For China, the last quarter century has marked the start of a new chapter in its history as it moved back from the margins of history toward centre stage, with global impacts from its soaring trade flows, foreign direct investment inflows, and the centrality of the yuan to developments in...

Analysis of the financial crisis in East Asia has focussed on the most-affected East Asian economies, namely: Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, and to a lesser extent the Philippines. However, these economies account for less than 15 percent of the GDP of East Asia. Japan, which...

This paper takes up the question of whether market concerns about global imbalances in general, and the US external deficit in particular, are well founded. It reviews four arguments bearing on how concerned we should be about the widening of the US current account deficit since the Asian...

Regulations established for economic agents and policy rules established for governments incorporate distilled wisdom based on (usually unhappy) experience as to what works and what doesn't. At times, however, these rules require action that appears to run contrary to common sense. At the heart...

At a time of unprecedented growth in trade fueled in part by a wave of trade liberalization, there has been a strong counter-current in terms of growth in non-tariff measures (NTMs) that tend to restrict trade. This short note takes up two questions: Why have NTMs proliferated and what are the...

This study seeks to identify and estimate the relative importance of supply - versus demand - side constraints on Ethiopia's exports. Ethiopia has tried radically different trade strategies in the past, including a strategy of import replacement/protection for infant industries during the...

This monograph evaluates the effectiveness of Canada's policies aimed at promoting the global competitiveness of its industries in light of policies with comparable aims adopted in two other leading industrialized nations, the United Kingdom and Germany. The concept of national competitiveness...

In the context of stalled multilateral trade negotiations, major trading economies are seeking free trade agreements (FTAs) to secure their market access objectives. Nowhere is this dynamic stronger than in East Asia, where a web of bilateral and plurilateral agreements is stitching together...

Canada has historically been one of the major users of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures in international trade. This monograph provides an extensive and detailed review of Canadian practice under the Special Import Measures Act. It evaluates the performance and effectiveness of Canada's...