Over the past two decades, international trade has become a privileged engine of growth for much of the developing world. In the wake of the global crisis, countries must pay close attention to their positioning on the global map of trade and production and become aware of how they fare relative...

Global trade growth has slowed since 2012 relative both to its strong historical performance and to overall economic growth. This paper aims to quantify the role of weak economic growth and changes in its decomposition in accounting for the slowdown in trade using a reduced form and a structural...

World trade growth rates have significantly slowed: in 2015, the volume of world trade went up by 2.8% and according to the WTO forecast will remain at the same level throughout 2016. As a result, the current year will be the fifth year in a row when the trade turnover will increase by less...

In a situation of slowdown of global trade growth, growth in the Russian foreign trade turnover is declining, as well. It is to be noted that though during seven months of this year trade with far abroad countries showed positive dynamics there was a recession in relations with CIS states. The...

The WTO has revised downward the forecast of growth in the global trade volume. In January-July 2013, the foreign trade turnover of the Russian Federation decreased due to a drop in export supplies. From October 2, 2013, Rosselkhoznadzor introduced temporary restrictions on supplies to Russia of...

An essential element of the work of the Fund is to monitor and forecast international trade. This paper uses SWIFT messages on letters of credit, together with crude oil prices and new export orders of manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), to improve the short-term forecast of...

The practice of trade cost measurement faces several challenges related to data quality, methodology and theory; but the major issue is that of data scarcity. Due to these facts both domestic and asymmetric trade costs have been ignored despite being a feature of modern trade models. This paper...

Brazil is currently immersed in the project of building a new common market, known as MERCOSUR, with its neighbors Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. It has largely been assumed that this project will produce economic growth and therefore be beneficial for the environment. However, this assumption...

Trade facilitation policies intend to simplify administrative processes and accelerate the handling of shipments across borders. Recent research shows that these policies have substantial effects on trade flows. In this chapter, we discuss what the existing evidence for trade implies for the...

The concept of globalization refers to the growing interdependence of countries, resulting from the increasing integration of trade, finance, investments, labor markets and ideas in one global marketplace. The most important elements of this process are the international trade and the...