play in important role in realizing the trade potential between the two countries. Connecting India and Pakistan by the land route offers gains not only to the two countries but would spread over...

The trade facilitation negotiations have been one of the more active topics in the Doha negotiations. At the same time, extensive reforms have been put in place among WTO members, including a number of developing Members. This paper focuses on how a WTO agreement might support the process of...

The scope and depth of bilateral and regional preferential trade agreements (RTAs) negotiated over the past 15 years has expanded beyond traditional market access and preferential tariffs to include provisions on a wide range of issues, including trade facilitation. This study is a first attempt...

Digital trade facilitation refers to the application of modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) to simplify and automate international trade procedures. It is rapidly becoming essential to maintaining trade competitiveness and enabling effective participation in cross-border...

Customs-related corruption costs World Customs Organisation (WCO) members at least $2 billion in customs revenue each year. Using recent data only about bribe payers' actual experiences in paying bribes, we show that trade facilitation would only help reduce corruption and improve efficiency -...

A little over a decade has passed since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. Shortly after the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank, an internal Secretariat Task Force was established by the WTO Director-General to monitor the trade-related developments associated with...

Services are a major component of global gross domestic product and employment, and a rising component of global trade and investment flows. This is the largest sector of the Indian economy contributing significantly to economic growth and foreign investment flows. India is among the top ten...