欧盟与东盟FTA谈判新动向及中国的对策

欧盟与东盟FTA谈判的意图是奉行开放的区域经贸合作政策,抵消贸易转移效应,增强在亚洲地区的影响力。中国应该密切跟踪研究欧盟介入亚洲区域经济一体化进程的新动向,必要时可以主动提出与欧盟进行FTA谈判,使区域一体化进程向有利于中国的方向发展,遏制欧盟的贸易保护主义倾向。     

The computable general equilibrium analysis of the reduction in tariffs and non-tariff measures within the Korea-Japan-European Union free trade agreement

The trilateral Korea-Japan-EU FTA with the removal of tariffs can contribute to the increase GDPs of Korea, Japan, and the EU. The reduction of NTMs gives more benefits from the Korea-Japan-EU FTA. In particular, trilateral Korea-Japan-EU FTA with the reduction of both import tariffs and NTMs can give the larger increases in Korea, Japan and the EU’s GDPs, exports, and imports. Furthermore, the Korea-Japan-EU FTA also provides the positive welfare effects to all participating countries such as Korea, Japan the EU. And it can also contribute to increase the whole world’s welfare level. Thus, the Korea-Japan-EU FTA will be a win-win FTA strategy not only to Korea, Japan, and EU but also to the global world.     

Economic impact of 2015 transboundary haze on Singapore

We quantify and estimate the economic impact of the transboundary haze pollution in 2015 on Singapore following reliable quantitative methods and techniques in cost-benefit analysis. We include in the estimation both tangible and intangible costs associated to haze pollution. Specifically, in the estimation of the tangible costs of haze, the estimation includes (1) adverse impacts of haze on health, (2) loss in tourism, (3) loss in business as an indirect effect from loss of tourist receipts, (4) productivity loss due to restricted activity days and (5) cost of mitigation and adaptation by government agencies and households. For the estimation of the intangible costs, the value is derived from the contingent valuation study of Quah et al., 2018 which was conducted in 2018 to estimate Singapore residents’ willingness to pay for a pro-environment collaboration project that could effectively stop “slash and burn” practices and significantly reduce the annual haze pollution issue. The total cost of the 2015 haze episode on Singapore which lasted for 2 months is estimated at S$1.83 billion, amounting to 0.45 % of the country’s gross domestic product. Accordingly, the total tangible cost is estimated at S$1.46 billion equivalent to 0.36 % of GDP while the total intangible cost stands at S$0.36 billion equivalent to 0.09 % of GDP. The findings have important implications for public policy.     

中国当前FTA贸易效应分析与比较

根据2002-2010年中国进出口数据,利用混合效应面板数据模型,考察中国当前FTA的贸易创造效应和贸易转移效应,得出如下结论:中国参与FTA产生的贸易创造效应明显,而贸易转移效应较少;中国参与FTA明显推动了中国出口,而对进口影响因伙伴国不同而有所差异;FTA成立时间越长,体现出的贸易创造和贸易转移效应越明显;FTA的贸易效应与伙伴国经济发展水平密切相关;FTA伙伴国地理距离越近,贸易效应越明显。中国应选择经济互补性强、资源丰富、市场潜力大的国家缔结FTA,逐步扩大区域经济合作的地域范围,建立更广泛的区域经济合作伙伴关系。     

Israel’s open-secret trade

This paper uncovers and quantifies Israel’s exports to countries that ban trade with Israel. Israel exported a total of $6.4 billion worth of merchandise to boycott countries between 1962 and 2012, and most of this trade is illicit, i.e. not recorded by the importers. We find that electronic exports to Malaysia account for the lion’s share of this trade but it also includes a wide array of products from footwear to fruit and vegetables. Our estimates suggest Israel’s exports to these countries would be 10 times larger without the boycott. On top of providing further evidence on the unintended consequences of unilateral trade bans, this paper provides a case study on the role of politics in international trade.     

The economic impact of the Russian import ban: a CGE analysis

The aim of this paper is to assess the economic impact of the Russian embargo from 7 August 2014 on certain agricultural food products from the EU, the USA, Norway, Canada and Australia. The effects of this economic sanction are analysed in the framework of a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with a particular focus on bilateral and total exports, production and welfare. The detailed, based on real trade data, calibration of the model allows for an exact identification of the sectoral shares and prohibitive tariffs aggregated to match the CGE model’s sectoral level of aggregation. In addition, the paper carries on a validation exercise to compare the model’s predictions with real trade data developments. The modelling simulation results show that the impact of the ban on total exports of the EU, the USA, Norway, Canada and Australia is limited. Nevertheless at a disaggregate level there are sectors – ‘vegetables and fruits’, ‘other meat’ and ‘dairy products’ – which experience two digit percentage change declines.     

The EU-Korea FTA: anticipation,trade policy uncertainty and impact

Anticipatory trade effects of free trade agreements (FTAs) have been documented in various papers. One reason put forward trying to explain this phenomenon is reduced trade policy uncertainty. This paper is one of the first to explore the role of anticipation and trade policy uncertainty in the case of a recently concluded deep and comprehensive EU FTA, including significant behind the border measures. We use monthly data at a lower level of aggregation (8-digit level) compared to previous studies and we account for changes in the EU product classification over time. We also distinguish between the impact on products which are actually subject to liberalisation under the FTA as opposed to those which are already duty-free and we examine the effects on both the extensive margin and the intensive margin. We consider the impact of the FTA during three different periods of time (the start of negotiations, initialling of the agreement and entry into force), while comparing with the period before negotiations began. The results indicate that the FTA has had a positive impact on exports on both margins. The impact on the EU is somewhat higher indicating that EU exporters have more to gain in terms of increasing the predictability of the trade policy regime of the destination market and lowering its tariffs than vice versa. The results demonstrate that the impact of FTAs should not be assessed against the time period just prior to entry into force of the agreement, but much earlier to account for anticipation effects.     

Free Trade Agreements and the SADC Economies

Countries in southern Africa have engaged in a variety of tradeliberalisation initiatives such as the European Union (EU)–SouthAfrica Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the EU's ‘Everythingbut Arms’ (EBA) initiative to eliminate trade barriersagainst imports from the least developed countries and a potentialFTA among Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.In this paper we use a multi-country computable general equilibrium(CGE) model to analyse the impact of trade liberalisation inthe region. First, we analyse the FTA between South Africa andthe EU. Then, we consider how the rest of southern Africa mightrespond: (i) by enforcing an SADC FTA; (ii) by exploiting theadvantages of unilateral access to the EU in addition to anSADC FTA; and (iii) by entering an FTA with the EU and otherSADC countries. The scenarios are ordered such that the SADCcountries pursue increased trade liberalisation. We find thatunder all FTA arrangements the increased total imports fromFTA partners exceeds the reduction in imports from non-FTA partners— the FTAs examined are all net trade creating. Some SADCeconomies are slightly hurt by the FTA between the EU and SouthAfrica, while others gain slightly. Overall, the agreement isnot a beggar-thy-neighbour policy. We also find that unilateralaccess to the EU is more beneficial for SADC countries thanan SADC FTA because the SADC countries trade more with the EUthan with each other. However, reciprocal reforms under an EU–SADCFTA dominate unilateral access to the EU because they requiremore structural adjustment in the SADC countries. Finally, wefind that South Africa is not large enough to serve as a growthpole for the region. Access to EU markets provides substantiallybigger gains for the other SADC countries than access to SouthAfrica.     

中国企业跨国并购外部动因的实证分析

中国企业跨国并购的外部动因有很多,本文主要着重阐述中国企业进行跨国并购所面临的宏观经济因素。选取1990～2008年的数据,运用单位根检验、格兰杰因果关系检验法和方程的回归拟合,以中国的人均GDP、外汇储备和出口为解释变量,跨国并购为被解释变量,对中国企业跨国并购的外部动因进行了实证分析。结果表明中国的人均GDP、外汇储备和出口都是影响中国企业进行跨国并购的重要因素,且人均GDP的影响较其他两个因素明显。     

Determinants of Real Chinese GDP 1978–2014

In 2014, the IMF reported that China became the largest economy in the world according to Purchasing Power Parity rates. This study aims to explain the Chinese economic miracle. It focuses on frequently suggested factors influencing China’s real gross domestic product (GDP), such as export promotion, exchange rate policy, and foreign direct investment (FDI). The paper employs the Bounds test of the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to test for cointegration. Once cointegration is established, Granger Causality is investigated using the vector autoregressive model and the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) method. Two different combinations of the real macroeconomic variables exports, exchange rate, imports, and FDI were employed to examine Granger causal relationships. All explanatory variables, except for the exchange rate, were found to have plausible relationships with GDP. The exchange rate and GDP relationship was unexpected; a Renminbi appreciation was associated with an increase in GDP. To investigate this paradox, a third ARDL model was estimated with exports as the dependent variable and the exchange rate, world GDP, and FDI as the independent variables. In this model, we found evidence of cointegration and a plausible relationship between real exports and the real exchange rate. Exchange rate devaluation increased exports and thus indirectly increased GDP. Such findings help to resolve the unexpected results. Nonetheless, according to the Granger causality tests the established statistical evidence is rather weak. We found that both the exchange rate and FDI are no longer strong drivers of economic growth in China.     

低碳经济下上海市能源需求暨碳排放情景分析

基于2000—2010年上海市能源消耗和碳排放数据,分析了上海市能源消费现状,并根据IPCC碳排放系数计算了上海市能源消费及其导致的碳排放总量以及各产业的排放情况。采用情景分析方法,预测了2015年和2020年上海市分别在基准情景和低碳情景之下的能源消费暨碳排放情况,预测结果显示,基准情景之下上海市2015年和2020年的能源消费分别为14031.7742和16133.6646万吨、二氧化碳排放达到3.19和3.88亿吨;低碳情景下上海市2015年和2020年的能源消费分别为10834.2021和10448.7935万吨,二氧化碳排放为2.44和2.58亿吨。     

Business Cycle Synchronization in the Enlarged EU

This paper analyzes the synchronization of business cycles between new and old EU members using various measures. The main findings are that Hungary, Poland and Slovenia have achieved high degree of synchronization for GDP, industry and exports, but not for consumption and services. The other CEECs have achieved less or no synchronization. There has been significant increase in synchronization of GDP and its major components within EMU. This lends support to the argument of OCA endogeneity but there is also evidence of a world cycle. The consumption-correlation puzzle remains, but its magnitude has greatly diminished in the EMU members.     

FDI, exports, and GDP in East and Southeast Asia—Panel data versus time-series causality analyses

Using time-series and panel data from 1986 to 2004, this paper examines the Granger causality relations between GDP, exports, and FDI among China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand, the eight rapidly developing East and Southeast Asian economies. After reviewing the current literature and testing the properties of individual time-series data, we estimate the VAR of the three variables to find various Granger causal relations for each of the eight economies. We found each country has different causality relations and does not yield general rules. We then construct the panel data of the three variables for the eight economies as a group and then use the fixed effects and random effects approaches to estimate the panel data VAR equations for Granger causality tests. The panel data causality results reveal that FDI has unidirectional effects on GDP directly and also indirectly through exports, and there also exists bidirectional causality between exports and GDP for the group. Our results indicate that the panel data causality analysis has superior results over the time-series causality analysis. Economic and policy implications of our analyses are then explored in the conclusions.     

EXPORT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NAMIBIA: A GRANGER CAUSALITY ANALYSIS

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the causality between exports and GDP of Namibia and to evaluate the relationship of these variables for the period 1970 to 2005. Time‐series econometric techniques (Granger causality and cointegration) are applied to test the hypothesis of a growth strategy led by exports. It tests whether export Granger causes GDP, or whether the causality runs from GDP to exports, or if there is bi‐directional causality between exports and GDP. The results revealed that exports Granger cause GDP and GDP per capita. This suggests that the export‐led growth strategy through various incentives has a positive influence on growth.     

Export diversification and income differences reconsidered: The extensive product margin in theory and application

The paper revisits the relationship between GDP per capita and diversification, using classical and more recent trade theory. Three theoretical findings are presented: (i) competitive models yield predictions only for the extensive product margin; (ii) countries continuously diversify their production and exports—a major controversy in the empirical literature; and (iii) causality runs from diversification to GDP per capita, and not the other way around. The theoretical analysis also provides indication for the appropriateness of alternative measures of diversification, and enables estimating the relationship to economic development in a gravity-type parametric specification. Using detailed data on countries’ exports, the case of re-specialization is rejected. Inference of causality reveals some evidence for GDP per capita affecting the level of diversification, but stronger support for diversification affecting GDP per capita. Generally, both variables are highly endogenous as they are both driven by the technology parameters in standard models of economic growth and international trade.     

我国FTA原产地规则协调与经济增长互动关系研究

本文根据我国现阶段FTA建设的进程与现状,从FTA建设中一个非常关键的问题———原产地规则出发,分析了其主要特点及存在的问题。为了进一步优化我国FTA建设进程同时也为了实现我国经济的快速增长,提出了对我国FTA原产地规则进行相应的协调。     

Impacts of common rules of origin on FTA utilization

This study empirically examines the impacts of sharing rules of origin (RoOs) with other ASEAN?+?1 free trade agreements (FTAs) on ASEAN–Korea FTA/ASEAN–China FTA utilization in Thai exports in 2011. Our detailed empirical analysis suggests that the harmonization of RoOs across FTAs plays some role in terms of reducing the costs yielded through the spaghetti bowl phenomenon. In particular, the harmonization to “change-in-tariff classification (CTC) or regional value content (RVC)” will play a relatively positive role in not seriously discouraging firms’ use of multiple FTA schemes. In contrast, harmonization to “CTC” or “CTC and RVC” hinders firms from using those schemes.     

Exchange rates and the trade balance: the case of Singapore 1970 to 1996

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the real trade balance and the real exchange rate for bilateral trade in merchandise goods between Singapore and the USA on a quarterly basis over the period 1970 to 1996 using the partial reduced form model of Rose and Yellen (1989). We also hope to shed further light on what has become known as the ‘Singapore export puzzle’: the observation that, despite periods of rapid nominal and real appreciation of the Singapore dollar, export growth in aggregate has remained buoyant.Our findings suggest that the real exchange rate does not have a significant impact on the real bilateral trade balance for Singapore and the USA, thus confirming previous work which finds a weak relationship between changes in the exchange rate and changes in export and import prices and volumes for Singapore. We also found little evidence of a J-curve effect. Although positive coefficients linking real exports with lagged values of the real exchange rate might be indicative of ‘small country’ pricing by exporters in U.S. dollars, it is not clear that this is masking J-curve effects from an initial rise in import values as the home currency depreciates.     

Measuring the Economic Costs and Benefits of the EU

The EU has pursued protectionist policies not merely in food but also in manufacturing at the customs union level. In services it has not dismantled much of the existing national protectionism. The economic costs are calculated here at some 3% of GDP for the UK and some 2% for the rest of the EU. Added to its social interventionism, these costs suggest that the EU has put political integration before economic efficiency. This paper draws heavily on my book with Vidya Mahambare and Eric Nowell (Minford et al., 2005). I am grateful for helpful comments to Kim Huynh, Michele Fratianni and other participants at the IU 2006 conference in Fratianni’s honour. I contributed this paper in recognition of many pleasurable discussions with Michele over the years on this and many other topics. JEL Classification Numbers: F13, F14     

International Monetary Instability All Over Again

One of the signature developments of 2016 was the move from globalization and market integration toward nationalism and protection. A headline in the Financial Times (April 13, 2017) read, “‘Sword of protectionism hangs over trade’, says IMF.” The headline demonstrates “Silo-ism”. The Fund does not recognize that the demand for import barriers in countries with large trade deficits and high unemployment have resulted from massive imbalances in international payments. Monetary instability in the 1920s and the 1930s was reflected in the overvaluation of the British pound, the undervaluation of the French franc and subsequent overvaluation of the U.S. dollar. Britain voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, in part because the high price of the British pound depressed exports and wages in manufacturing. U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) has doubled since 1980, yet manufacturing employment has declined by eight million. The demand for protection in the U.S. has increased because the more rapid growth of imports than exports has led to the decline of three to four million U.S. manufacturing jobs.