Trade facilitation and the extensive margin

The literature on trade facilitation has mostly focused on implications for trade volumes. However, recent theoretical contributions have emphasized that trade costs – such as transaction costs related to cross-border trade procedures – affect both the traded volumes of ‘old’ goods (the intensive margin) and the range of traded goods (the extensive margin). This article therefore tests whether trade facilitation affects the extensive margin by counting the number of 8-digit products that are exported from developing to EU countries, and using this as the dependent variable in an estimation. Moreover, it also tests whether the extensive margins in differentiated and homogeneous goods are affected in the same way by transaction costs. Estimation results suggest that if export transaction costs – proxied by the number of days needed to export a good – declined by 1%, the number of exported differentiated and homogeneous products would rise by 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively. Policy simulations further illustrate that if all countries were as efficient at the border as the most efficient country at the same level of development, the number of exported differentiated and homogeneous products would increase by 62% and 26%, respectively.     

Adjustment Problems in Developing Countries and the U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement

Abstract

In this study, MERCOSUR's past exports to the EU under the protectionist environment of the period between 1988 and 1996 are examined and an attempt is made to determine MERCOSUR's exports' growth potential in a liberalized EU market. A sectoral study is considered indispensable since tariff and non-tariff trade barriers vary strongly among sectors. The influence of the macroeconomic environment on MERCOSUR's exports is examined in a dynamic panel analysis. A simulation study based on a quite comprehensive evaluation of EU trade barriers is performed for the Argentinean case to evaluate the impact of EU trade liberalization.     

浅谈我国企业如何应对非关税壁垒

外国运用非关税壁垒已影响到我国企业出口和生存发展。其非关税壁垒能够直接达到限制商品进口的目的,且具有较强的隐蔽性和歧视性。企业应对非关税壁垒采取措施,构建应对非关税贸易壁垒的对策体系,进一步利用国家相关的应诉工作机制,使企业更好地规避和应对非关税壁垒。     

欧盟非关税壁垒措施分析

欧盟是世界上经济最发达的地区之一 ,多年来一直是中国重要的贸易伙伴。但近年来为了保护本地区内部市场 ,欧盟采取了一系列的贸易保护措施 ,尤其是非关税壁垒措施更是大量的使用。这些措施的实行在一定程度上对我国商品对欧盟的出口产生了诸多不利的影响。文章就欧盟非关税壁垒措施包含的内容以及欧盟出台的相应政策进行了详细的分析 ,并对中国与欧盟近期贸易前景进行了预测。     

Determinants of Trade Costs and Trade Growth Accounting between India and the European Union during 1995–2010

This study aimed to utilise the micro‐founded measure of trade cost derived by Novy to estimate the relative bilateral trade costs of India with its European Union partners. The advantage of using such a model is that the trade costs can be derived entirely using observable trade data. The results show that Indian tariff equivalent with its major EU trading partners has declined by 20 percentage points between 1995 and 2010, with Malta and Latvia experiencing the greatest decline. The study then decomposes the bilateral trade growth to ascertain whether it is an outcome of increased domestic production or reduction in bilateral and multilateral trade barriers. Novy's model indicates that the decline in relative bilateral trade costs explains the greatest percentage of this trade growth, which is partially offset by decline in multilateral resistance terms that has diverted trade away to other trading partners primarily in South and South‐East Asia and North America.     

绿化非关税壁垒——基于生态文明视角的思考

绿化非关税壁垒是国际贸易学适应生态文明时代潮流的一个重要内容。要充分认识非关税手段的正面绿化作用,积极发挥其有些特点的有效功能。在把握其运作定位时,特别需要关注非关税壁垒的有差别应用、实际功能和运作程序等重要环节。绿化非关税手段的具体途径,则表现为放宽非关税手段的应用范围、调整WTO有关遵循标准、强化贸易救济规范、设置特殊的应对条款和加快签订贸易—环境协定等。同时,这种绿化必须设置若干约束条件,如在WTO框架内运作、紧密配合关税手段和严格遵循有关的适用条件等。     

绿色贸易措施的政治博弈

随着贸易自由化和全球经济一体化,世界各国出于维护本国国际竞争比较优势战略目标和实现贸易与环境协调发展的客观需要,以可持续发展为口号,以保护环境和人类健康为目的或借口,以产品标准、环境标志、绿色包装、贸易制裁等为手段的绿色贸易措施正在成为国际社会特别是发达国家越来越频繁使用的新的国际贸易保护手段。形形色色的绿色贸易措施正在向系统化、制度化和国际化方向演进。本文通过对近期一些国外经济学家的相关文献回顾,对绿色贸易措施产生的政治博弈过程进行简单的综述,为我国参与新一轮的WTO谈判提供一些理论参考。     

One Market,One Money: Evidence from Canada–United States Economic Integration

In this paper, we focus on the evolution of the optimum currency area (OCA) properties between Canada and the United States. To this end, we specifically investigate the relationship between the intra‐industry trade dynamics of Canadian provinces with the United States and the increasing level of integration between the two countries from 1980 to 1998. Our findings lead us to support the view that integration (real and monetary) improves the conditions under which a monetary union can yield net gains in the long run for the integrating countries. We also find that exchange rate developments exert asymmetric effects on the Canadian provinces.     

Trade Effects of the European Union's Service Directive: Contrasting ex ante Estimates with Empirical Evidence

One of the top priorities to improve the European Union's growth performance is the creation of a single market for services. The directive on services adopted by the Parliament and the Council by the end of 2006 aims at removing barriers to the free movement of service providers on the internal market. Previous studies quantified ex ante sizable effects of implementing the directive in its original form. This paper is a first attempt to evaluate ex post the trade effects induced by a directive – which excludes the country‐of‐origin principle – by performing a difference‐in‐difference‐(in‐differences) estimator on a sample of EU‐ and non‐EU countries in the period 2004 to 10. We account for non‐tariff trade barriers and the endogeneity of regional trade agreements and find that the service directive adds to a reallocation of business services trade within the EU. Accounting for the trade effect of past deregulations, the EU directive fosters a deeper integration of the new member states into the European service value‐added‐chain and promotes business service exports from third countries towards the EU significantly more than trade of country pairs in the control group. The reorientation of the EU‐15 towards the new members is in turn associated with less intense intra‐EU‐10 businesses, while business trade between EU‐15 members is not significantly affected.     

欧盟商品市场一体化的影响因素研究:基于边界效应的视角

本文选用2000-2005年欧盟成员国之间以及欧盟成员国与外部主要贸易伙伴国之间的双边出口贸易额等数据,使用面板数据方法,基于边界效应的视角,分别探讨了欧盟25国和欧盟15国的商品市场一体化影响因素。结果表明:欧盟这样的区域贸易协定对其成员国具有正面影响。地理临近性和文化联系鼓励紧密的贸易伙伴,距离、税率和人口对双边贸易存在负面影响,这与以往的研究结果相同。非关税壁垒成为重要边界可部分解释欧盟25国的内部边界效应高于欧盟15国的研究结果。     

Impact of RTA and PTA on Bangladesh’s Export: Application of a Gravity Model

As part of its growth strategy, Bangladesh instituted a trade liberalization process in the early 1990s which gained momentum in later years. Trade grew from 24.4 to 45% of GDP between 1980–81 and 2007–08, an indicator of increased liberalization as well as the growing importance of the external sector in Bangladesh. Apart from its unilateral liberalization, Bangladesh participates in three different regional trade agreements (RTAs): the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation Free Trade Area (BIMSTEC FTA). In addition, Bangladesh signed preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with the member countries of the Developing 8 (D8). Because of the growing importance of RTAs, this study investigates their contribution to the export flows from Bangladesh using the gravity model that has become the primary tool for estimating the trade effects of regional integration. Regression results of bilateral exports for 40 countries from 1992–2009 indicate two crucial aspects. Firstly, all the RTAs consistently maintained statistically significant negative signs, except the BIMSTEC FTA and SAFTA, which showed insignificantly positive and insignificantly negative effects respectively. Secondly, the intensity of negative effects and the level of significance have shown a declining trend as the status of those blocs has changed from political or economic cooperation agreements to preferential agreements and from preferential agreements to free trade agreements. Thus, the intensity of tariff liberalization and the degree of sectoral coverage seem to be the important determinants of the RTAs’ performance. Therefore, experts expect that full-fledged implementation of FTA provisions and the elimination of all tariff and non-tariff barriers might result in a higher degree of integration.     

Non‐Tariff Measures,Specific Trade Concerns and Tariff Reduction

This paper studies the determinants of the recent proliferation of Specific Trade Concerns raised at the WTO on non‐tariff trade measures (NTMs), with a focus on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBTs). Even though NTMs are imposed de jure to protect consumers from unhealthy products, they increase trade costs de facto. So, when tariff protection lowers, NTMs become effective barriers to trade and the exporting countries can complain at the dedicated committee at the WTO (STCs). Therefore, we study whether STCs are raised by exporting countries as a consequence of tariff reductions in importing countries, that is when non‐tariff measures become barriers to trade. Using a recent database on STCs over the period 1996–2010, we find empirical evidence that SPS and TBT concerns are raised by exporting country as a consequence of importer's tariff cut.     

Border Effects Before and After 9/11: Panel Data Evidence Across Industries

The paper builds a unique industry‐level panel data set to estimate the border effects associated with US–Canada trade for each year from 1992 to 2005. We first establish the theoretical foundation of our empirical model as a multisector version of Anderson and van Wincoop. Estimates from data aggregated at the province/state level yield border effects that increase slightly in the early 1990s, then decline after the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but then increase significantly after 2001. Results based on three‐digit NAICS level data reveal higher border effects in the early 1990s and substantial heterogeneity across industries. The results are robust to a variety of specifications and models, and they suggest that the security measures adopted in the aftermath of the tragic events of 11 September 2001 had considerable adverse effects on US–Canada trade.     

Friends like this: The impact of the US–China trade war on global value chains

This paper considers the indirect impact the recent tariff increases between the United States and China can have on third countries through links in global supply chains. We combine data from input–output relationships, imports and tariffs, to calculate the impact of the tariff increases by both the United States and China on cumulative tariffs paid by third countries. We show that the tariff hikes increase cumulative tariffs for other countries and thus hurt trade partners further downstream in global supply chains. We also show that this is particularly important for tariff increases on Chinese imports in the United States. These are likely to be used as intermediates in production in the United States, which are then re-exported to third countries. The most heavily hit third countries are the closest trade partners, namely the EU, Canada and Mexico. We estimate that the tariffs impose an additional burden of around 500 million to 1 billion US dollars on these countries. China's tariffs on US imports have less of an effect.     

Trade liberalization and industrial restructuring through mergers and acquisitions

This paper analyzes mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as a channel of industrial restructuring after trade liberalization. Using the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) of 1989 as a source of exogenous variation in trade barriers, I show that trade liberalization increased domestic Canadian M&A activity (Canadian firms buying other Canadian firms) by over 70%. There is no robust link between tariff reductions and either domestic U.S. or cross-border M&As. I also provide evidence that domestic M&As transferred resources from less to more productive firms and that the magnitude of the overall transfer was quantitatively important.     

Intra-national versus international trade in the European Union: why do national borders matter?

The first objective of this paper is to estimate border effects among European Union countries. In this context, the specification of the gravity equation, together with the choice of the distance measure, are shown to be crucial for assessing the size of the border effect. The second objective is to evaluate the determinants of the cross-commodity variation in national border effects. Contrary to previous findings reported in the literature, we show that trade barriers do provide an explanation. In particular, technical barriers to trade, together with product-specific information costs, increase border effects, whereas non-tariff barriers are not significant. Our results further suggest that these barriers are not the only cause since the spatial clustering of firms is also found to matter.     

WTO在环境保护中的作用及环境谈判对我国的影响

尽管WTO不是环保组织,但WTO同贸易在三个层次上产生交集。WTO原则和规则对应对气候变化也非常重要。贸易与环境谈判是正在进行的WTO多哈回合多边贸易谈判中的一个重要内容,各成员正致力于削减或取消环保和服务的关税和非关税壁垒。目前关于削减环保产品的关税和非关税壁垒的方法是各方关注和争论的焦点。中国尽管作为发展中国家的一员,但却位列全球环境货物贸易大国之列。这种双重性决定了中国在贸易和环境谈判中的独特立场。     

Thick and Thin Borders in the European Union: How Deep Internal Integration is Within Countries,and How Shallow Between Them

The existence of large border effects is one of the main puzzles of international macroeconomics. The seminal paper by McCallum found that trade between any two Canadian provinces was (on average) 22 times greater than trade between any Canadian province and any US state. Although various authors have estimated internal and external border effects for the whole European Union and some specific European countries, none has done so in the manner that McCallum's seminal paper, stymied by lack of data on region‐to‐region international trade flows. This study uses a novel data set that captures intra and international truck shipments between Spanish regions and regions in seven European countries during the period 2004–11. It computes internal and external border effects, offering novel results for aggregate flows and the importing countries, and estimates several specifications of the gravity equation, so as to tackle such issues as the multilateral resistance term, heteroscedasticity, and zero flows and non‐linear relation between trade and distance. The paper also adds a detailed analysis on the external border effect for each Spanish exporting region and each of the seven European countries considered. By means of this analysis, we shed new light on the relative integration between regions of these seven countries and Spanish exporting regions. Finally, we conduct an extrapolation exercise, computing the ‘trade potentials’ that would be expected in a fully integrated Europe and estimating how long full integration would take to achieve between each Spanish exporting region and each European importing country. To this regard, two alternative scenarios are considered: one using the growth rates of the Spanish exports before the crisis (2001–08) and other considering the post‐crisis growth rates (2011–13).     

The Factor Content of Heterogeneous Firm Trade

The present paper studies the factor content of heterogenous firm trade in the presence of market imperfections and transaction costs. The conceptual framework builds on a relative factor endowment model, which we extend to account for firm heterogeneity and transaction costs. Using a large panel of firm‐level data for the EU, we are able to examine not only the aggregate factor content of trade but also to identify differences in the factor of trade between heterogenous firms. Our empirical results suggest that because of transaction costs and market imperfections, the factor content of agricultural trade is heavily distorted in the CEE transition economies. To increase the gains of trade and the employed factor rewards, the policy should first address the transaction costs and market imperfections.     

Transparency and Regional Integration in the Asia Pacific

We show in this paper that increasing the transparency of the trading environment can be an important complement to traditional liberalisation of tariff and non‐tariff barriers. Our definition of transparency is grounded in a transaction cost analysis. We focus on two dimensions of transparency: predictability (reducing the cost of uncertainty) and simplification (reducing information costs). Using the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies as a case study, we construct indices of importer and exporter transparency for the region from a wide range of sources. Our results from a gravity model suggest that improving trade‐related transparency in APEC could hold significant benefits by raising intra‐APEC trade by approximately US$148 billion or 7.5 per cent of baseline trade in the region. Action to improve transparency measures examined could be undertaken in many forms, including within the current APEC framework or future talks on a Free Trade Area in the Asia Pacific.