Beyond the Information Technology Agreement: Harmonisation of Standards and Trade in Electronics

Product standards can have a dual impact on costs and, thus, on trade. They can impose costs on exporters as it may be necessary to adapt products for specific markets (cost effect). In contrast, standards can reduce exporters’ information costs as they convey information on product characteristics (informational effect). Using a new World Bank database of European standards for electronic products, we examine the net impact of internationally harmonised European standards on European Union imports. We find that European Union standards for electronic products that are harmonised to international standards have a significant and a positive net effect on trade. The results suggest that efforts to promote trade in electronic products could be complemented by steps to promote standards harmonisation. This might include, for example, restarting talks to extend the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement to commitments to harmonise national standards in electronic products.     

The Impact of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures on Market Entry and Trade Flows

In an attempt to disentangle the impact of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures on trade patterns, we use the database on specific trade concerns on SPS measures of the WTO. Estimating various gravity model specifications at the HS4 disaggregated level of trade, we find that aggregated SPS measures constitute obstacles to agricultural and food trade consistently to all exporters. But conditional on market entry, trade flows are positively affected by SPS measures. In addition, we find that SPS measures related to conformity assessment hamper market entry, while SPS measures related to product characteristics increase bilateral trade flows conditional on meeting the standard.     

中国钢铁产业的国际贸易政策选择

入世以后,中国钢铁贸易面临更加复杂的国际环境,同时随着国内钢铁市场的快速发展和国家经济政策的调整,进出口形势也在发生变化。本文着重研究了未来中国钢铁贸易的趋势,分析了相关经济政策变化对钢铁贸易的影响,并提出钢铁贸易政策调整的价值取向和政策建议。     

我国农产品贸易流量现状与影响因素:基于引力模型的实证研究

基于1992-2009年的面板数据,描述了我国农产品贸易流量的概况、主要市场和贸易品种,实证检验了影响我国农产品贸易流量的主要因素。运用贸易引力模型发现,人口规模、经济规模、加入世贸组织(WTO)和亚太经合组织(APEC)对双边农产品贸易有促进影响,而贸易国间距离、人均收入差异、突发的金融危机对贸易流量存在负面影响。最后针对实证结果提出促进我国农产品贸易的对策建议。     

电信服务贸易自由化的经济效应研究综述

GATS框架下的电信多边谈判使世界电信市场的开放进程有了明确的时间表,它通过督促各国积极实践电信承诺来推进电信服务自由化。电信服务贸易自由化不仅促进各国电信服务的相互渗透,而且有利于电信服务消费者福利的改善。电信市场开放以来取得的巨大成就显示了服务贸易自由化对经济的重要作用。     

入世后中日制成品贸易发展的实证分析

中国"入世"后,中日贸易的发展与中国其他主要贸易伙伴相比有一定的差距,其占中国对外贸易总额的比重不断下降。为了深入了解中日贸易的发展变化,本文以制成品为研究对象,在国际贸易标准分类的基础上,借助贸易强度指数、互补性指数、产业内贸易指数等进行了定量分析。结果表明,双方紧密的贸易联系和较强的互补性并没有发生改变。只要能妥善处理诸多政治分歧,双方贸易增长还将有很大的潜力。     

当代国际贸易新现象研究

20世纪90年代以来,国际贸易发展有三个明显的特征,即国际贸易增长快于生产的增长,贸易自由化成为各国的主流贸易政策的同时贸易保护主义又增加了新的表现形式,以及多边国际经济协调机制不断强化且区域自由贸易安排也备受青睐.本文在此基础上,首先,分析了当代国际贸易增长的内在动力与有利条件;其次,总结出国际贸易发展趋势中的新特点;进而揭露了贸易自由化进程中各种矛盾现象的本质;最后,给出了相应的结论与政策思路.     

The value of market access and national treatment commitments in services trade agreements

This paper looks at market access and national treatment commitments for services in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and in 95 regional trade agreements (RTAs) involving the countries that are covered in the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI). The objective is to quantify the impact of legal bindings on trade in services that result from a reduction in the uncertainty faced by exporters. Bilateral bindings indices are created for five broad service sectors (professional services, computer services, telecoms, financial services and transport services). They indicate how close the sector is from a fully bound regime with no possibility to introduce any new trade barrier, by comparing commitments with the actual trade regime. These bilateral indices are then tested over the period 2000–2014 in a structural gravity model. Despite differences across sectors, the results confirm that the legal bindings typically found in services trade agreements tend to have a positive impact on exports even if no actual liberalisation takes place.     

国际贸易政策的两难问题与GATT/WTO体制--GATT/WTO的政治经济学

国际贸易是受政治因素影响最大的经济领域之一，GATT／WTO的规则和体系实际上也反映了这种经济与政治交织的复杂性。国家利益的驱动使得各国政府在贸易政策运用方面处于选择偏向自由贸易或贸易保护的“两难境地”。GATT／WTO在倡导贸易自由化、建设开放的多边贸易体制过程中也不得不兼顾保障各国国家利益的要求，从而形成了以务实、折衷以及规则导向为特征的GATT／WTO理念，来支持和推动国际贸易发展中渐进的但又是持续的贸易自由化取向。     

我国对外贸易政策与环境政策的协调——基于世贸组织规则的研究

贸易与环境之间的影响及协调问题,为国际社会所关注,并已成为世贸组织多边谈判的主要议题。作为世贸组织成员国,我国在对外贸易和环境保护方面已经取得了很大的成就,但二者在政策之间还缺乏进一步的协调与联系。因此,设立专门协调机构,以世贸组织有关贸易与环境规则为依据,进一步完善对外贸易政策,加强环境保护方面的立法,强化环境国际标准的管理并积极参与国际贸易和环境保护方面的国际合作,是协调我国对外贸易政策与环境政策的有效途径。     

Effects of Trade Barrier Perception on International Services Trade

Abstract

While the United States is the world's largest exporter of business services, barriers erected by foreign governments seem to have severely depressed the penetration of insurance services in some of the world's largest markets.

Previous studies of the effects of barriers have concentrated on exporters of goods rather than services. Some of these studies conclude that foreign government restrictions are a major concern for exporters while others find that exporters perceive these barriers as less important.

The present study focuses on the effect of executives perceptions of trade barriers on their actions. Those who chose not to enter particular markets did not perceive these markets as more difficult to enter than all respondents did. Managers planned and took the most actions in the market perceived to be the least difficult to enter but results for other countries did not correlate with the perception of entry difficulty.     

ECFA的法律评析和若干思考

ECFA是继CEPA后中国"一国四席"结构下自由贸易协定发展的新成果。与CEPA相比,ECFA的内容更加全面,结构更加完善,同时,也存在一定的不足,主要表现为尚未完全达到WTO有关一体化规则及中国入世承诺的要求,以及对双边贸易摩擦问题未予跟CEPA类似的制度设计等。文章对此进行了分析并提出了对策建议,同时也就"一国四席"架构下如何更好地实现中国区域贸易自由化提出了相应的建议。     

从WTO与“文化例外”看国际文化贸易规则

本文首先厘清了中国等发展中国家在研究国际文化贸易规则中应秉持的价值倾向是"文化例外",重点分析的管理机制为WTO,然后结合三个经典的国际文化贸易案例对在WTO中体现"文化例外"精神的国际文化贸易规则进行了详细的分析,并归纳了相关的主要争议点和难点,最后进行了总结并就中国在国际文化贸易争端解决策略及其规则制定参与上提出了自己的建议。     

从历史视角看美国贸易政策的本质

美国的贸易政策是指能直接影响美国进出口地理方向和进出口商品结构、跨国投资的政府措施。必须从经济和政治结合的角度去理解美国的贸易政策,美国贸易政策的本质是实现美国国内外经济利益和政治利益的工具或手段。贸易保护主义和贸易自由化都是美国利益的实现方式。认识美国贸易政策的本质为认识中美贸易方面存在的问题提供一种思路。     

Production uncertainty and trade policy commitment

Agricultural markets are characterized by production and marketing lags. Uncertainty is also an inherent feature of agricultural markets. This paper investigates if two policy active importers will choose to commit to their import levels or keep the flexibility to revise their ex-ante import levels once production decisions are made and the uncertainty is resolved. This is the constant dilemma faced by prospective WTO members. We assume production in both importing countries is subject to an asymmetric random shock. We show that a government will not want to commit to its import level when there is a high degree of uncertainty in production. However, an importing country is likely to commit to a trade policy in equilibrium although the equilibrium may be Pareto dominated. Under certain conditions, an equilibrium in which one country commits to its ex-ante import level while the other chooses the flexibility option can emerge. In this setting, international trade agreements play an important role.     

世贸组织解决贸易争端政策倾向悖论及启示

基于促进自由贸易和维护多边贸易体制的政策考量,世贸组织争端解决机构在解决国际贸易争端时,由于政策倾向悖论外化表现为其价值定位的摇摆与振荡,导致了世贸组织争端解决中司法能动主义与司法克制主义的动态博弈,我国作为世贸组织成员,探询其中的规律性及启示显得尤为必要。     

世界蘑菇的贸易动向分析

世界蘑菇的生产和贸易主要集中在亚洲、欧洲与北美洲,我国、荷兰、法国等主产国同时也是重要的蘑菇出口国。世界蘑菇贸易以蘑菇罐头为主,保鲜蘑菇和干制蘑菇的贸易量较少。世界蘑菇罐头出口贸易集中度较高,我国与荷兰在蘑菇罐头出口贸易中占据绝对主导地位,且两国在美国市场上存在激烈的竞争。研究世界蘑菇的进出口贸易动向,有利于了解我国蘑菇出口面临的国际市场环境。     

Do WTO members have more liberal trade policy?

This paper uses 68 measures of trade policy and liberalization to ask if membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its predecessor the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is associated with more liberal trade policy. Almost no measures of trade policy are significantly correlated with GATT/WTO membership. Trade liberalizations, when they occur, usually lag GATT entry by many years, and the GATT/WTO often admits countries that are closed and remain closed for years. The exception to the rule is that WTO members tend to have slightly more freedom as judged by the Heritage Foundation's index.     

实施知识产权战略——我国企业应对美国337条款的有效途径

我国加入世贸组织之后,中美之间的贸易战逐渐出现一些新的变化,在反倾销措施不断加强的同时,美国正在越来越多地使用对贸易和知识产权限制更为严格的337条款作为保护其贸易的手段,使中国企业蒙受了巨大的损失。因此,实施知识产权战略,是我国企业维护自身利益,跨越美国337条款这道贸易壁垒最有效的途径。     

The value of making commitments externally: Evidence from WTO accessions

This paper studies the value of external commitment to policy reforms in the case of WTO/GATT accessions. The accessions often entail reforms that go beyond narrowly defined trade liberalization, and have to overcome fierce resistance in the acceding countries, as reflected in protracted negotiations. We study the growth and investment consequences of WTO/GATT accessions, with attention to a possible selection bias. We find that the accessions tend to raise income, but only for those countries that were subject to rigorous accession procedures. Policy commitments associated with the accessions were helpful, especially for countries with poor governance.