As a result of changing conditions in the world market and increasing global competition, trade and integration arrangements have become a part of economic and development strategies of countries. Bilateral economic partnerships or Free Trade Agreements are seen as an option in creating a stable...

The sharp decline in trade volume and value during the current economic crisis has contributed to lower transportation costs and reduced waiting times at border crossings, reducing the urgency of progress on trade facilitation. Meanwhile, greater trade is expected to play a key role in recovery,...

Trade policy reforms which lead to changes in world prices of agricultural commodities or domestic policies aimed at affecting agricultural prices are often seen as causing a policy dilemma : a fall in agricultural prices benefits poor urban consumers but hurts poor rural producers, while a rise...

The growing development in and possibly greater diffusion of biotechnology products have further accentuated the intensity of trade restrictions on the entry of these goods in countries like EU, Japan and South Korea. While India initiates the various measures to implement the Biosafety protocol...

The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has emerged as a major player in the global economy and considers free trade agreements (FTAs) an important part of its global trading strategy. The PRCs export industries are embedded in existing regional and global production networks and are reliant on...

Employing the Annual Trade Policy issued each year by the Ministry of Commerce as a simplified case study, this paper examines the reasons for the ineffectiveness of this policy instrument and the inherent inconsistencies and conflicting signals to the market that it contains. Capacity...

The paper describes the current decision-making structure for trade policy formulation in the Philippines and compares it with the systems in selected countries. It cites difficulties in the current set-up, such as : 1) turf mentality among government agencies that tend to paralyze inter-agency...

The paper describes the environment under which RP-US Agricultural trade currently operates. It also highlights key issues affecting current trade flows between the Philippines and the US, and provides background information vital for future bilateral agricultural negotiations with the U.S....

Applying a conjectural variations (CV) model introduced by Haskel and Scaramozzino (H&S model 1997), the paper examines the impact of trade liberalization on the Philippine cement industry where alleged cartel activities have taken place after the entry of the worlds Big Three cement firms :...

This paper examines whether changes in exchange rate arrangements have affected monetary independence in East Asian countries after the 1997 Asian crisis. We find that the sensitivity of local to U.S. interest rates has declined for many Asian countries since they adopted floating exchange rate...