Policies to attract and retain private sector investment feature prominently in both developing and developed countries' growth strategies. Yet designing and implementing reform programs areparticularly...
Negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) states were started in 2000 and aim at establishing reciprocal free trade ...
This note analyzes the trade liberalization of financial services via preferential trade agreements (PTAs) that were undertaken by countries in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LCR). It looks...
The number of national export promotion agencies (EPAs) has tripled over the last two decades. While more countries made them part of their national export strategy, studies criticized their efficiency...
The proliferation of free trade agreements and customs unions since the early 1990s has been remarkable. Today most countries are party to one or more regional trade initiatives (World Bank 2004). Economic ...
A challenge for many small exporters is access to financing. In particular, many exporters find it difficult to finance their production cycle, since after goods are delivered most buyers demand 30...
Especially in Africa and Central Asia, cotton is an important cash crop. It is receiving attention of late because four poor cotton-exporting West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali)...
Limiting trade-distorting domestic support to farmers, and phasing out agricultural export subsidies are important and necessary disciplines. However, the potential income gains from abolishing these...
Increasingly stringent food safety and agricultural health standards in industrialized countries pose major challenges for continued developing country success in international markets for high-value...
Regional trade agreements (RTAs) are fundamentally altering the world trade landscape. The number of agreements in force, now more than 200, has risen six-fold in just two decades. Today, more than...
Almost two-thirds of the economic gains that would come from dismantling all merchandise trade barriers and farm subsidies globally would come from agriculture. Developing countries are therefore right...
The first 20 completed WTO accessions have raised systemic concerns that ought to be of interest to existing WTO members as well as to applicants. The first concern is that the growing price of WTO...
In principle, trade preferences can assist development if they provide temporary margins of preference to enable industries to adjust and compete more effectively in global markets. Multilateral trade ...
Over the past few years, the United States has pursued an increasing number of bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) in different parts of the world. This has marked a considerable shift...
In the early hours of August 1, 2004, the World Trade Organization General Council reached a decision on frameworks to continue with the multilateral trade negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda...
One controversial aspect of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is its impact on Mexican agriculture, particularly on poor corn farmers. Several policy advocacy groups have argued that NAFTA...
A fundamental requirement for success in any trade negotiation is finding a balance between flexibility and discipline. Because countries have very different interests, and all major decisions at the...
On September 27, 2002, Brazil requested consultations with the US regarding prohibitive and actionable subsidies provided to US cotton producers. On March 18, 2003, the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB)...
This note looks at trade facilitation from a development perspective, and asks three questions: Why is trade facilitation important to the growth of developing country trade? What proposals for new...
Sugar is an important commodity in many countries and the source of about 7 percent of the world's calorie supplies. It accounted for 10 percent or more of total export earnings of 12 developing countries ...