The coverage of trade facilitation is found to have become very extensive, with the details of provisions in some agreements matching that in the draft WTO agreement on trade facilitation. Trade facilitation provisions and principles are increasingly seen to apply not only to Customs procedures...

This paper presents findings from an initial analysis of new non-tariff trade cost estimates and their determinants, based on a bilateral database of comprehensive trade cost maintained by ESCAP. Results of the non-tariff policy-related trade costs modeling exercise strongly suggest that...

This publication brings together the main research outputs delivered under a common theme "Regional trade agreements and international production networks" of the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT) research programme, Phase II (2008-2010). The study was divided into...

The Asia-Pacific region has made a vigorous comeback from the global economic crisis and is currently leading world economic growth. However, not all countries have benefited equally from this rebound. Furthermore, as the second decade of the twenty-first century proceeds, the region faces...

This paper examines the patchwork of multilateral, regional and bilateral legal instruments through which migrants from Asia and the Pacific currently legally cross borders in search of employment. It concludes that the existing frameworks are very inadequate: in almost all the multilateral and...

The United Nations recognizes that productivity capacity building is the key for self-sustained growth and graduation of LDCs in Asia and the Pacific. To achieve this objective, substantial financing must be mobilized to invest in infrastructure, social development and climate change challenges....

Financing for sustainable development – a significant component of the United Nations’ post-2015 development agenda – is critical for Asia and the Pacific. Home to two thirds of the world’s poor, the region will require the mobilization of vast resources to address...

There is ample evidence that successful implementation of bilateral or regional trade and economic integration initiatives would have a very significant impact on intraregional trade in Asia and the Pacific. However, little is known about the level of intraregional trade costs in the region and...

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is widely accepted as the business sector's contribution to inclusive and sustainable development. Thus, government can harness the CSR agenda in pursuit of this goal. There are several reasons why governments should seek to promote CSR: greater social and...

Managing climate change caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has been recognized as one of the world’s greatest challenges in current times, in particular in Asia and the Pacific which accounts for most of the world’s GHG emissions. Such temperature rises in turn are expected to result...