Econometric Analysis of the India–Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement*

This paper investigates whether the India–Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISLFTA) has had trade creation or trade diversion effects on the rest of the world. Using data on tariffs at the six‐digit level of the Harmonized System classification for the period 1996 to 2006, the methodology of the present paper follows a study on the North American Free Trade Agreement by Romalis (2005 ) We use the commodity and time variation in the tariff preferences allowed under ISLFTA to identify its effect on sourcing of different products from the ‘control country’ to the ISLFTA region. Using a fixed effects model, we find that the ISLFTA has had small trade creation effects in the control countries.     

China's Anti‐dumping Problems and Mitigation through Regional Trade Agreements

The present paper explores the opportunities for China's regional trade agreement (RTA) initiatives to mitigate its anti‐dumping problems. The paper highlights the severity and discriminatory nature of China's anti‐dumping problems. The high concentration of the share of anti‐dumping actions taken by the top 4 and top 8 anti‐dumping initiators is noted. Our finding of a weak effect of existing RTAs on mitigating China's anti‐dumping problems supports the argument that China could become more active in mitigating anti‐dumping problems through RTA negotiations. An RTA can include a higher level of openness in exchange for an improvement in regional anti‐dumping provisions. Case studies on RTAs involving the EU, the USA and India offer some precedents for offering inducements and modifying regional anti‐dumping provisions. The approaches for China may lie in obtaining market economy status from intensive anti‐dumping initiators at RTA levels and also altering regional anti‐dumping provisions that could be put in place in exchange for some potential concessions.     

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and Trans‐Pacific Partnership: Policy Options of China

As a result of deadlocked multilateral trade negotiations, many countries have embarked on the establishment of bilateral and regional trade agreements. Using the Global Trade Analysis Project database and a computable general equilibrium model, our paper focuses on the impacts of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans‐Pacific Partnership (TPP) on the Chinese economy under three scenarios. The results suggest that when only the TTIP is realized, Chinese economic variables are negatively affected. When both the TTIP and the TPP are realized and China is excluded, the combined damage to the Chinese economy is higher than the damage with the TTIP alone. However, the inclusion of China in the TPP has a positively effect on economic variables in China. This indicates that the impacts of China's participation in the TPP compensate for the negative impacts of the TTIP. Therefore, China should consider being part of the TPP to offset the negative impacts of the TTIP.     

EU Anti‐dumping Measures against ASEAN Countries: Impact on Trade Flows*

In the present paper, anti‐dumping (AD) duties levied by the European Commission against products from ASEAN countries in the period 1991–2001 have been considered. The ASEAN countries were among the countries most targeted by AD measures imposed by the EU in the 1990s. A panel regression has been applied to estimate the impact of AD duties on trade in some 12 products that have been subject to AD duties targeting ASEAN countries in the period considered. A significant negative impact of AD duties is found, on both the value and the quantity of imports from ASEAN countries. Our estimation provides some (although not overwhelming) indications of trade diversion in favor of EU countries, but no evidence of trade diversion in favor of non‐targeted non‐EU countries.     

Reorganization of Intra‐ASEAN 5 Trade Flows: The ‘China Factor’*

There are claims that China's influence on ASEAN is direct in that she has encouraged more exports to flow into her huge markets and changed trade flows among member countries. Demand and supply are thus deemed to have become more China‐centered. This study therefore explores the plausibility of China as a ‘factor’ that influences bilateral intra‐ASEAN 5 trade flows through demand (exporting country) and supply (importing country). The results imply that China's integration in the region increases the size of the key ASEAN member economies export market. There is also no indication that import sourcing from China by ASEAN 5 countries reduces export expansion within the latter. The results accord with the fact that although China has become an important export destination and an import source for individual ASEAN 5 countries, this has not reduced intra‐ASEAN 5 trade.     

Foreign Direct Investment and Trade Openness in Sub‐Saharan Economies: A Panel Data Granger Causality Analysis

This study uses annual balanced panel data for 25 sub‐Saharan African economies over the period 1977‐2009 to investigate the Granger causality relationship between trade openness and foreign direct investment (FDI) for the region. We took advantage of recent developments in econometric testing techniques for Granger noncausality heterogeneous panels that takes into consideration the effects of cross section dependence across the units of the panel data set to analyse the trade–FDI nexus in the region. The empirical result of this study reveals a bidirectional causal relationship between trade openness and foreign direct investment in sub‐Saharan economies. Concurrently, African countries should devote more emphasis for the promotion and attraction of FDI in order to expand their productive capacity to produce and export; in this way, by addressing supply‐side constraints, FDI will have positive multiplier effects on trade.     

The Evolution and Reshaping of Globalization: A Perspective Based on the Development of Regional Trade Agreements

With the weakening role of the World Trade Organization multilateral trading system, the globalization pattern is moving toward regional economic integration. As a result, the number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has rapidly increased. New trends in international economics and trade, such as the withdrawal of the US from the Trans‐Pacific Partnership and the trade disputes between the US and China, have revealed the intention of the developed countries represented by the US to reshape the direction of globalization. This paper combines the relevant research conclusions and current stylized facts to examine the evolution and reshaping of globalization. We find that: (i) countries have different attitudes toward the recent round of globalization, which are related to changes in the patterns of income distribution within countries caused by the last round of globalization; and (ii) regional economic development is an effective way to reshape globalization. The self‐strengthening effect of the hub country in the trade network has promoted global RTA expansion.     

Input Trade Liberalization and the Export Duration of Products: Evidence from China

This paper introduces a quasi‐natural experimental framework into trade policy evaluation and reassesses China's trade liberalization through the survival of export products. We use propensity score matching and China's dual trade system to design a quasi‐natural experiment based on Chinese industrial enterprises, customs import and export, and tariff data over the period of 2000–2006; we then use survival analysis to study the impacts of China's trade liberalization on the export duration of manufacturing firms’ products. We find that the substantial reduction in import tariffs after China's accession to the World Trade Organization enhances the export duration of firm products, indicating that trade liberalization ameliorates the survival of export products. The promotion effects of tariff reduction on export duration are obviously stronger for core products than for noncore products.     

Study of the Measurement and Determinants of Intra‐industry Trade in East Asia*

The present paper investigates the development of intra‐industry trade (IIT) among the East Asian economies over the 1970–1996 period. A dynamic index is used to capture the changes in the structure of trade flows. Based on this approach, IIT is decomposed into horizontal (HIIT) and vertical components (VIIT) and the determinants of each are investigated. The results show that both HIIT and VIIT have exhibited increased importance over the sample period in manufacturing. Using pooled panel data the two‐way trade in all measures of IIT is found to be positively related to the country‐specific variables, such as the market size, exhange rate depreciation, the levels of development and income, and negatively to the geographic proximity of the partners. Economies of scale are seen to have a positive influence on IIT and HIIT, but a negative relationship with VIIT. Although the relative openness of a country's trade regime shows no significant relationship with any form of IIT, a trade imbalance does affect IIT and HIIT flows. The findings have implications for assessing the structural adjustment costs associated with the trade liberalization process as HIIT is associated with demand for variety and relates to two‐way trade in goods of similar quality, while VIIT is driven by international specialization and differences in relative factor endowments.     

Forty Years Development of China's Outward Foreign Direct Investment: Retrospect and the Challenges Ahead

Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has increasingly become an important method for China to integrate into the world economy. This paper comprehensively reviews and analyzes policy development and the changing pattern of China's OFDI over the past 40 years. We divide the development into “restricted” (1978–1999), “relaxed” (2000–2016) and “regulated” (2017 onwards) stages. This paper also reviews literature on the impact of Chinese OFDI on China and host countries. Despite its generally positive effects, large‐scale and unbalanced OFDI activities have alarmed Chinese policymakers. Both developing and developed host countries have expressed their concern over national security and the misbehavior of some Chinese overseas enterprises. Therefore, greater supervision and adjustment from quantity to quality growth is necessary for the future development of China's OFDI.     

Trade Barriers and Participation in the Global Value Chain: An Empirical Study Based on Anti‐dumping toward China

This paper investigates the effects of trade barriers on China's participation in the global value chain (GVC) using a thorough decomposition approach for trade volume, total exports, final exports and intermediate exports. Our econometric results indicate that anti‐dumping (AD) measures initiated by trade partners have restrained the process of China's participation in the GVC. From 2000 to 2014, AD measures reduced the foreign value‐added rate of total, final and intermediate exports by 4.5 to 28.7 percent, 3.4 to 17 percent and 1.2 to 8.5 percent, respectively. In addition, suffering the effects of AD measures, China's GVC position index declined by 8.2 percent to 28.6 percent during this period. Moreover, AD measures have increased industries' upstream index by 3.2 to 13.7 percent over the same period. These results imply that both the petition and approval of AD cases has had a negative influence on the extent and position of China's GVC participation.     

Evaluating the Relative Impact of Fiscal Incentives and Trade Policies on the Returns to Manufacturing in Taiwan, 1955–1995*

In the present paper, an integrated cash flow model is developed to examine the relative impact of tax incentives, financial subsidies, and macroeconomic variables on the profitability of industrial investments. It allows for the variables in the model to interact with each other. An application of the model is carried out for Taiwan, which has implemented a variety of fiscal incentives over the past 40 years. The principal policy conclusion is that trade and macroeconomic policies are much more important than income tax incentives or subsidized finance policies in determining the success of Taiwan's industrialization process. The effects of all of the fiscal incentives are found to be much smaller than those of the trade policies or the fundamental trends in macroeconomic variables such as the movement of the real exchange rate and the real wage rate.     

Poverty Effects of the Philippines’ Tariff Reduction Program: Insights from a Computable General Equilibrium Analysis*

A computable general equilibrium micro‐simulation model is used to assess the economic and poverty impacts of tariff reduction in the Philippines. Tariff reduction induces consumers to substitute cheaper imported agricultural products for domestic goods, thereby resulting in a contraction in agricultural output. In contrast, tariff reduction reduces the domestic cost of production, benefiting the outward‐oriented and import‐dependent industrial sector. The national poverty headcount decreases marginally as lower consumer prices outweigh the nominal income reduction experienced by the majority of households. However, both the poverty gap and severity of poverty worsens, implying that the poorest of the poor become even poorer.