Export Competitiveness of Developing Countries and US Trade Policy

This paper examines the impact of the revocation of tariff exemptions on exports of developing countries using data from cases of the Competitive Needs Limits (CNL), a feature of the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). Competitive Needs Limits are arguably imposed on ‘super competitive’ GSP beneficiaries who no longer need the preferential treatment, and aim to reserve the GSP benefits for other GSP eligible countries. The findings suggest that being excluded from the GSP as a result of a CNL induces a large and significant drop in US imports from affected countries, both in value and as a share of total US imports, and much of their market share is captured by non‐GSP countries, contrary to the policy objectives of CNLs.     

战略性贸易政策:发达国家与发展中国家的博弈

作为新贸易理论的主要内容之一,战略性贸易政策实质上是发达国家为自己的保护主义所寻求的借口和托词。它虽然在产业适用性和国家适用性方面设置了诸多限制,但印度软件业的发展是该政策得以在发展中国家成功实施的良好佐证。我国应该在市场培育、制度建设以及贸易政策与产业政策协调配合等方面进行强化,以利用战略性贸易政策来培育我国具有国际竞争力的产业。     

我国出口贸易与新能源消费关系实证研究

改革开放以来,我国出口贸易额迅速增长,同时新能源消费量也逐年增加.出口在我国国民经济中占据十分重要的地位,而清洁新能源消费对出口提供了重要支持.通过对1979-2011年我国的新能源消费量与出口贸易的样本数据进行协整检验,得出二者存在双向格兰杰因果关系,脉冲响应及方差分解则显示出口贸易对新能源消费的贡献度要超过新能源消费对出口贸易的贡献度.     

出口退税新政的产业贸易影响分析

自2004年1月1日起,我国对出口退税政策进行了一次结构性调整。规定降低一般性出口产品退税率,调低或取消国家限制出口产品和部分资源性产品出口退税率。从一年来的贸易数据看,新政对出口贸易的走势产生了一定的影响,主要反映在大力度的出口退税带来了出口的高速增长;出口退税率结构性调整促进了出口商品结构进一步优化;出口退税率下调,使得贸易方式发生变化,加工贸易特别是来料加工贸易增长加快;新政促进了中西部经济发展,有利于支持西部大开发战略的实施。     

Export Growth and Trade Policy in Ghana in the Twentieth Century

Ghana's exports on a per capita basis failed to grow over the course of the twentieth century. The reasons for this outcome are examined in this paper. It is argued that the success which characterised the period before independence was due to the combination of an open trade policy and flexible factor markets. The reversal of such policies at the time of independence was the source of the subsequent decline. While the terms of trade for Ghana's exports have fluctuated substantially there has been little change in their level over the century. Economic failure since independence has been due to domestic policies limiting export growth. The reforms of the post 1983 period have succeeded in preventing further decline; they have failed to provide a policy environment in which rapid growth of exports can occur. The nature of this policy failure is discussed.     

出口相似度与贸易竞争:中国与东盟的比较研究

本文从商品域和市场域两个纬度测算了中国与东盟在自由贸易区之外的第三方市场(或世界市场)上的出口相似度指数.研究表明,中国与东盟出口结构(产品结构和市场结构)趋同态势越来越显著,它反映的是双方在产业转移和传递的国际分工格局调整中相似的演化路径,这意味着中国与东盟在出口上越来越强劲的竞争具有长期性.最后对中国-东盟自由贸易区前景进行了初探.     

Bilateral Trade and the Eurozone: Evidence from New Member Countries

The question of whether and how much currency unions increase bilateral trade among their members has garnered much attention since Rose’s seminal article. The answer is as pertinent now as ever for both the Eurozone’s existing and future members as the financial crisis shook the very foundations of the European Monetary Union (EMU) and brought its shortcomings into the spotlight. This paper analyses the issue using the gravity equation with country pair and time fixed effects. For a sample of the four new members of the EMU – Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus – which has, to the author’s knowledge, not been studied thus far due to their recent joining, and controls drawn from the European Union, this paper finds a positive relationship between joining the EMU and trade with EMU partners but not with non‐EMU partners.     

A South–South Survival Strategy: The Potential for Trade among Developing Countries

Trade between developing countries, or South–South trade, has been growing rapidly in recent years following reductions in tariff barriers. However, significant barriers remain, and there is currently reluctance in many developing countries to undertake further reductions, with a preference instead for focusing on opening up access to developed country markets, or maintaining the status quo given that multilateral liberalisation may result in the erosion of preferential access enjoyed by some developing countries. This emphasis on Northern markets represents a missed opportunity for developing countries. To assess this we compare the potential effects of the removal of barriers on South–South trade with the gains from developed country liberalisation and from regional free trade areas within Africa, Asia and Latin America. A general equilibrium model, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model, containing information on preferential bilateral tariffs, is used to estimate the impacts. The results indicate that the opening up of Northern markets would provide annual welfare gains to developing countries of $22 billion. However, the removal of South–South barriers has the potential to generate gains 40 per cent larger. The results imply that giving greater emphasis to removing barriers between as well as within continents could prove a successful Southern survival strategy.     

The Political Economy of Strategic Trade Policy and the Brazil–Canada Export Subsidies Saga

In this paper we study the on‐going trade dispute between Canada and Brazil on export subsidies in the aircraft industry and the reasons for its escalation. This is a peculiar case of strategic trade policy insofar as the good, i.e. regional jets, is heavily dependent on sub‐systems that are imported in the two countries. The hypothesis that the dispute solely derives from the search for rents and externalities is therefore incomplete. Without downplaying the role of interest politics, we argue that in both countries ideas about the goals of trade policy have an important place in explaining why this dispute drags on. For Canada, the belief in a rules‐based trading regime has led it to strongly oppose violations, while insecurity about its competitiveness has led to a variety of government schemes to support firms in advanced sectors like aerospace. For Brazil, its place as a leader of the developing world acted as a rallying point for government and firms alike. The research also argues that the WTO process has actually made a resolution of the dispute more difficult by making it too costly for firms and countries to comply with the costs of losing.     

汽车产业发展与贸易政策的关系分析

我国的汽车产业在入世后表现出前所未有的生机和活力。本文通过对我国、日本和韩国的贸易保护与汽车产业发展的实践分析,认为降低贸易保护程度有利于汽车产业和经济发展。我国应在贸易保护不断降低的同时努力提高国产汽车的竞争力,逐步缩短中国汽车工业与世界的差距。     

Country‐of‐Origin and Social Resistance in Host Countries: The Case of a Chinese Firm

While China's outward direct investments continue to soar, many Chinese firms reportedly face social resistance in host countries during the internationalization process. We explore this phenomenon from a country‐of‐origin (COO) perspective using Fiske and colleagues’ (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002; Fiske, Xu, Cuddy, & Glick, 1999) stereotype content model. Our findings from a recent case in New Zealand show that China's COO emerges as a key variable influencing how local actors view Chinese investors. Specifically, despite China's significant economic and social developments over the past decades, it suffers from a somewhat negative country image in two stereotype dimensions: competence and warmth. This leads to a perception by local actors that Chinese firms are of low quality, which explains the source of resistance in society. To address such a liability of origin, Chinese firms must learn to deal with this form of stereotypical judgment encountered in a host environment. Further contributions and limitations of the study are discussed in the article. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

日本贸易发展变化及新政策下贸易发展趋势

战后日本经济的快速发展离不开日本贸易的发展,战后日本把"贸易立国"作为"不变国策"。然而2012年末安倍再次担任首相,并于2013年制定了安倍经济政策,其政策的实施在短期内对日本经济起到了复苏的效果,但对日本贸易并未起到拉动作用,2013年日本贸易额下降,贸易逆差继续加大。今后日本贸易的发展将通过扩大对外开放、增大技术创新投入、加快区域合作等方式实现。     

Trade Logistics in Developing Countries: The Case of the Middle East and North Africa

This paper presents an analysis of obstacles facing exporting firms in developing countries by diagnosing the efficiency of trade logistics in the Middle East and North Africa region (MNA). Using logistics chain analysis for six export commodities, it presents evidence that transport and non‐transport logistics costs for export commodities from the MNA region are quite substantial, ranging from 7–25 per cent of landed product prices. Underlying these costs are key bottlenecks identified as: inefficient trucking and transport services, low export volume leading to long shipping times and the need for costly inventory accumulation, aggressive, obstructive customs authorities and procedures, low and inconsistent product quality, an underdeveloped transport intermediary sector, inefficient cross‐border transit procedures and others. Recommended actions to address developing a national transport policy, overhauling the regulatory regime for the trucking sector, export promotion measures, increasing competition in port and air freight services, reorienting customs authorities towards trade facilitation and developing cross‐border transit procedures similar to the TIR Carnets model.     

中韩贸易发展进程与中韩自由贸易协定

中韩两国自由贸易协定的签署和生效,正是双边贸易健康发展瓜熟蒂落、水到渠成的结果。两国的发展进程主要可分为四个阶段。近年来,两国的进出口贸易结构已从初期的互补型产业间贸易,向垂直型产业内贸易转变。虽然韩国在电子产业领域具有较强的品牌和技术优势,但两国的差距在逐渐缩小,尤其是在半导体、船舶制造、机电等行业中,中国的技术水平已经和韩国十分接近,两国贸易不仅有互补性,同时也存在竞争关系。因此在新时期的高速发展阶段,如何正确处理两国贸易中因同质化而产生的竞争摩擦与纠纷,也是需要引起两国贸易主管部门重视的问题。随着时间的推移,人们会越来越清楚地看到中韩FTA将为两国经贸关系的进一步发展做出的贡献。     

Trade and Financial Integration in East Asia: Effects on Co‐movements

In this paper we explore three important areas where deeper trade and financial integration in East Asia can influence: (1) business cycle co‐movements in the region, (2) the extent of risk sharing across countries and (3) price co‐movements across countries. We find evidence that trade integration enhances co‐movements of output but not of consumption across countries. Especially the fact that trade integration does not raise co‐movements of consumption as much as that of output is interpreted as trade integration does not improve the extent of risk sharing. Co‐movements of price arise most significantly as trade integration deepens, lowering the border effects and allowing better opportunities for resource reallocation across countries. In contrast, financial integration demonstrates much weaker evidence of enhancing co‐movements across countries. Deeper financial integration improves price co‐movements weakly but does not enhance output or consumption co‐movements at all. However, since the current level of financial integration in East Asia is quite low, our evidence is too early to firmly determine the role of financial integration.     

Thai Trade Policy: From Non‐discriminatory Liberalisation to FTAs

FTAs have dominated Thai trade policy recently, reflecting the general trend in east Asia. But they also reflect domestic political changes, especially the decision‐making style of the Thaksin government. Thai FTAs have become very politicised. In particular, the US‐Thai FTA negotiations have run into a storm of domestic protest. The first section of the paper surveys the national trade‐policy framework. It highlights the slowdown of unilateral trade and FDI liberalisation after the Asian crisis, though a descent back into protectionism was successfully resisted. Thailand punches well below its weight in the WTO, and not very forcefully in ASEAN, because political attention and negotiating resources have switched to FTAs. The second section identifies the main actors in Thai trade policy, and briefly describes the trade‐policy decision‐making process as well as recent developments during the Thaksin administration. The following central section deals with Thailand's FTAs. These have been driven by vague foreign‐policy goals, while credible economic strategy has been lacking. The residual commercial logic is narrowly mercantilist and ‘trade‐light’, seeking an exchange of concessions in a narrow range of sectors rather than comprehensive, trade‐creating FTAs. Weak and partial FTAs are the result. The sole exception has been the Thailand‐USA FTA negotiations, as the USA wants a strong, deep‐integration FTA. However, negotiations were suspended in 2006 in the wake of the Thai political crisis. Overall, Thai trade policy post‐Asian crisis is highly unbalanced. It stands on a shaky FTA leg, while the other WTO leg has gone to sleep and the ASEAN arm is limp. Above all, core unilateral liberalisation and related regulatory reform are lacking.     

Missed Opportunities: The WTO Trade Policy Review for the East African Community

The East African Community (EAC), comprising Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, came into force on 7 July 2000 with a Common External Tariff (CET) established in January 2005. This Trade Policy Review (TPR) of the EAC is timely as all three countries had implemented significant trade liberalisation since the late 1980s while the CET represented an asymmetric change – Kenya and Tanzania essentially reduced tariffs whereas Uganda increased tariffs. The TPR provides considerable information on the CET and on trade and related policies in each of the member countries. However, the EAC and the TPR missed a number of opportunities: the EAC included no coordinated export promotion or investment provisions, while the TPR says little on the potential for intra‐regional trade, and nor does it address the position of the EAC in the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) being negotiated with the EU. This review concentrates on these omissions to explore the implications of the EAC for developments in trade policy in the region.