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Avian influenza (AI) outbreaks pose severe challenges to low and middle-income countries such as Nepal, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ghana, South Africa, and Indonesia, leading to profound economic crises with far-reaching consequences. The multifaceted impacts of AI outbreaks on low-income economies shed light on the intricate relationship between disease control and financial stability. By reviewing the implications for the poultry industry, trade restrictions, food security, public health, government legislation, and socio-economic vulnerabilities, we provide a comprehensive overview of the economic ramifications of AI outbreaks. AI outbreaks cause substantial disruptions in the poultry industry, resulting in significant financial losses for farmers and related businesses. The poultry sector contributes 4%, 1.4-1.6%, 6-8%, and 14% to the national GDPs of Nepal, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Ghana respectively. Imposing trade restrictions on affected regions also hampers international trade, reducing revenue and foreign exchange earnings. This, in turn, affects food security as poultry products serve as vital sources of protein and nutrition in low and middle-income countries. Moreover, AI outbreaks adversely impact environmental sustainability by culling infected birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in many other countries, Vietnam's integration into the international trade system has accelerated since its participation in the WTO and regional trade agreements. However, widening market access – the consequence of this integration process – risks exacerbating some of Vietnam's existing environmental problems. In this context, the Vietnamese government is adopting measures in order to mitigate negative impacts of trade on the environment, but do these measures risk violating Vietnam's international trade commitments? Can the environmental protection provisions of new generation free trade agreements like CPTPP be a reliable legal basis to justify Vietnamese trade restriction measures? The author will analyse these questions, while focusing on the case of debris importation control – an issue that has been attracting a lot of public attention in Vietnam and in South East Asia in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries pass through different stages of structural transformation. In the early stage of development, economic activity is dominated by agriculture and mining. As a country develops, firms adopt new technology and move toward industrialization and faster economic growth. Eventually, the society matures when political and economic institutions are well established, and the society moves towards mass consumption. In a matured economy, generally government interventions are replaced by privatizations in production and trade. Accordingly, international trade barriers are reduced as a country moves towards later stages of development. Recently the US government has moved against the trend by imposing tariffs on China’s imports. There is a literature on positive effects of trade liberalization and economic growth. Not unsurprisingly, the Chinese government retaliated by introducing tariffs on US produced goods. For the time being, the result of this trade war on US and China’s trade balance is unclear. However, this development has introduced excessive volatility and uncertainty in global financial markets.

With the reduction in tariff barriers, Non-tariff and behind-the-border measures (NTM and BTB) have increased in importance. This paper surveys the state of knowledge with the view to drawing implications for policy suggestions to reduce those NTM barriers that are welfare reducing. Following a description of data bases and their shortcomings, the paper reviews the state of understanding on the effects of NTMs on trade flows. The more difficult issue of translating these effects into welfare implications are covered next. The paper concludes with different approaches at reducing NTMs.JEL Classification: F1, F13, O24, O5 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative approaches to estimating the effects of nontariff measures (NTMs) on trade flows are discussed and evaluated critically. Recent econometric studies point to three results: (i) NTM restrictiveness measures based on an aggregate of 'core' NTMs are more restrictive than existing tariffs and, because of export composition towards agricultural products, in the aggregate, these 'core' NTMs limit market access most for low-income countries; (ii) Proxies for individual NTMs have a negative effect on the volume of bilateral trade for the detailed product under scrutiny; (iii) harmonization of standards is trade enhancing. Case studies confirm several of these patterns, and also that perceived severity of NTMs varies across products and across destinations for a given product. Across broadly defined imports at the section level, NTMs are more restrictive than the corresponding tariffs with two-thirds of the ad-valorem equivalent estimates in the 25%-50% range. Technical regulations and non-automatic licensing are the most used single-NTM measures and the restrictiveness of technical regulations increases with income per capita.JEL Classification: F1, F13, O24, O5 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The phytosanitary risk associated with the movement of export-quality apple fruit to countries where fire blight does not occur is reassessed based upon additional data available since 1998 and clarification or correction of previously misinterpreted data present in the literature. The low epiphytic fitness of Erwinia amylovora (Ea) on apple fruit, the documented low incidence of viable Ea populations on mature apple fruit and the lack of a documented pathway by which susceptible host material could become infected from fruit-borne inoculum remain unchanged, and support the view that movement of Ea via commercial apple fruit is highly unlikely. With this new information, we updated a previously published model to re-estimate the likelihood of fire blight outbreaks in new areas because of commercial fruit shipment. This likelihood decreased in every scenario, and ranged from one outbreak in 5217 years to one in 753,144 years. By using the corrected and newly published data and by making assumptions based upon documented pathogen biology, the model gives more robust statistical support to the opinion that the risk of importing Ea on commercial apple fruit and the concomitant risk of establishing new outbreaks of fire blight is so small as to be insignificant. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]