Border tax adjustments and U.S. trade

This paper reports welfare and terms of trade effects from border adjustments in the indirect taxes used by major U.S. trading partners using a numerical general equilibrium model of world trade and production due to Whalley (1985). Where the United States is a net importer of manufactures (as with Japan and the EEC) the United States gains by having these countries administer taxes on a destination rather than an origin basis. This is because the taxes involved typically have higher rates on manufactured products, and a discriminatory origin basis tax with higher rates on exportables operates akin to an export tax.     

Telecommunications in the land of the Thunder Dragon: recent developments in Bhutan

This paper charts the development of telecommunications in Bhutan. Since the introduction of telecommunications services in 1963 Bhutan has faced many challenges as it has sought to roll out a network that covers the whole population and country. A small population, a mountainous geography, a transitional economy and a unique approach to development—Gross National Happiness—present many challenges that need to be overcome if the telecommunications industry is to develop further. Added to this is the decision of Bhutan to join the outside world through membership of the ITU, APT and WTO that has added liberalisation and privatisation to the challenges faced by Bhutan. This paper identifies two broad policy options that Bhutan could adopt—network expansion nationally or investment concentration towards urban areas. The authors conclude that due to the limited resources available to Bhutan these policies are contradictory and will take the telecommunications industry in quite different directions if adopted.     

A MICROCONSISTENT EQUILIBRIUM DATA SET FOR CANADA FOR USE IN TAX POLICY ANALYSIS

In this paper we describe a micro consistent data set for Canada for 1972, assembled with general equilibrium tax policy analysis in mind. We stress the methodology used and in a number of tables report its main features.
In the data set the separate detail contained in input-output transactions tables, national accounts, household income and expenditure data, taxation statistics, foreign trade statistics, flow of funds and other sources is adjusted for mutual consistency. The final result is a micro consistent data set in which demands equal supplies for all products, zero profit conditions hold for industries and all agents' demands satisfy their budget constraints.
The motivation for data assembly is the currently widely used practice of calibrating "empirical" general equilibrium models so as to exactly reproduce a base year data observation as an equilibrium model solution. This procedure enables empirically based models to evaluate counterfactual equilibria in a way which corresponds to comparative static analysis in theoretical literature.
More detail on the data set is available on request in appendices deleted from the published version of this paper due to space constraints.     

Uniform domestic tax rates,trade distortions and economic integration

This paper examines the argument that uniform indirect tax rates are necessary to remove trade distortions for participating countries in economic integration. In a simple goods mobile, factor immobile international trade model it is shown that uniformity of tax rates is not necessary with either a general origin or destination based tax. Under a restricted origin basis, absence of distortion is only possible if trade is bilaterally balanced, in which case uniform or nonuniform rates across countries serve equally well.     

China in the World Trading System

This article discusses China's trade policy stance followingWorld Trade Organization (WTO) accession in 2002. The issuesnow for China are less the merits of WTO accession, and morehow her global trade policies are cast given WTO membership.Three issues are taken up. The first is the extent to whichWTO accession helps China in dealing with various key tradeissues, including anti-dumping, and textiles and apparel trade.The second is China's participation in regional trade agreementspost-WTO accession. The third is the implementability of China'saccession commitments in the key service areas (banking, insurance,telecoms). (JEL: F10)     

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.