The Trans-Pacific Partnership includes a chapter on regulatory coherence and measures to reduce trade costs arising from divergent standards. We review the substantive content of the TPP's measures in light of existing processes in international organizations addressing good regulatory...

It is a cliché to say that the pace of change has accelerated. But the pace of change since the middle of the 1990s has been phenomenal. Somewhere in the mid-1990s, the world economy (and its political economy) seems to have taken a blind curve and started down an uncharted road, leaving...

Big data, exploited by ever more powerful AI and machine-learning engines that extract previously unattainable information, is being monetized in various ways and is underpinning the market valuation of today's most valuable corporations. This has made data-generated rents the principal bone of...

This paper quantifies the economic implications of reducing barriers to services trade in the context of the Trade in International Services Agreement (TISA) using an extension of the GTAP model which incorporates a dynamic mechanism, a MONASH-style investment function, and disaggregated...

Mega-regional trade agreements represent an innovation in the governance of international commerce. Led by the major economies, they promulgate an economic framework that is tailored to the interests of the majors. Sorting out the differential impacts of the mega-regionals at the nation state...

The general understanding of international trade has been transformed over the past decade or so with the now massive body of literature developed in the context of so-called "new new trade theory" which takes into account the heterogeneity of firms and the importance of fixed costs of trade....

Since the stalling of the Doha Round – which was designed to be development friendly – the world is awash in mega regionals. Major negotiations currently underway include the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Trade in Services...

This Technical Paper presents the methodology and results the author's C.D. Howe Institute E-Brief of the same name. The economic literature provides evidence that diplomatic posts abroad have significant impacts on exports; at the same time, the literature shows that there are significant...

“Government-to-government” relations, underpinned by high-level Canadian representation in foreign nations, such as an embassy, significantly boost the level of Canadian exports to those countries, according to a new C. D. Howe Institute report. In the study, entitled “The Impact of...

The high costs of complying with Rules of Origin (ROO) requirements mean that small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) often find it cheaper and more efficient to pay customs duties instead of producing the paperwork that would allow them access to preferential, often zero tariffs under trade...