This paper seeks to explore the relationship between the rules of origin (ROO) governing preferential trade regimes and trade and investment flows. We focus on the regimes in the key markets of the EU and the US. Firstly we look at overall imports, where we do not find liberal ROO to be a key...

The empirical literature on the effect of trade agreements has reached a consensus that WTO effects are insignificant or modest at best especially compared to the robust and strong positive effect of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on bilateral trade (Rose, 2004; Eicher and Henn, 2011; Baier and...

China has grown to become an economic powerhouse and engine of global demand. However, China's projected GDP growth rates are now anticipated to remain below 7% per annum over the next five years. This issue of Trade Insights examines how the ‘new normal' of lower economic growth in China will...

This paper proposes a unique overview of trade policies trends since the launch of the Doha Round, based on detailed data on tariffs and trade covering 130 countries. We show that regionalism has delivered limited effective liberalization so far, leading to only a 0.3 percentage point (p.p.) cut...

We propose a simple and flexible econometric approach to quantify ex-ante the "deep" impact of trade liberalization and the "hard" effects of protection with the empirical structural gravity model. Specifically, we argue that the difference between the estimates of border indicator variables for...

This paper examines the relationship between trade openness and economic growth in Bangladesh. Contrary to the previous studies we use the data only for the period after the trade liberalization in the early 1990s. Both cointegration and Granger causality analysis are used to find the short-run...

We propose a simple and flexible econometric approach to quantify ex-ante the “deep” impact of trade liberalization and the “hard” effects of protection with the empirical structural gravity model. Specifically, we argue that the difference between the estimates of border indicator...

The ongoing debate between proponents of free trade and protectionism stems from the lack of the free trade and protectionism dividing line in manufacturing industries, upon which countries can agree. In this paper, we determine from a duopoly model of differentiated products this trade line,...

Quantitative results from a large class of structural gravity models of international trade depend critically on the elasticity of trade with respect to trade frictions. We develop a new simulated method of moments estimator to estimate this elasticity from disaggregate price and trade-flow data...

The primary purpose of this study is to facilitate Pakistan in trade facilitation to improve trade efficiency and to promote the better development of foreign trade of Pakistan based on a comparative analysis with other nations. To better promote Pakistan’s foreign trade and to understand the...