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This study examines successful and intensive free-trade policies in Estonia and Latvia, which exist despite the low-levels of domestic welfare in these countries. In contrast to the conventional elite-centric approach, this study uses a survey experiment to explore rationales for positive public opinion toward free trade policy. The results reveal that an individual exposed to the stimulus of a strategic security issue or consumer consideration tends to support free trade. These effects are evident among Latvians and highly-educated Estonians. Furthermore, the favorable international environment enhances the positive public opinion of free trade in Estonia and Latvia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2020 was the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the turning point for the industries poorly affected by the unexpected conditions. This paper focused on the impact of a range of factors on China's exports of metal manufacture in 2020, in particular the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on it. Using cross-sectional data, the paper collected relevant data for 151 countries in 2020. We applied trade gravity model by considering important parameters impacting on China's exports of metal manufacture such as GDP, distance, population, the total number of cases of COVID-19, employment rate, economic degrees of freedom, the political environment and the free trade agreement between China and other countries. Then, by collecting the data set for 2021, this paper compares the models for 2020 and 2021 with the aim of making a comparison of the impact of the pandemic on China's exports of metal manufactures. We also do some analysis about the trend of the effect of COVID-19 in the future. The paper continues with calculation of China's export potential for metal manufacture for its 151 partner countries including 54 of them are at the Trade Potential Untapped level, 38 at the Trade Potential Growing level and 59 at the Trade Potential Mature level based on gravity model. This paper also offers different detailed trade policies for the distinct levels of trade potential in the light of the impact of the COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic literature on the trade-labour linkage has tended to operate within a methodological nationalism that reifies the nation-state as the unit of analysis and treats labour rights as universally applicable. This paper instead starts from the premise that the linkage spotlights certain types of work and worker, resulting in geographically differentiated modes of labour governance. Focusing on the post-Brexit reconstitution of trade policy in the UK and its party political discourse, the paper details how labour provisions were written into free trade agreements, export finance arrangements, supply chain reporting requirements and unilateral preference schemes. Its argument is that these were constructed and contested through distinctions made between leading and laggard states; acceptable and unacceptable exploitation; and desirable and undesirable exploitation – each of which had a spatial politics in shaping where and how labour ought to be governed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the EU-US (TTIP) and EU–Canada (CETA) free trade negotiations, large coalitions of civil society organisations were active not only across borders but also within European member states. In several countries, coalitions saw the opportunity to transform their issue-specific group into a general coalition on EU trade policy in order to achieve more sustained engagement. However, in hindsight, only some of the transformed coalitions remained active and visible with the same organisations, while others experienced a decline in visibility, activities, and membership. This study aims to explore the factors contributing to this divergence in coalition transformation, drawing on the literature from social movement and interest group studies. Based on interviews with trade activists in Belgium and the Netherlands, the analysis points to differences in perception of political and discursive opportunities, resource mobilisation, the degree of ideological and cultural overlap between the coalition's actors, and organisational structure as important factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study deals with changes in European Union's (EU's) trade potential in Machinery (HS 84–85) and Transportation (HS86-89) products. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a Structural Gravity model, Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation together with panel data for the years 2002–2018 and a two-step procedure that employs predicted values of bilateral trade to compare potential to actual trade. Findings: Results for Machinery products suggest a potential to expand trade with existing Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) in the American continent, and countries of the IGAD region in Africa. In Transportation, a high trade potential with RTAs is found in the Americas, Africa and the Middle East. Policy suggestions concentrate on opportunities for enhancing trade relations through trade liberalization and agreement proliferation. Originality/value: There are no studies to date, that examine "collective" measure of EU trade potential, that treats the EU as a single country. Changes in existing opportunities to expand trade, common for EU members, are of special interest for policy formulation, especially after the recent turmoil presented by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the Greek Economic Crisis (GEC). Treating the EU as a single entity, is necessary for the formulation of an effective, common, EU trade policy. This study concentrates on the manufacturing sector to examine existing opportunities for the EU to expand trade, after the GFC and the GEC. This article deals with Machinery (HS 84 and 85) and Transportation (HS 86 through 89) products as they comprise a significant part of total EU exports, reaching 41% of total exports in 2016. Finally, this study offers a unique illustration of results through trade potential heat maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the vertical strategies of home and foreign manufacturers that produce quality-differentiated products. In contrast to previous results that showed vertical separation as the dominant strategy, we find that the home manufacturer opts for vertical separation, while the foreign manufacturer chooses vertical integration under Bertrand competition. This is because the government of the importing country aims to increase consumer surplus by imposing tariffs, which allows the foreign manufacturer to export high-quality products at lower prices. Under Cournot competition, both manufacturers maintain a vertical separation strategy. However, if the quality levels of products are low, both manufacturers obtain higher profits when they choose vertical integration. This leads to a prisoner's dilemma situation for both manufacturers. In the case of a free trade policy, manufacturers always choose the separation strategy. Under Bertrand competition, integration leads to higher output levels and increases social welfare for the importing country due to the high level of importation of high-quality products, suggesting the tariff policy drive the foreign manufacturer towards integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of increasing global resource and environmental problems, it is of great practical significance to accurately test the impact of various factors on energy use efficiency for maintaining national energy security and formulating relevant policies. This paper measures firms' total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) using the two-stage stochastic frontier method within the data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework, leveraging data from listed firms in China spanning 2010 to 2022. Employing the establishment of free trade zones (FTZs) as a quasi-natural experiment, we apply the staggered differences-in-differences (DID) and stacked DID methods and analyze the impact of FTZs on firms' TFEE. The results show that the establishment of FTZs significantly promotes the improvement of firms' TFEE, and it has a greater promotion effect on heavily polluting, non-manufacturing, state-owned, private, and small-scale firms. The results of the mechanistic analysis showed that the promotion effect of FTZs on firms' TFEE is mainly realized through three channels: increasing government subsidies, reducing the financing constraint effect, and encouraging the technology innovation effect. Furthermore, industry-level decomposition results indicate that the surge in industry energy efficiency primarily results from improvements within firms rather than inter-industry variations. This paper's results propose that countries can enhance energy efficiency by progressively endorsing the implementation of FTZs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates over trade liberalization vs. protectionism have becoming increasingly relevant as the world moves through a contentious era of economic globalization. This is particularly true in the United States, where an elite consensus on the merits of free trade has fractured in recent years. While we know a good deal about the economic and cultural determinants of trade opinion, we know little about how attitudes toward government may matter. Here, I address this oversight by examining the relationship between political trust and trade support. I do this with cross-sectional and panel data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) and the National Annenberg Election Surveys (NAES), and a survey experiment fielded through Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Overall, I find that there is a positive and substantively significant relationship between political trust and mass support for free and open "pro-trade" policies. I attribute this to greater citizen confidence that government will pursue trade deals in the national interest and mitigate any perceived risks associated with free trade. These findings help us to better understand the determinants of public opinion toward trade policy and underscore the consequences of political trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the digital age, digital services not only provide important intermediate inputs for manufacturing but they also affect the availability of other potentially ICT-enabled high-quality services as intermediate inputs. Therefore, it is particularly important and meaningful to explore the relationship between the liberalization of trade in digital services and manufacturing exports. This paper uses a panel dataset of bilateral exports of 15 manufacturing sectors in 54 countries, from 2014 to 2018, to examine the impact of digital services trade policy restrictions on exports of manufactured goods. The main results suggest that the impact of trade policy restrictions on manufacturing exports is mixed but mainly negative. Moreover, regulatory differences in digital services industries between bilateral country pairs also have a significant negative impact on the export performance of manufacturing industries. In addition, we further examine the heterogeneity of this impact mechanism across different policy areas, manufacturing sectors, and bilateral country-pair groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade and investment are crucial drivers of economic growth. Successful execution of trade and investment policy can elevate a developing country to a sustained growth path and make it self‐reliant. Bangladesh implemented a trade liberalization policy in the 1980s, deviating much from its conservative trade policy. This article assesses the impacts of trade, investment in physical as well as human capital, and a few trade policy variables on income surge for the liberalized regime. The econometric analysis finds that export, import, and domestic investment stimulate income. The impact of foreign investment is not conducive. Public spending on education also contributes to the income surge. Among the policy variables, trade openness and currency depreciation produce a beneficial impact. Population growth retards economic growth. The baseline results hold in the estimations involving several specifications of variables and testified as robust. The article views that a comprehensive approach to trade and investment policy would ensure the comparative advantage of trade and the well‐being of Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial tariff reductions and increased usage of non‐tariff measures (NTMs) have been key dynamics of global trade policy in recent decades. We use highly disaggregated data on applied most favored nation tariffs, NTMs, and trade to investigate how International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionality as a form of external pressure to reduce tariffs contributed to this dynamic in developing countries. Our results show that structural adjustment programs (SAPs) effectively lowered tariffs without increasing the usage of NTMs. A typical three‐year program containing tariff conditionality decreased tariff rates in the range of 2.0 to 3.8 percentage points in total. Furthermore, IMF programs reduced NTM initializations significantly. We also show that tariff conditionality was more effective in initiating tariff cuts for countries without previous greater globalization efforts than being a "catalyst" for ongoing liberalization efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the trade policy substitution hypothesis, this paper uses detailed product-level data from 1997 to 2015 to supplement empirical evidence in China. We find that to the extent permitted by the WTO, there is a substitution relationship between temporary trade barriers and tariff reductions in China. Among the three types of temporary trade barriers, antidumping is the most frequent tool and presents a remarkably negative relationship with tariff reductions. After a set of robustness tests, the relationship still holds. Therefore, this paper verifies the trade policy substitution hypothesis and provides theoretical support for trade policy practice in the context of trade liberalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the interaction of trade, inequality, and unemployment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from 1997 to 2021. Results from the mean group and pooled mean group estimation revealed that international trade explains a 6% rise in inequality and a 43% rise in unemployment. Our findings provide evidence that international trade, as currently structured, is not beneficial to SSA countries, despite the adoption of trade liberalization policies and regional trade agreements (RTAs). We argue that SSA countries could still derive gains from trade if they undertake massive structural reforms that address labor market frictions and skills gaps in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic integration ranks as one of the leading development strategies in Africa. The newly created African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the proposed Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) linking three major regional blocks offer a new impetus to studying trade policy effects. Using a structural gravity model of bilateral manufacturing trade between the African Union member states and all countries in the world, the trade effects of African economic integration agreements (EIAs) are assessed. The findings suggest that economic integration, in aggregate, enhances total African exports. Disaggregating the effects by type of agreement and by subgroups of countries, free trade agreements (FTAs) and partial scope agreements (PSAs) are found to increase extra African exports, but have no effects on intraAfrican exports. A positive and significant effect on intra African exports is introduced when the FTA dummy is combined with AfCFTA in contrast to a neutral effect stemming from the joint FTA-TFTA dummy. The findings suggest that a continentwide FTA yields greater benefits when compared with integrating the subregions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is one of the critical and strategic trading partners of Bangladesh. The Chinese government has declared a zero-tariff facility for 97% of products imported from Bangladesh. The objective of the study is to analyze the effects of the facilitating trade policy on the trade performance of different sectors of Bangladesh. The study applies partial equilibrium SMART simulations, which are accessible in WITS, and the general equilibrium CGE model with GTAP as the methodological tools to quantify the impact of China's preferential trade policy on trade and the overall economy of Bangladesh. The results of partial equilibrium analysis show that the preferential trade policy substantially positively impacts Bangladesh's exports to the Chinese market. The results also suggest that the change in total trade under China's new preferential trade policy is around $58.99 million, with a trade creation of $ 52.16 million and a trade diversion effect of US$ 6.83 million. The CGE analysis results show that China's new trade policy will have little impact on Bangladesh's real GDP, and the effects of the policy on exports vary across different sectors. However, the overall effects suggest that Bangladesh will earn a net welfare gain due to China's new duty-free trade policy in Bangladesh. The findings of the study provide crucial policy suggestions on whether China's latest tariff facilities will substantially impact the trade and economy of Bangladesh as well as provide foundations for analyzing the effects of future bilateral trade agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Biden administration's strategy in the Indo-Pacific is of twofold interest. On the one hand, it breaks with the approach that the United States has always advocated since the 1980s, namely the general opening of markets through free trade agreements. And on the other hand, the economy, more than trade, is at the center of the negotiations, with security, technology, and the resilience of value chains as the main issues. Is this a turning point? After placing the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) in its historical context, the author makes seven observations about it, to conclude that the initiative currently raises more questions than it provides answers to the United States economic security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on EU trade policy by introducing insights from the political economy literature on development to the study of how EU trade liberalisation affects development in trading partners. Drawing on a comparison of EU trade liberalisation with Moldova and Georgia, we argue that the type of coalition between public and private actors in partner countries' top export sectors determines which firms benefit from better market access to the EU, as indicated by their ability to increase their exports. We show that liberalised trade with the EU tends to contribute to achieving the EU's declared objective of inclusive development if the presence of inclusionary development coalitions ensures that a broad range of firms is enabled to increase their export capacities through a mechanism that we call 'inclusive empowerment'. Otherwise, trade liberalisation contributes to exclusive development, benefitting big, mostly foreign firms, or, at worse, consolidating rent-seeking practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International trade agreements contribute to the development of international trade and services. The European Union is currently modernizing the system and structure of international agreements related to international trade, investment and services. The aim of the scientific study is to clarify and identify the characteristic features of the agreements of new generation that are concluded between the European Union and non-EU member states. Based on the facts, we can confirm that trade policy supports, among others, values such as the protection of human rights, the protection of labor rights, the environment and the fight against climate change. Such an approach of the European Union to the liberalization of world trade through comprehensive trade agreements is also supported by the strategy of the European Commission „Trade for All". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which factors drive support of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) for trade liberalisation? The literature suggests that economic factors, ideology, and politicization shape MEP voting behaviour. Drawing on a new dataset encompassing all trade-related MEP votes (2009-2019), this study offers a quantitative assessment of the determinants of MEP support for trade liberalisation. It finds that ideological factors have the strongest and most persistent effect on MEP support for trade liberalisation. The economic competitiveness of MEPs' home regions, in turn, has only a limited effect. Politicization, lastly, has an unclear effect on its own and mostly influences MEP voting behaviour through interactions with ideological and economic factors. The study offers the first comprehensive assessment of the determinants of MEP voting on trade liberalisation and contributes to political economy research on electoral institutions and trade, the European Parliament's role in trade policy and the effects of politicization on policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) policy of free and fair trade has led to persistent decline in the average world trade tariff rates. It also ensured prior ratification of non-tariff measures implemented by countries. At the same time, countries across the world have introduced trade facilitation measures to ensure smooth flow of goods across borders. Despite these, countries still face substantial trade barriers. Against this backdrop, using data from India, the present paper aims at analyzing the impact of trade barriers on its exports by calculating a bilateral trade restrictiveness index based on tariff, non-tariff and border administrative and regulatory measures. The results show that trade restrictions faced by a country depend on its export basket composition, specific export products and its export destinations and hence are unique to each country. They confirm the existence of substantial trade barriers for a country, as against the general perception that trade restrictions have declined over the years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study's primal aim is to investigate the effect of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) on one of the gendered outcomes; female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) within the Sub-Saharan region. This study adds to the literature by insinuating the provision of new insights about one of the trade policies that were primarily tailored to trade liberalisation among others, but have gender inclusion spillover effects, especially by utilising the pre-and post-AGOA dataset. Design/Methodology/Approach: While utilising a censorious annual data for 33 countries to sort out the before-and-after time periods from a wide span of 1990 to 2019, this study adopted a hybrid model of the Difference-in-Differences (DID) technique and a non-iterative reweighting procedure: Entropy Balancing (EB). Despite improving the external validity by employing a censorious annual data set, the DID technique counters the selection bias since AGOA membership is not random. Furthermore, the EB takes care of the covariates balancing, thereby improving precision by constructing a "statistically" similar control group. Findings: The findings reveal that AGOA member countries in the region, unlike other nonmember counterparts significantly experience improved female labour force participation rates of about 10.8%. That is, AGOA has a positive effect on FLFPR. Practical Implications: This study suggests that policy makers should be inclined to policies that will enable AGOA beneficiary countries to continuously retain their eligibility status. First, improve the rule of law and governance, as a step to combat corruption. Lastly, ensuring that required quotas are met, or at least significant progress is made to reach thereof. Originality/value: Although the effect of AGOA has been studied earlier, the originality of this study stems from the adoption of the hybrid methods to robustly teace out the pure effect of AGOA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its emphasis on trade, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has been perceived as a liberalisation agenda motivated primarily by strategic concerns with fewer economic benefits. This article analyses the strategies of Indonesia's trade policymakers to legitimize its leading role in RCEP. It is argued that Indonesia's legitimation strategy is implemented through the invocation of two discourses: Indonesia's historical position as a regional leader and bridge-builder and the internationalisation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While the former is utilised as a coordinative discourse to provide an overarching vision for other state agencies with a protectionist bent, the latter is employed as a communicative discourse to challenge domestic contestations, especially those from civil society and business interests. This article contributes to the study of trade policy discourse by investigating the role of policymakers in mobilising discourses as a strategy for legitimising a strategically-driven liberalisation agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do legislators support some free trade agreements but oppose others? Despite a wide variation in legislative support for free trade agreements, the heterogeneous preferences of legislators have received little attention in the literature, which largely focuses on general trade policy preferences of legislators and individual voters. We bring in geopolitical factors as a key source of legislative preferences on specific free trade agreements. Using voting records of the U.S. House representatives on all major bills related to free trade agreements, we find that the geostrategic importance of potential trading partner has a substantial effect on voting for trade agreements. We find that legislators become less sensitive to their constituents' economic interests when considering trade agreements with allies or countries with closely aligned interests. This highlights the importance of examining security externalities of trade cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liberalization of international trade is currently the goal of many countries in the world, as well as in the European Union. However, the EU does not give up the possibility to intervene and influence that specific area of imports of goods that liquidate or threaten to liquidate a certain industry in the EU. An instrument that does not conflict with liberal policy is the institution of anti-dumping duties, which is a legitimate means of restricting imports that harm certain EU production sectors. If the history of the EU is brought into question, it can be said that the anti-dumping process is not a new one in the European markets, and the first legislation that regulated the introduction of anti-dumping duties in the EU was adopted in 1968. Anti-dumping duties are an integral part of trade policy, they are often perceived only as a means of "improving" income, but also as unilateral decisions of the EU authorities, which cannot be influenced in any way. In this article, the specific features of the anti-dumping measures aimed at applying a tax to those who violate the legislation have been analyzed, and the conditions of application require the authorities to determine whether the situation in question makes the subject of adopting anti-dumping measures. Thus, when drafting this article, the objectives were considered: the clear delimitation of the conditions for the application of anti-dumping measures, their specific legislative process, but also the exemplification of terms such as: provisional measures, the definitive anti-dumping tax, exporters' obligations and the application of the measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International trade is currently under fire from many sides. Protectionist trade policies are on the rise, putting an end to the decade‐long March of free trade. Making sense of the daily headlines and having an informed opinion on your own has rarely been more important than it is now. Our work aims to explain the driving forces behind international trade, its history, how it shaped the world, its economic models, issues ranging from job losses to the environment and why buying local often makes no sense. We summarize the most important academic literature on these topics in a non‐technical, educational manner. If the reader feels enabled to form their own views on the pros and cons of international trade and that they can 'talk the talk', our effort has been fruitful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India now is the most populous nation on earth, but its modern international trade policy remains an under-researched area. In contrast, the literature on the trade policy of the second largest nation, China, is voluminous. It is widely appreciated that China, since acceding to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 11 December 2001, seeks -- one way or the other -- an ever-more powerful role in shaping the rules of the world trading system. That aspiration remains the lodestar of Chinese trade policy. As for India, it is understood that from the August 1947 British Partition to the ballyhooed 1991 First Generation Reforms, India's trade policy was that of import substitution. Following the semi-Socialist path chalked out by its founding Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, India kept tariff and non-tariff barriers high, mandated licenses for importation, and mollycoddled domestic champions favoured by the government in the hopes of transforming its traditional agriculture into modern industry. All the while, as a founding contracting party to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and founding Member of the WTO, India put its faith in multilateralism. After 1991, import substitution seemed no longer to be the Indian lodestar. By the early 2000s, protectionism seemed back in vogue. But India also explored free trade agreements (FTAs). That, too, was irregular: India opted for a few bilateral FTAs, but stayed out of mega-deals like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). With Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi came expectations of liberalization, but also Hindutva. Redolent of America First advocated by former U.S. President Donald J. Trump, for this Hindu nationalist sentiment, words like 'globalization' and 'cosmopolitan' are pejorative, and hopes for enhancing peace through cross-border commercial interdependence undermines national security. So, what is India's trade policy about? What word best characterizes India's international trade policy since the watershed year of 1991? This trilogy of articles argues that word is 'inconstant'. Since the ballyhooed 1991 First Generation Reforms, India's approach to its trade measures, be they tariff or non-tariff barriers, and to potential FTAs, has been irregular. The lodestar is that there is no lodestar. Part One of this Trilogy might be colloquially sub-titled, 'It all started off so well, but then...' The 1991 reforms promised a genuinely new Indian approach to cross-border trade, foreign exchange (FX) rates, and foreign direct investment (FDI). The reforms sputtered amidst governance problems. India faced no less than 12 serious challenges, and desperately needed a political apparatus that reinforced open trade and investment regime. Parts Two and Three advance this argument by, respectively, critically analysing the twists and turns in Indian trade policy during the first and second terms (2014-2019, and 2019-present) of Prime Minister. Together, the three Parts indicate that if India's post-1991 past is prologue, then future Indian trade policy is uncertain and thus unpredictable. Or to put the conclusion differently, as the U.S. and its Allies navigate the many variables of de-coupling (i.e., euphemistically, de-risking) from China amidst the Sino-American trade war, they would do well to see India's trade policy as a variable, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India now is the most populous nation on earth, but its modern international trade policy remains an under-researched area. In contrast, the literature on the trade policy of the second largest nation, China, is voluminous. It is widely appreciated that China, since acceding to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on 11 December 2001, seeks -- one way or the other -- an ever-more powerful role in shaping the rules of the world trading system. That aspiration remains the lodestar of Chinese trade policy. As for India, it is understood that from the August 1947 British Partition to the ballyhooed 1991 First Generation Reforms, India's trade policy was that of import substitution. Following the semi-Socialist path chalked out by its founding Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, India kept tariff and non-tariff barriers high, mandated licenses for importation, and mollycoddled domestic champions favoured by the government in the hopes of transforming its traditional agriculture into modern industry. All the while, as a founding contracting party to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and founding Member of the WTO, India put its faith in multilateralism. After 1991, import substitution seemed no longer to be the Indian lodestar. By the early 2000s, protectionism seemed back in vogue. But India also explored free trade agreements (FTAs). That, too, was irregular: India opted for a few bilateral FTAs, but stayed out of mega-deals like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). With Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi came expectations of liberalisation, but also Hindutva. Redolent of America First advocated by former U.S. President Donald J. Trump, for this Hindu nationalist sentiment, words like 'globalisation' and 'cosmopolitan' are pejorative, and hopes for enhancing peace through cross-border commercial interdependence undermines national security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines trade and commercial policy in Kyrgyzstan in the context of that country's distinctive historical and geographical characteristics, drawing on the World Trade Organisation's latest Trade Policy Review. A former Soviet republic, it is a geographically isolated, effectively a 'double‐landlocked', transition economy. The country was an early liberalizer, both economically and politically, among the former Soviet republics, and it is now a broadly open economy. After a catastrophic economic decline in the immediate transition era it also achieved macroeconomic stabilisation relatively quickly. However the growth dividend from these major policy reforms has been modest, and the country has become one of the most remittance‐dependent economies in the world. While its geographical handicaps are immutable, we argue that key explanations for the slow economic growth are the limited 'behind‐the‐border' reforms, the dualistic economic structure, and misdirected fiscal allocations. We also draw out some of the broader implications for trade policy reform in other transition economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a small open economy with almost no natural resources, Singapore is highly dependent on international trade. This paper reviews the eighth Trade Policy Review of Singapore published by World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2021. We first begin with Singapore's trade policies that shape it as a trusted and leading node in both global supply chains and financial sectors. We then focus on its transformation to a digital economy and important Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Lastly, policymakers should keep monitoring other potential issues such as shortage of labour and ageing population to ensure sustainable economic growth of Singapore in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade policy and negotiations have lain at the heart of the Brexit process. Initial UK trade policy has been characterised by: (1) the need to limit the impact of changes in trading relations (mainly with the EU) to minimise challenges for businesses and the possibility of economic losses; (2) a strong ideological commitment to free trade, and related to that; (3) symbolic and 'placebo' actions designed to show that the UK can enact an independent trade policy. Negotiation of free trade agreements (FTAs), thus, became a priority of trade policy. This article explores how approaches to FTAs have evolved, focusing specifically on post-Brexit FTAs with Australasia. Overall, the desire to complete speedy agreements has at times trumped business and societal interests, and precluded the development of a coherent long-term UK FTA vision, revealing the symbolic motivation of being seen as 'delivering Brexit' behind the initial years of post-Brexit trade policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As multilateral trade barriers fall, there are increasing concerns that domestic policies will be used to undermine tariff cooperation. We examine how the ability to use domestic instruments affects the formation of trade agreements, and the resulting implications for the pursuit of free trade. We examine how optimal tariffs relate to domestic policy choices, and how negotiated restrictions on trade policy affect both domestic policies and the incentives to enter different trade agreements. We show that unrestricted domestic policy can lead to very different equilibrium trade agreements than with exogenous domestic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the implications of trade liberalization and industrial policy in South Asia, particularly in India. The importance of creating a pro-competition business environment and protecting supply chains is emphasized. The article also highlights the need to focus on areas such as energy supply, small and medium-sized enterprises, and the digital economy to encourage economic growth. The Indo-Pacific region is encouraged to shift its focus from security to economic and investment-related issues, specifically industrial policy. The balance between economic efficiency and security is discussed, with cooperation and avoiding protectionism emphasized. The establishment of institutions for financing industrial enterprises is seen as a key requirement for promoting industrial policy in South Asian countries. [Extracted from the article]

This paper shows that trade in services is still at its infancy in Africa. Its growth started later than for other developed and developing economies and, so far, it involves mostly low‐skilled services. Disentangling the different sources of trade growth, we find that demand and supply determinants have been relatively stable during the period 2002–2016, while service diversification and trade policy are the main propellants. In particular, trade in goods liberalisation increased services trade as well due to the complementarities between the two. In terms of geographical and industrial involvement, services produced in Africa are able to reach farther destinations than goods, but they are concentrated on industries close to final demand, thus missing high‐skilled services that are more upstream, but represent higher value‐added inputs. Therefore, there is still plenty of scope to consider trade in services as a potential source of growth and development for African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firm-based approaches to international trade have revolutionized the study of trade politics. Corporate participation in political processes is costly, limiting access to large, productive, well-resourced, and often internationally engaged firms. This implies a pro-trade bias in corporate lobbying demands over trade policy. I examine this relationship in the case of three free trade agreements passed by the United States Congress in 2011. I combine public statements from firms on the FTAs with corporate lobbying activities and find that both lobbying firms and those that lobbied and publicly disclosed their policy positions were more productive than the typical publicly traded firm. Likewise, firms with income from foreign affiliates were more likely to be politically active than others. These results contribute to a vibrant body of research into the complex relationships firms hold with policies governing access to international markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between geopolitics and the global economy, highlighting the increasing influence of geopolitical factors on economic outcomes. It emphasizes the need to separate economics from politics to ensure economic benefits and well-being for people. The article also explores the challenges and potential solutions in achieving this separation, such as restoring international rule-making institutions and diversifying trading partners. Additionally, it addresses the impact of geopolitical risks on energy and the environment, as well as the demographic challenges faced by developed nations. The article provides a summary of interesting points discussed in various forums, including the Asia-Pacific Forum, US-Japan Forum, Europe-Japan Forum, and CJK Cooperation Dialogue. [Extracted from the article]

This article analyzes the impact of partisanship under divided government on the approval process of the US-Colombia–Trade Agreement (FTA). Focusing on the case of the FTA between the United States and Colombia, this study examines how partisan and ideological dimensions in the executive and legislative branches shape trade policy decision making. Drawing on existing literature, this study explores the determinants of FTA approval under divided governments using individual and district-level characteristics. In this case, the findings indicate that party affiliation significantly influences members of Congress’ voting behavior on FTAs, with Democrats generally being more skeptical and Republicans more supportive. The article also explores how changes in government positions and the presence of a divided government affected President Barack Obama’s stance on the FTA, highlighting the importance of republican support in Congress. Overall, this research contributes to the understanding of the relationship between divided government and FTA approval, shedding light on the role of partisanship and ideology in shaping US trade policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how frictions in the local business environment where firms operate alter the productivity gains from trade. Using Vietnamese firm-level data from 2006 to 2012, the analysis provides robust evidence of a positive effect of trade opening on firms' efficiency. However, distortions that operate through certain local market features in the form of unenforceable property rights, an ineffective land-titling system, bureaucratic hurdles and labour market frictions play a crucial role in the transmission of trade liberalization shocks. These findings have important policy implications because they suggest that complementary policies addressing local market constraints need to be implemented alongside trade reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India now is the most populous nation on earth, but its modern international trade policy remains an under-researched area. In contrast, the literature on the trade policy of the second largest nation, China, is voluminous. It is widely appreciated that China, since acceding to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 11 December 2001, seeks - one way or the other - an ever-more powerful role in shaping the rules of the world trading system. That aspiration remains the lodestar of Chinese trade policy. As for India, it is understood that from the August 1947 British Partition to the ballyhooed 1991 First Generation Reforms, India's trade policy was that of import substitution. Following the semi-Socialist path chalked out by its founding Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, India kept tariff and non-tariff barriers high, mandated licenses for importation, and mollycoddled domestic champions favoured by the government in the hopes of transforming its traditional agriculture into modern industry. All the while, as a founding contracting party to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and founding Member of the WTO, India put its faith in multilateralism. After 1991, import substitution seemed no longer to be the Indian lodestar. By the early 2000s, protectionism seemed back in vogue. But India also explored free trade agreements (FTAs). That, too, was irregular: India opted for a few bilateral FTAs, but stayed out of mega-deals like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). With Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi came expectations of liberalization, but also Hindutva. Redolent of America First advocated by former U.S. President Donald J. Trump, for this Hindu nationalist sentiment, words like 'globalization' and 'cosmopolitan' are pejorative, and hopes for enhancing peace through cross-border commercial interdependence undermines national security. So, what is India's trade policy about? What word best characterizes India's international trade policy since the watershed year of 1991? This trilogy of articles argues that word is 'inconstant'. Since the ballyhooed 1991 First Generation Reforms, India's approach to its trade measures, be they tariff or non-tariff barriers, and to potential FTAs, has been irregular. The lodestar is that there is no lodestar. Part One of this Trilogy might be colloquially sub-titled, 'It all started off so well, but then....' The 1991 reforms promised a genuinely new Indian approach to cross-border trade, foreign exchange (FX) rates, and foreign direct investment (FDI). The reforms sputtered amidst governance problems. India faced no less than 12 serious challenges, and desperately needed a political apparatus that reinforced open trade and investment regime. Parts Two and Three advance this argument by, respectively, critically analysing the twists and turns in Indian trade policy during the first and second terms (2014-2019, and 2019-present) of Prime Minister. Together, the three Parts indicate that if India's post-1991 past is prologue, then future Indian trade policy is uncertain and thus unpredictable. Or to put the conclusion differently, as the U.S. and its Allies navigate the many variables of de-coupling (i.e., euphemistically, derisking) from China amidst the Sino-American trade war, they would do well to see India's trade policy as a variable, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of climate change in trade relations between the EU and the Americas and the manners in which inter-regional Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) address climate change. The assessments of these FTAs demonstrate a need for more ambitious climate provisions, going beyond commitments in trade and sustainable development (TSD) chapters and including the provision of incentives to exchanges in green goods and technologies. Besides making climate commitments more enforceable, it argues, climate ambition requires acting 'horizontally' on FTAs. Thus, the EU should prioritize careful drafting of non-TSD chapters over more extensive but less enforceable TSD chapters, since actual climate friendly through specific trade commitments are the way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indonesian government has been working hard to engage with the world market as tariffs continue to decrease. However, the government seems to be following the global trend of relying on non-tariff measures (NTMs) to regulate the Indonesian market and protect the country's industries. This paper assesses whether these measures hurt firms by limiting their access to better quality and cheaper foreign inputs. It builds on the findings of Amiti and Konings (2007) by assessing the impact of trade policy shocks on firms' total factor productivity (TFP). It finds that tariffs and NTMs hurt firms' TFP significantly and reduce employment. The impact is less severe for bigger firms, confirming the heterogeneous effect of trade policy. The results suggest unintended consequences of protectionism in the Indonesian market. Moreover, as the country seeks to boost foreign investment, more protectionism may be used to keep mark-ups in the domestic market high as an incentive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews Adam Smith's clearly articulated views about the desirability of free trade and his equally strong view on the necessity of sound institutions and 'the tolerable administration of justice' as key ingredients of successful economic management. It starts with Smith's views on free trade and shows how pertinent they are to today's high-level trade policy challenges. It then considers a more detailed day-to-day instrument of policy—the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA). Following Brexit, the TRA was created as an arms-length body for investigating cases for granting temporary import restrictions to specific products according to a reasonably well-defined objective process. The article demonstrates how, over the first 2 years of its life, the TRA has been reduced from a useful administrative instrument to a fig leaf for a political process for granting protection to petitioners. Unfortunately, this tendency to displace analytical approaches to policy by purely political ones can now be observed in many activities of UK governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What determines people's preferences regarding trade policy? Existing studies have assumed that people consider trade policy merely trade politics; accordingly, these studies have focused on economic factors, such as benefits to individual or national welfare; ideational factors, such as xenophobia; or domestic political factors. This paper reveals that the international political factor of national security influences ordinary people's preferences for trade policy. While several studies have addressed the effect of the national security factor, they did not persuasively reveal the causal mechanism of the relationship between the national security factor and people's trade preferences. The present study conducted a factorial survey experiment to investigate the causal effect and the causal mechanism of the security factor on people's preferences regarding free trade agreements (FTAs). The results of the experiment conducted in Japan reveal that ordinary people consider the national security factor along the so-called realism path in forming their opinions regarding FTAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this work is the presentation of the structural modifications of contemporary international business. International trade in the XXI century has been strongly affected by the force of the economic crisis and COVID-19. The changes are evident in the growing importance of international trade to national economies and to domestic groups within those economies, in the closer linkages between trade and other international issues. Despite the undeniable benefits of the multilateral WTO forum for trade liberalization, the rapid increase of North-South bilateral and multilateral Free Trade Areas (FTAs) begs a systematic explanation for why some forums are prioritized relative to others. This work presents the mercantilist tendencies in the international trade policy, the theory of public choice in foreign trade policy, protectionist pressures in different political systems, the level of protectionist pressures, food producers' pressure, and conflicts between the tendencies to sustainable international trade liberalization and environmental protection, the increasing importance bilateral agreements in the foreign trade policy and international economy in the time of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force in 2015, is an example of so-called "second-generation" regional trade agreements. Using the gravity equation and drawing on a novel dataset on trade in manufacturing goods (Monteiro in World Trade Organization, Geneva, 2020), I explore the heterogeneity in the trade effects of this agreement across time (anticipation and phasing-in/delayed adjustment), country pairs, and across trading directions within pairs (exports versus imports). First, the positive trade effect after the announcement vanished one year prior to entry into force. Second, on average exports of EU countries to South Korea rise, while imports of EU countries are not significantly affected, potentially reflecting differences in ex ante trade policies. Third, additional imports caused by the agreement are larger for those EU countries where South Korea accounted for a large share of extra-EU imports already before the agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]