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In this paper the results of a number of numerical simulations of possible trade liberalization scenarios in the ESCAP region are presented. The scenarios considered include: expansion of existing trade blocs to encompass new members; consolidation and deepening of existing trade agreements; and a region-wide free trade area. The simulations were conducted using the model of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) and were based on a projection of the database to 2010.

Beginning with the WTO's Doha Development Agenda and establishment of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty by 50 percent by 2015, poverty impacts of trade reforms have become central to the global development agenda. This has been particularly true of agricultural trade reforms due to the importance of grains in the diets of the poor, presence of relatively higher protection in agriculture, as well as heavy concentration of global poverty in rural areas where agriculture is the main source of income. Yet some in this debate have argued that, given the extreme volatility in agricultural commodity markets, the additional price and therefore poverty impacts due to trade liberalization might well be indiscernible. This paper formally tests the “invisibility hypothesis” using the method of stochastic simulation in a trade-poverty modeling framework. The hypothesis test is based on the comparison of two samples of price and poverty distributions. The first originates solely from the inherent variability in global staple grains markets, while the second combines the effects of inherent market variability with those of trade reform in these same markets. Results, at the national and stratum level indicate that the short-run poverty impacts of full trade liberalization in staple grains trade worldwide, are distinguishable in only four of the fifteen countries, suggesting that impacts of more modest agricultural trade reforms are indeed likely to be invisible in short run. Countries that show statistically significant short run impacts are the ones characterized by high staple grains tariffs and/or a moderate degree of grain markets variability. Within each country, results are heterogeneous. In two thirds of the sample countries, agriculturally self-employed poor experience statistically significant poverty impacts from trade liberalization. However, this figure is under a third for all the other strata. Copyright , Oxford University Press.

For decades, earnings from farming in Latin American countries have been depressed by pro-urban and anti-trade biases in own-country policies and by governments of richer countries favoring their farmers with import barriers and subsidies. These policies have reduced national and global economic welfare, hampered agricultural trade and economic growth, and may well have added to income inequality and poverty in the region. Since the mid-1980s, however, the region has reduced its sectoral and trade policy distortions and some high income countries also have begun reducing market-distorting aspects of their farm policies. This paper synthesizes results from a World Bank research project that provides (a) price comparison based measures of the extent to which national policies have changed farmers‘ price incentives since the 1960s in eight Latin American countries, (b) partial equilibrium indexes of the impact of national farm policies on agricultural trade and economic welfare, (c) general equilibrium estimates of national trade, welfare and poverty effects of global reforms retrospectively since the early 1980s and prospectively as of 2004, (d) comparisons with similar estimates for Asia, Africa and high-income countries, and (e) a discussion of prospects for further pro-poor policy reform of agricultural price and trade policies.

We numerically examine the impact of the global economic crisis on the Cambodian garment exports as well as its economy by using the conventional CGE model. A seminal aspect of the paper is that we have successfully estimated the curvature of the CET and CES production functions for the Cambodian economy, by using the time series regression method. One of our most striking results indicates that the welfare cost of the impact of the crisis at least reaches 281 million US dollars, thus resulting in a 0.3 percent decrease in GDP with 20.8 thousand direct job losses in the garment industry. Our simulation results also show that the currently ongoing policy in Cambodia only reduces the negative impact of the crisis by 32 million US dollars, and we propose an expansion of the government budget of 304 million US dollars, in order to neutralize the negative impact of the global economic crisis on the Cambodian economy.

A successful agreement on agriculture is essential for an overall agreement under the WTO's Doha trade negotiations. Reaching agreement has been difficult, and as of August 2007, much still remains to be done if a successful agreement is to be reached. We consider three of the most controversial areas of the agricultural negotiations: the relative importance of domestic support, market access and export subsidies; three market access issues of sensitive-product exceptions sought for all countries and, the additional special product exceptions sought for developing countries, the proposed special safeguard mechanism; and the domestic support issue. We show that decisions made on reform in these areas will have a critical influence on whether the negotiations achieve their objectives of promoting trade reform and reducing poverty.

We review the literature on the relationship between agricultural trade policy reform and poverty, and the results of recent detailed simulation studies applied to economies in the Asia-Pacific region. We then use the Global Trade Analysis Project model to evaluate the possible impacts of the most recently proposed modalities for agricultural trade reform under Doha on the economies of the Asia-Pacific region, which we compare to a benchmark of comprehensive agricultural trade reform. The current proposal does not result in significant cuts to applied tariffs, and has very modest overall effects on welfare. Average poverty in the region would decrease overall, but the distribution across countries is uneven. By contrast, comprehensive agricultural trade reform, with developing economies fully engaged, tends to benefit most economies in the region in the aggregate, and consistently lowers poverty.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of the integration of Maghreb countries into a free trade area on the main macroeconomic aggregates. By using the MIRAGE model and MacMap database, we tested different scenarios to estimate the gains or the potential losses of various plans of trade integration (Free trade area for the Maghreb countries, Custom Union between Maghreb countries, Maghreban Common Market). Our study suggests that the overall gains from liberalizing trade in goods (and removing various regulatory non-tariff barriers in the process) could reach at least USD 350 million. The increase in revenue through increases in production and wages would positively affect welfare levels for Maghreb consumers. The dynamic gains from liberalizing trade in goods can outstrip the static gains, with productivity improvements as the main driver. Our analysis shows that the creation of a common market is probably the most interesting and efficient option for the Maghreb countries.

South and Southeast Asian economic integration via increased trade flows has been increasing significantly over the past 2 decades, but the level of trade continues to be relatively low. This underperformance has been due to both policy-related variables—relatively high tariff and non-tariff barriers—and high trade costs due to inefficient “hard†and “soft†infrastructure (costly transport links and problems related to trade facilitation). The goal of this study is to estimate the potential gains from South Asian–Southeast Asian economic integration using an advanced computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The paper estimates the potential gains to be large, particularly for South Asia, assuming that the policy- and infrastructure-related variables that increase trade costs are reduced via economic cooperation and investment in connectivity. As Myanmar is a key inter-regional bridge and has recently launched ambitious, outward-oriented policy reforms, the prospects for making progress in these areas are strong. If the two regions succeed in dropping inter-regional tariffs, reducing non-tariff barriers by 50%, and decreasing South Asian–Southeast Asian trade costs by 15%—which this paper suggests is ambitious but attainable—welfare in South Asia and Southeast Asia would rise by 8.9% and 6.4% of gross domestic product, respectively, by 2030 relative to the baseline. These gains would be driven by rising exports and competitiveness, particularly for South Asia, whose exports would rise by two thirds (64% relative to the baseline). Hence, the paper concludes that improvements in connectivity would justify a high level of investment. Moreover, it supports a two-track approach to integration in South Asia, i.e., deepening intra-regional cooperation together with building links to Southeast Asia.

This paper examines the extent to which various regions, and the world as a whole, could gain from multilateral trade reform over the next decade. The World BankÂ’s LINKAGE model of the global economy is employed to examine the impact first of current trade barriers and agricultural subsidies, and then of possible outcomes from the WTOÂ’s Doha round. The results suggest moving to free global merchandise trade would boost real incomes in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (and in Cairns Group countries) proportionately more than in other developing countries or high-income countries. Real returns to farm land and unskilled labor, and real net farm incomes, would rise substantially in those developing country regions, thereby helping to reduce poverty. A Doha partial liberalization could take the world some way towards those desirable outcomes, but more so the more agricultural subsidies are disciplined and applied tariffs are cut, and the more not just high-income but also developing countries choose to engage in the process of reform.

Este trabajo trata de evaluar algunos impactos espaciales de la actual política comercial de Brasil, especialmente de las relaciones bilaterales de comercio con Argentina, su principal socio en el MERCOSUR. Para realizar esta tarea y evaluar los impactos regionales y sectoriales de las diferentes estrategias de comercio con Argentina, se ha desarrollado e implementado un modelo nacional de equilibrio general computacional (EFES_ARG), integrando con un modelo de comercio interestatal. El análisis de los impactos regionales a corto plazo del comercio bilateral Brasil-Argentina permite concluir que se observa una cierta tendencia a la concentra ción de los niveles de actividad económica en los Estados Brasileños del Sur y del Sureste.

The paper quantifies regional welfare effects arising from the increasing trade flows between Austria and its Eastern neighbors after the opening up of Eastern Europe. We calibrate a static multiregional Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model with benchmark data from 1994 for Austria, subdivided into nine Federal Provinces. The regions are linked by trade flows with the four Eastern neighboring countries and with the rest of the world. We simulate the effects of the increase of trade interpenetration as observed between 1989 and 1999 in a comparative static analysis. Regional welfare effects under fixed and flexible wages are presented. We also compare national CGE results with estimates obtained in a simple partial equilibrium approach.

CGE models are widely used for policy evaluation and impact analysis especially with respect to trade reforms, tax reforms, energy sector reform and development policy analysis. However, the results of such models are often argued to be sensitive to the choice of exogenous parameters such as trade elasticities. Several authors show that the choice of the so-called Armington elasticities in the demand function has a strong influence on the simulation results. Most existing estimates of Armington elasticities are only for the US. The few studies for other countries find substantially differing results. Nevertheless, many CGE modelers simply adopt the elasticities from other studies disregarding specific country and model characteristics. This paper aims at providing estimated elasticities based on recent data for a larger group of European countries. Using cointegration and panel fixed effects analyses we estimate the first order condition resulting from cost minimization or utility maximization subject to the CES utility or cost function in imports and domestic goods. The results show a rather large variation across sectors and countries and the magnitude is only partly comparable to the US elasticities. Moreover, in a small CGE application we are able to show that changing the elasticity set has a quantitative and even qualitative impact on CGE model results, which confirms the concern that one might end up with biased results due to a misspecification of the elasticities.

South and Southeast Asian economic integration via increased trade flows has been increasing significantly over the past 2 decades, but the level of trade continues to be relatively low. This underperformance has been due to both policy-related variables—relatively high tariff and non-tariff barriers—and high trade costs due to inefficient "hard" and "soft" infrastructure (costly transport links and problems related to trade facilitation). The goal of this study is to estimate the potential gains from South Asian–Southeast Asian economic integration using an advanced computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The paper estimates the potential gains to be large, particularly for South Asia, assuming that the policy- and infrastructure-related variables that increase trade costs are reduced via economic cooperation and investment in connectivity. As Myanmar is a key inter-regional bridge and has recently launched ambitious, outward-oriented policy reforms, the prospects for making progress in these areas are strong. If the two regions succeed in dropping inter-regional tariffs, reducing non-tariff barriers by 50%, and decreasing South Asian–Southeast Asian trade costs by 15%—which this paper suggests is ambitious but attainable—welfare in South Asia and Southeast Asia would rise by 8.9% and 6.4% of gross domestic product, respectively, by 2030 relative to the baseline. These gains would be driven by rising exports and competitiveness, particularly for South Asia, whose exports would rise by two thirds (64% relative to the baseline). Hence, the paper concludes that improvements in connectivity would justify a high level of investment. Moreover, it supports a two-track approach to integration in South Asia, i.e., deepening intra-regional cooperation together with building links to Southeast Asia.

The share of North-North trade in global trade declined from 55.5 percent in 1990 to around 32 percent in 2010. Such fall in North-North trade had been accompanied by rising trade involving the South countries. The South-North trade share increased from 13.9 percent to 16.5 percent during the same time. However, the most spectacular phenomenon was the rise in South-South trade, which increased from only 6.4 percent to 19.4 percent during this period. Such rise in South-South trade has not been uniform across different South countries. During 1990 and 2010, though all categories of South countries (all South, LDCs, SVEs, advanced South and South excluding advanced South) experienced rises in their shares in global trade, trade involving the advanced South countries was the major contributor to the changing landscape in global trade, which resulted in remarkable rise in the South-South trade. When it comes to country-wise shares in South-South export, there are some gainers and losers. Out of the 135 South countries, 50 countries experienced rise in their shares in South-South export while 85 countries experienced fall in shares. The structures of the export of the South countries are not uniform. Many of the South countries’ export are agriculture based, many of them are extraction based and the rest are manufacturing oriented. The destinations of the export from South countries are primarily the developed countries. A comparison among the sizes of coefficients of different variables under the basic gravity models suggests that as far as intra-South trade is concerned, among the continuous variables, the largest positive effect stems from the per capita GDP of the home country, and largest negative effect comes from the distance. Among the dummy variables, the common border dummy has the largest positive effect, whereas the island dummy of the partner country has the largest negative effect. However, these variables have differential effects when it comes to trade between different groups of South countries. Gravity modeling results suggest that when considering South countries as the home, there are marked differences among different groups of countries as far as the impact of per capita GDP of home country (in this case the South countries) on exports from these groups of countries to the South countries are concerned. Per capita GDP of the South countries has the largest positive effect on the export from the North countries; and among different South countries such positive effect is the largest for the export from the Emerging South countries. For SVEs the effect is positive but is the smallest among all country groups. Now, while considering South as the source of export, the per capita GDP of the emerging South countries has the largest positive effect among all country groups on the export from South. Interesting, the per capita GDP of the North countries doesn’t have any significant effect. Also, though the per capita GDP of LDCs has a positive effect on the export from South that of the SVEs doesn’t have any statistically significant effect. Gravity modeling results also suggest that, considering South as the home, the distance factor has the largest negative effects on exports from the Emerging South countries and SVEs to South countries; and distance factor has the largest negative impact on South’s export to Emerging South among all country groups as destinations for South’s export. In the case of common language dummy, while considering exports to South from all country groups, this dummy has the largest positive effect on export from North countries, and while considering export from South, common language has the largest positive effect on the export to South Excluding Emerging South countries. In the case of land lock dummy for home country, considering South as the home, this dummy has mixed effects on exports from different country groups; for example, it has negative impacts on exports from LDCs and North, while it has a positive impact on export from South Excluding Emerging South. Also, this dummy has only negative effect on the export from South to North among all country groups as destinations for South’s export. In the case of land lock dummy for partner country, when South is the home, among all country groups, this dummy has the largest negative effect on the export from the South; however, when South is the export source, this dummy has the largest negative effect on South’s export to Emerging South countries. In the case of island dummy for home country, considering South as the home, the export from the island countries will be reduced, if those countries are either North or SVEs. Also, South’s export to Emerging South countries will be reduced most of the South countries are the island countries. In the case of island dummy for partner country, considering South as the home, the export from LDCs is mostly affected among exports from all country groups if LDCs are island countries. Also, if South countries are island countries, then their export is mostly affected in the Emerging South countries. When South is the export destination, common border dummy has the largest positive effect on the export from South countries in general, and among different groups of South countries, this dummy has the largest positive effect on the export from LDCs. However, this dummy has a negative effect on the export from North to South. Augmented gravity modeling results suggest that, in general, South’s tariff rate has the largest negative effect on the export from SVEs. North’s tariff is most restrictive on the export from South in general and South Excluding Emerging South in particular. LDCs’ tariff rate affects mostly the export from SVEs and LDCs. SVEs’ tariff rate affects mostly the export from South Excluding Emerging South counters. Tariff rates of Emerging South and South Excluding Emerging South have the largest negative effect on export from SVEs. As far as South is considered as the export destination, trade cost in South affect mostly the export from South. Trade cost in North has the largest negative effect on export from LDCs, and it seems that such negative effect is higher than the negative effect on export from North to LDCs due to trade cost in LDCs. While the trade costs between LDCs and Emerging South countries are compared, trade costs in Emerging South countries seem to be more restrictive on export from LDCs, as compared to the negative effect of trade cost in LDCs on the export from Emerging South. Similar observations are hold for SVEs, while comparing the restrictive effect of their trade cost with those of North and Emerging South. CGE modeling results suggest that a scenario of LDCs and SVEs receiving duty-free market access in emerging south countries would lead to some significant rise in welfare for all LDCs and SVEs, which would, for some countries, in terms of the percent of their GDPs, be quite high. For example, for Nepal such welfare gain would be 3.2 of its GDP. The least benefitted country in this regard would be Botswana and its welfare gain would be only 0.01 percent of its GDP. All LDCs and SVEs would also experience rise in exports. However, different LDCs and SVEs would experience rise in export by different magnitudes. The largest rise in export, in terms of percentage change, would be for Nepal followed by Rest of South Asia. The lowest rise in export would be for Botswana. . All LDCs and SVEs would experience some re-direction of their exports towards the Emerging South countries. Such as scenario would not lead to large rise in export from LDCs and SVEs, which indicates to the fact that tariff preferences in the Emerging South countries alone would not be enough to help LDCs and SVEs to increase their export to the Emerging South countries. Such a scenario would lead to marginal effects on the export from other developing countries, some countries would experience very small rise and some counties would experience very small fall. The CGE modeling results also suggest that the welfare effects of a scenario of FTA among Emerging South, LDCs and SVEs and other developing countries would lead to some large welfare gains, both in terms of volume and percent share of GDP, for most of the Emerging South countries. There would be mixed effects among the other developing countries. LDCs and SVEs would also see mixed effects. Such a scenario would lead to some significant rise in exports from most of the Emerging South, other developing countries and LDCs and SVEs. Such a scenario would enhance South-South trade significantly. Most of the South countries would experience rise in export to other South countries. The incremental rises in exports of these countries would be destined to other South countries.

This paper uses a 3 factor – 4 region – 15 sector computable general equilibrium model to study the impact of FDI accruing to China. We focus on the sectors of Electronics, Machinery and Textiles which account for 55.4% and 40% of Chinese overall exports and imports, respectively. Our data seem to confirm the existing empirical knowledge on the production networks between China and East Asia, and the role that the U.S. and ROW play as final markets for Chinese exports. Based on these differentiated geographical roles and on the contrasting production technologies of the three sectors, we offer an in-depth analysis of the effect of FDI inflows on production, prices and bilateral trade across China, East Asia, the U.S. and ROW. The magnitude of FDI inflows brings about proportional impacts on the increase in production and the fall in prices across the three sectors considered. However, the subsequent adjustment in bilateral trade differs. On the one hand, FDI leads to an increase of Chinese exports of Electronics and Machinery, crowding out production and exports in the rest of regions. On the other hand, the increase in FDI in Textiles still brings about increase in production which does not result in higher exports. The private consumption orientation of Textiles explains its contrasting trade pattern with respect to Electronics and Machinery. The fall in Chinese exports of Textiles in China underlies the increase on exports of Textiles across the rest of regions. However, world trade flows in Textiles are of smaller volume than the one in Electronics and Machinery. Therefore, the increase in Textiles of exports of the rest of regions does not compensate their big losses of exports in Machinery and Electronics.

The present paper proposes an improved estimation strategy for estimating inter-regional trade flows. Our estimation strategy is based on the parameter-free approach of Simini et al. (2012), which allows us to avoid concemptual inconsistencies, from which many previous estimation approaches suffer. Hence, our estimation strategy is particulalry suitable for for estimating trade flows in general equilibrium models which are implemented at the regional level.

This study examines the economic impact on Austria of three possible new EU free trade agreements: (1) an EU-US agreement; (2) an EU-Canada agreement; and (3) an EUArmenia/Georgia/Moldova agreement. This is done with a computational model of the global economy. The trade agreements are modeled as a mix of preferential tariff reductions and reductions in non-tariff measures that affect both goods and services. The primary impact follows from NTM reduction rather than tariff reductions. Of the three agreements, a potential agreement with the US is by far the most important. This follows from the size of the US economy. The US accounts for roughly one-quarter of extra-EU Austrian exports. Overall, the combined impact of the FTAs studied is positive. Most of the impact follows from investment response. Productivity gains from NTM reduction mean a combination of increased national income, higher wages, and employment, and increased capital stocks for the Austrian economy.

This paper attempts to understand the effect of a recession in Indonesia’s three main trading partners -- Europe, Japan, and China or EJC countries for short—on poverty in Indonesia. Specifically, the paper uses a GTAP model and an INDONESIA-E3 model to examine the impact of a 2 percent decline in GDP (relative to baseline) in the EJC countries on poverty in Indonesia. Results suggest that the impact of such a recession on Indonesia’s GDP through trade-linkages is negative but small. The main reason for this finding has to do with the low dependence of Indonesia on international trade. Results also suggest that the effect of such a recession in the EJC countries on poverty in Indonesia would be negative but small. In Indonesia most of the negative effects of such a recession would be felt by higher income households because they receive a large part of their incomes from the capital and skill-intensive sectors of the economy. Since they are less skilled, the poor are likely to be the first to lose their jobs in the event of an EJC recession. For this reason, the paper urges the Government of Indonesia to consider employment programs to ensure the continued employment of unskilled laborers.

This paper has examined the implications of SAFTA for the South Asian countries. In doing so it has reviewed the pattern of intra-regional trade in South Asia. The paper has reviewed a number of studies which conducted qualitative and quantitative assessments of SAFTA. Using the global general equilibrium model the paper has also explored the welfare implications of tariff liberalisation under SAFTA and increased trade facilitation in South Asia. The simulation results suggest that the gains from trade facilitation in South Asia are much higher than the gains from mere reduction in tariff in goods. Therefore, in order to make SAFTA effective, trade liberalization is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one. Utmost priority should be given to developing trade infrastructure facilities (hardware) and trade facilitation (software).

There is no denying the fact that the recent global economic crisis has profound implications for the developing countries like Bangladesh. This paper has explored the impacts of global economic crisis on the economy of Bangladesh in a general equilibrium framework. The CGE model for Bangladesh economy is developed with a Social Accounting Matrix for the year 2007 as the database. Analysis of the trend and pattern of the global economic crisis suggests that global economic crisis led to some negative impacts on the Bangladesh economy through two major channels: slumps in exports and remittances growths. Three simulations have been conducted considering export and remittance shocks and their short term and long term effects are explored under different factor market closures. The results of the simulations suggest that during the global economic crisis the growth in total exports was much lower than those during pre-crisis periods and the export growth was mainly driven by the growth in non-RMG sectors. Under the export simulation, the woven and knit RMG sectors would experience contraction and there would be some expansions of the non-RMG export oriented sectors. Because of the reduced rates of growth in overall exports as well as much slower growth in knit and woven RMG sectors, there would be some negative impacts on the economy in terms of falls in consumption, exports, imports and households’ consumption and welfare. The poorer households would suffer more as a result of negative export shock during the global economic crisis. Furthermore, the reduced rate of growth in remittances during the global economic crisis would contribute to the fall in household income and real consumption. Demand for goods would decline and, as a result, domestic demand and import would decrease. Due to the fact that reduction in inflow of remittance would contribute to depreciation of the real exchange rate, there would be a positive impact on the growth of exports. All household categories would encounter fall in real consumption and welfare. The households with higher initial endowments of remittance incomes would experience larger fall in real consumption and welfare. The scenario depicting the combined effects of the export and remittance shocks suggests that the negative effects would aggravate under this scenario. In all cases, however, the short term negative effects would be larger than the long term negative effects. The upshots of the above discussion point us to the fact that the economy of Bangladesh was affected during the global economic crisis, when growth in exports and remittances slowed down by great margins and the economy suffered. Several policy implications may emerge from the aforementioned analysis of the simulation results. It is evident from the aforementioned analysis that there was a very low growth of exports of woven and knit RMG from Bangladesh during the economic crisis. This resulted in low growth in total exports. The effects on consumption and welfare of the households were negative. There is a fear of continuation of this sluggish growth in exports of woven and knit RMG in the future. Therefore, there is a need for the policy makers to take necessary steps to enhance exports from these two sectors. These export oriented sectors suffer from serious supply side bottlenecks, such as lack of backward linkages, weak physical infrastructure, lack of skilled manpower, lack of access to capital, high lead time, high cost of doing business, etc. There is a need to bring down these supply side constraints which can enhance the competitiveness of these sectors. It is also true that the export basket of Bangladesh is highly concentrated in favor of the woven and knit RMG. There is a need to diversify the export basket so that the reliance on only a few sectors is reduced and the economy becomes less vulnerable to any external shock. The simulation results in this paper have convincingly suggested the strong welfare enhancing effects of remittance in Bangladesh. The growth rate of remittance inflow reduced quite drastically during the global economic crisis. Also, looking at the trend of annual migration from Bangladesh it appears that there is a high risk of further reduction in inflow of remittances. Therefore, there is a need to take necessary measures for encouraging larger inflow of remittances and greater outward migration. Measures such as reducing the hassles of sending remittances through formal channels and providing appropriate guidance and support for channeling the remittance money to productive investment could be very useful. Also, government needs to negotiate both multilaterally (at WTO) and bilaterally for the enhancement of export of manpower from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has entered into several regional FTA agreements and is in the process of signing bilateral FTA agreements with a number of countries. The study uses several models such as WITS/SMART global partial equilibrium model, SAM multiplier model, CGE model and an employment satellite matrix to explore the employment effects in Bangladesh out of three different FTA scenarios. In the WITS/SMART model, three FTA scenarios are run which assume full elimination of bilateral tariff between Bangladesh and India (under Bangladesh-India bilateral FTA), full elimination of bilateral tariff between Bangladesh and Malaysia (under Bangladesh-Malaysia bilateral FTA) and full elimination of tariff on trade among the BIMSTEC member countries (under BIMSTEC). The analysis of the macro impacts of the FTA scenarios suggest that such bilateral and regional FTAs would be beneficial for Bangladesh in terms of impact on consumer prices, exports, real wages and employment. At the sectoral level, a number of export oriented sectors would gain from such FTAs. However, the sectoral level impacts also suggest that a large number of sectors would experience fall in production because of large inflow of imports, which will result in loss in employment in these sectors. Therefore, these FTAs have important sectoral implications in terms of production, exports, import and employment. It however appears that at the aggregate level employment would rise which would mean that the loss in employment in some sectors will be more than compensated by rise in employment in other sectors. Therefore, the net effect on employment is likely to be positive.

Agriculture is a major economic activity in Bangladesh. It currently employs around 50 percent of country’s labor force and contributes around 20 percent of country’s GDP. Growth in agricultural sector has important linkages with the overall economy through various channels. It is important to note that, at the WTO, Bangladesh, as an LDC, is not bound to undertake any liberalisation in its domestic agricultural sector in terms of tariff cut or subsidy withdrawal. However, there are concerns that actions taken by the developed and developing countries in terms of reduction in agricultural domestic support measures might have important negative implications for the net food importing countries like Bangladesh. It is also important to note that under bilateral trading arrangements, such as India-Bangladesh bilateral FTA, there are scopes for increased trade in agricultural products between Bangladesh and India. Bangladesh’s market access for its agricultural exports in India is likely to increase whereas there will be increased imports of agricultural products from India. Therefore, liberalisation in the trade in agriculture has important implications for the agricultural commodities which are either exported or imported. Increased market access of agricultural exports from Bangladesh under such trade agreement will lead to rise in production and employment in those export-oriented sectors; whereas, domestic liberalisation in the agricultural sectors may dampen output and employment in the import-competing agricultural sectors. It thus appears that the growth in the domestic agricultural sector doesn’t only rely on the domestic policies and programs, rather global and regional trade policies have important implications for this sector. Moreover, the various economic policies and programs, such as domestic fiscal policies, import policies and programs for growth in agricultural productivity also affect the development of the agricultural sector in an economy. This study explores the links between major economic policy reforms and growth the agricultural sector in Bangladesh. This study examines how economic policy reforms affect the agricultural sector in Bangladesh in terms of output, import, export and employment. Under a general equilibrium framework, this study explores three trade liberalization scenarios (a global agricultural trade liberalization scenario under WTO-Doha agreement, Bangladesh – India bilateral FTA, and domestic agricultural trade liberalization), one fiscal policy scenario (rise in agricultural subsidy) and one technological change scenario (rise in agricultural productivity).

The present paper studies the modelling of inter-regional trade flows in the newly developed general equilibrium model of European Commission, Rhomolo. In contrast to international trade, usually, trade of goods and services between regions is not recorded statistically. As a result, no statistical data exists for inter-regional trade, which could be readily used for modelling purposes. We propose an augmented entropy approach, which combines the Transtools model’s inter-regional trade and inter-regional transport cost data with data from regional and national statistics to obtain a full set of balanced bilateral trade data for all inter-regional transactions.

This paper shows that there are significant prospects of rise in intra-regional trade among the four Eastern South Asian countries. The partial equilibrium modelling exercise helps identify the products with high export potentiality. Simulation exercise based on a global general equilibrium model suggests that though there are prospects of welfare gains for India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, there are risks of welfare loss for Bangladesh and other LDCs in South Asia out of FTA in goods under the SAFTA agreement because of the fact that the trade diversion effects could be larger than trade creation effects for these countries. However, such welfare loss could be well compensated by the rise in welfare due to improvement in trade facilitation among the South Asian countries. It also appears that the gains from trade facilitation are much bigger than the gains from trade liberalisation. Interactions with the stakeholders in Bangladesh helped identify a number of factors which are constraining trade in Eastern South Asia sub-region. These include inadequate facilities at the land and sea ports, weak physical infrastructure, inefficient bureaucracy, corruption and several forms of NTBs. Removal of such trade barriers though improvement in trade facilitation measures will generate significant rise in trade among these countries.

In this paper, we examine possible medium-term changes in EU trade policy, including the negotiation and implementation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with regional entities like ASEAN and the NAFTA countries. We also examine the possible conclusion of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. Such changes in policy at the regional and global level imply changes in trade policy and industrial structure that affect Austria as part of the network of European industry. To accomplish this, we work with a computable general equilibrium model (CGE) of the Austrian economy and its major global trading partners. This model is benchmarked to 2020 macroeconomic projections. The modeling scenarios are based on a mix of tariff reductions for goods and non-tariff barriers (NTB) reductions for services. The services liberalization scenario is based on protection with an “actionability” assumption. The results include estimated changes in GDP, welfare, as well as in the value added contained in Austrian exports. The focus on value added provides important insight to the overall impact on the Austrian economy. In all policy cases examined, the striking messages is the importance of high technology services (ICT and other business services) to the total growth in Austrian exports, on a value added basis. This reflects both the high value added content of trade in this sector, and the apparent comparative advantage of Austria in this sector in the 2020 baseline.

In this paper the authors develop an innovative 21 sector computable general equilibrium model of Armenia to assess the impact on Armenia of a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) with the EU, as well as further regional or multilateral trade policy commitments. They find that a DCFTA with the EU will likely result in substantial gains to Armenia, but they show that the gains derive from the deep aspects of the agreement. In order of importance, the sources of the gains are: (i) trade facilitation and reduction in border costs; (ii) services liberalization; and (iii) standards harmonization. A shallow agreement with the EU that focuses only on preferential tariff liberalization in goods will likely lead to small losses to Armenia primarily due to a loss of productivity from lost varieties of technologies from the Rest of the World region in manufactured products. Additional gains can be expected in the long run from an improvement in the investment climate. The authors estimate only small gains from a services agreement with the CIS countries, but significant gains from expanding services liberalization multilaterally.

When Vietnam entered WTO in 2007 it was granted an accession period up to 2014. During this period tariffs would have to fall according to the accession agreement. This paper evaluates this 2007-2014 trade liberalization by building an applied general equilibrium model and calibrating it to the Vietnamese data. The model pays careful attention to the fact that Vietnam has many state-owned enterprises that do not behave in a profit maximizing way. The model simulations show that the WTO imposed tariff reforms will reduce the overall welfare level of the Vietnamese households. Moreover, the biggest loss of income will take place among the poor rural households in Vietnam. We propose other tariff reforms that both raise overall welfare and reduce income inequality.

This paper explores the impacts of reduced inflow of remittances and export earnings in the face of global financial crisis on the economy of Bangladesh. There is no denying the fact that remittances have emerged as a key driver of macroeconomic stability, economic growth and poverty reduction in Bangladesh. Also, Bangladesh experienced robust growth in export earnings, especially through the remarkable growth in readymade garments, over the last two decades. The study suggests that remittance plays a very important role in with regard to household well being measured by consumption level and their poverty incidence. The results from a CGE model suggest that a negative growth in remittance would result in fall in real GDP. The poorer households would appear to be the major victim of such a negative shock. Also a negative shock on the exports of readymade garments would decline real GDP and would lead to reduction in real return to labor. This would also lead to raise incidence of poverty. There is a growing apprehension in the country that due to global financial crisis, flow of international remittance to Bangladesh may likely to slowdown adversely affecting the economy and the household level welfare. Also, the export sectors might be at risk of facing the reduced world demand. Considering the important role of remittances and exports, appropriate policies by the government is very important to tackle the possible adverse situation.

This paper analyzes the impact that terms of trade (TOT) are likely to have on the growth of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) neighboring countries. Two scenarios employing a dynamic computable general equilibrium framework are considered: (i) a convergence scenario, where historical trends are projected; and (ii) a baseline scenario, where technological progress in the PRC is placed in line with that of the United States (US). The results show that the PRC’s technological convergence leads to increased world prices for mining products, and lower world prices for manufactures, especially those exported extensively by the PRC. On the whole, however, the effects on the growth and TOT of the PRC’s neighboring countries are relatively small. The modelling framework used in this study explicitly captures the various offsetting effects that dampen the impact on TOT and contribute to the small impact on growth. In addition, the additional capital required to finance the PRC’s growth comes predominantly from domestic savings, placing little pressure on the global supply of capital. Thus, an awakening PRC is unlikely to make a dramatic entrance despite the country’s overall positive impact on the region – although there is nothing to fear, there is also only little to gain.

This paper assesses the pre and post Free Trade Agreement (FTA) pattern in bilateral trade between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Besides the usual direction of trade analysis we also use general and partial equilibrium approaches in order to evaluate the true potential of this FTA. Our results reveal an increase in welfare and efficiency for both countries. However export basket has not changed much since pre-FTA period. This calls for creating awareness about the FTA and putting in place a consultative mechanism with trade community that can identify the manner in which both countries can accrue maximum benefit from the free movement of tradable goods. Similar suggestions follow in our perception survey carried out for this study.

The objective of this research has been to examine the impact of Doha round negotiations on the economy of India. This research looked into the impact of agricultural trade liberalisation and the impact of NAMA negations under the Doha negotiations, the combined effects of agricultural and NAMA negotiations, and the impact of liberalisation of the domestic services sectors. With a view to addressing these important issues, this study has examined the effects of the Doha agreement for India in a sequential dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) framework. A Social Accounting Matrix for the year 2006 has been used as the database. The major findings of these exercises suggest that agricultural liberalization under the Doha round would have very little effect on Indian GDP. The welfare effects are positive and the effects are stronger in the long run. Poverty falls for all household categories both in the short and long run. In sum, the agricultural trade liberalization would generate positive outcomes for the Indian economy. The NAMA scenario would lead to a rise in real GDP despite the fact that a number of manufacturing sector would contract. This is because of the more than offsetting effect of the expansion of textiles as well as some services and agricultural sectors. Poverty indices would rise for all household categories and the households relying more on non-agricultural capital income as well as on unskilled labour income would experience higher incidence of poverty. In sum, the NAMA scenario would lead to some negative outcomes for the Indian economy. The full Doha scenario would lead to rise in real GDP in the short run and the effect is stronger in the long run. In the short run, the aggregate welfare declines. However, in the long run the negative effect on welfare appears to be very minimal. In sum, the Doha scenario would lead to a mixed results.

The present paper structurally estimates the impact of increased variety in the EU and Asia over the period from 1989 to 2009. Using the most disaggregated import data available, we document that the number of varieties imported by the EU, defined as the number of import categories multiplied by the average number of source countries for each category, quadrupled, whereas it sextupled in Asia. About half of this increase was due to increases in the number of categories and half due to a doubling of the number of countries from which the EU and Asia imported each good. Using the Feenstra's (1994) methodology we estimate 35,000 elasticities and then construct an aggregate price index that is robust to common changes in quality variation, the arbitrary splitting of categories, the introduction of new goods, and other data problems. After reconstructing the EU and Asia import price indices, we found that the price of the EU imports has been falling at a rate 1.24 percent per year faster than one would have thought without taking new varieties into account. The variety gains for Asia are even higher - 2.69 percent per year.

Using a computable general equilibrium model we assess the effects of services trade liberalization in Poland and its major trading partners in the context of the WTO Doha Round negotiations and the ongoing process of trade liberalization within the enlarged European Union. The paper provides a thorough descriptive analysis of the data on trade in services. It gives a complete picture of the sectoral and geographical structure of Poland’s trade in services in 2007. We also provide an analysis of revealed comparative advantage indices based on sectoral data. The review of literature is focused on a discussion of the methodology for assessing the barriers to trade in services. The core of the paper consists of a CGE simulation using the GTAP model. We employ the Hoekman (1995) tariff equivalents as a proxy for the initial level of trade barriers. Our four scenarios include those of complete liberalization, EU-only liberalization and two intermediate scenarios. The most optimistic scenario is expected to bring a 0.9% increase in Polish GDP and welfare improvement of close to 0.8% of GDP value. However, more than half of this gain is attributed to the liberalization within the EU that is bound to happen independently from the Doha process.

Developing countries are deeply engaged in trade negotiations at the bilateral, regional and international (WTO) levels. As imports, exports and tariff duties all occupy an important part of their economies, far-reaching impacts on production, labor and capital markets, household incomes and, perhaps most importantly, economic growth will indubitably ensue. As men and women occupy very different roles in these economies, particularly in terms of the import and export orientation of the sectors in which they work, they will be affected very differently by these reforms. To anticipate these changes, a dynamic economy-wide model is developed with an application to Senegal. Whereas most similar existing studies consider the comparative static resource reallocation effects of trade reforms, ours is the first to focus on the growth effects (“dynamic gains from trade”), which are thought to be possibly much larger. The trade-productivity link is revealed to be the strongest growth channel, raising GDP by over three percentage points by the end of our 15 year simulation period. Trade liberalization is found to increase the gender wage gap in favor of men, especially among unskilled workers, as men are more active in export-oriented sectors such as cash crops and mining whereas women contribute more to import-competing sectors such as food crops. Furthermore, the ensuing growth effects further widen the over-all gender wage gap, as the productivity gains from increased openness are greatest in female-intensive sectors in which imports rise markedly. Thus, this suggests the need to implement policies aimed at increasing both unskilled and skilled women’s exposure in labor-intensive export industries, which is currently male dominated. A linked microsimulation analysis, based on a survey of Senegalese households, show that trade liberalization reduces poverty in Senegal, particularly in rural areas. While the fall in the relative wages of rural workers would initially lead us to believe that rural households would lose the most from trade liberalization, they are in fact compensated by greater consumer price savings, given that they consume more goods from the initially protected agricultural and agro-industrial sectors.

The present study investigates the potential economic impacts of India- Korea CEPA using trade indices, partial equilibrium and computable general equilibrium. One hypothetical scenario is examined in SMART model and two hypothetical tariff liberalization scenarios are examined in GTAP model focusing on short run and long run. Using the partial equilibrium WITS-SMART model, we tried to assess the impact of liberalization under the CEPA, assuming full liberalization of imports from the India into Korea and vice versa. We more specifically looked at consumer surplus, trade creation and diversion results as well as the impact on tariff revenues. Using GTAP model, it is a good instrument for identifying the winning and losing countries and sectors under policy changes. GTAP can be used to capture effects on output mix, factor usage, trade effects and resultant welfare distribution between countries as a result of changing trade policies at the country, bilateral, regional and multilateral levels. Finally, bilateral investment flows has also been discussed. The GTAP results reveal that Korea gains while India loses in terms of welfare. Sectoral output and employment effects are mixed. Both countries are gaining significantly in their bilateral trade flows. The SSA results reveal that the CGE results are robust. Using partial equilibrium analysis, SMART model indicates positive effect on consumer surplus and on other trade flows. However, tariff revenues will be reduced by this agreement. India is expected to loose US$-768.37 million while Korea will loose by US$ -1232.6 million. The study recommends the following in light of our findings. First, in order to tamper the losses in budget revenues, countries should seek to diversify their tax base and develop alternative less distortionary revenue generating strategy. Secondly, if the consumers are to truly benefit of CEPA, the national capacity to limit rent capture by importers and exporters should be strengthened.

This is a PEP funded on-going research. The research explores the gender aspects of policy reforms in Bangladesh in a sequential dynamic computational general equilibrium (CGE) framework. This research uses the most updated SAM of Bangladesh and is the first attempt to build a gendered sequential dynamic CGE model for the Bangladesh economy. A ‘home production’ version of gendered CGE model for the Bangladesh economy is developed. This research tries to understand how gender interests are affected by greater exposure to trade and other policy reforms. The short-run and long-run impacts of policy reforms in the labour market and in the household in a gendered framework are also explored. The research performs two simulations to examine the impact of: (1) domestic trade liberalisation in Bangladesh, and (2) the phasing-out of Multi-fibre Agreement (MFA) on textile and garments. This research builds a gendered social accounting matrix (SAM) for the year 2000 and uses it in a sequential dynamic computable general equilibrium framework. The representative household approach is followed. It is found that domestic trade liberalisation leads to a significant expansion of the ready-made garment sectors in the economy as a result of which the share of market labour supply of unskilled female labour increases. But, this results in a fall in the shares of domestic labour supply and leisure of unskilled female members of the households. The fall in the share of leisure time may have significant negative implications for the time spent on education by this labour category. It is also observed that the long run impacts are different from the short run impacts with respect to the magnitude of the effects. In the case of second simulation, it can be noted that the phasing out of the MFA works in completely the opposite direction. The share of market labour supply of unskilled female members of the households decrease, and the shares of domestic work and leisure increase for most of the households both in the short and long run.

MIRAGE-D is a version of MIRAGE which has been modified to take into account the implications of international trade on countries’ international investment positions (IIPs). Each country or group of countries is represented in the model by a single economic agent, who distributes its wealth among assets following a three-stage portfolio allocation model. MIRAGE-D also proposes a mechanism for distributing investments among industries and countries along the lines of Tobin’s « q » theory, which is different from MIRAGE’s gravity rationale. The comparison between MIRAGE and MIRAGE-D shows that differences in the results are moderate, but nonetheless significant.

In the poorest countries like Ethiopia the spillover effects of a soaring food price is unbearable. To mitigate the recent rise in food prices and the burden on urban poor consumers, policy makers have considered various measures. A recent shift from subsidizing oil to grain to ease the spiraling cost of food is one attempt the Ethiopian government has made so far. To this end, the government has removed an $800m annual subsidy on petroleum products and used the money to combat rising grain prices. Using the standard GTAP model and the recent GTAP Africa database, this paper simulates the overall implication of 5 and 10 percent increase of subsidy on wheat. Regarding the impact on prices, the simulation result tells us that prices have indeed fall. At macro level, the result reveals subsidy on wheat leads to a decline in the overall trade balance. In terms of welfare, the intervention is likely to have a positive impact.

This paper examines the effect of the reduction of an import tariff on the Japanese fishery industry by using a computable general equilibrium model. Being against our common knowledge, our simulations with very realistic conditions show that both of the domestic consumers and the domestic fishery industry can gain by the subsidy (a negative tariff rate) policy, and also that income of the fishery industry would increase by trade liberalization when all possible linkages of economic activities are taken into account within a general equilibrium framework. Our results suggest a possible situation that there is no political conflict between the domestic fishery industry and the domestic consumer.

Changes in international trade flows and world prices are major channels through which the global financial crisis will hit developing countries. The recession in the "global North" triggered by the financial crisis and the resulting slowdown of growth in China and other major emerging economies will generate declines in demand for exports from developing countries, along with a reversal of the beneficial terms-of-trade trends that have favoured net exporters of primary commodities over the last few years. How these trade shocks and terms-of-trade trends affect economic performance and welfare in low-income countries depends on country-specific characteristics and requires a differentiated analysis across countries. This study uses a multi-region computable general equilibrium (CGE) world trade model to gauge the impact of a slowdown in economic activity in the OECD on trade performance, world prices, and aggregate welfare in the rest of the world with a particular focus on the least developed countries (LDCs) in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The results of the simulation analysis indicate the degree of vulnerability of different developing countries and regions distinguished in the model to impacts arising from the recession via the trade channel.

In this paper we use two computable general equilibrium models to evaluate gains of liberalization of trade in services for Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. We employ two CGE models for the calculations. For the Argentine and Uruguayan cases, we apply a model built by the authors (see Chisari (2009)) based on the MPSGE. For Brazil, our study uses the GTAP model – adapted by Rutherford (2005) that also works on an MPSGE platform. We also consider two basic cases of liberalization of trade in services: 1) mobility of goods, in which there is mobility of services across borders, as it is the traditional case of exports and imports of goods, and 2) trade presence, that is location in the domestic country of new operators with a new technology for producing services. We estimate the gains from improvements in efficiency, quality and productivity of the industries of services, due to more intense competition in the domestic market as well as from reductions in the implicit mark up on domestic services due to barriers to trade. Quality advancements lead to gains in welfare of a similar order, or even higher than expected in the case of productivity improvements. To address the case of trade presence, a latent technology is defined in situ, operative or not depending on relative prices (its market share in the overall equilibrium of the economy is endogenous). This is especially relevant for the case of telecommunications. We also observe that: 1) the economy’s specific endowment of factors will limit the expected gains of the liberalization if the latent technology is unsuitable or incompatible with them, 2) governments can face some dilemmas regarding domestic market regulations, if the liberalization of trade in financial services called for a change in regulations so that the domestic demand for government bonds were to fall.

Consequences of free trade agreements (FTAs) among the ASEAN+3 countries and ASEAN+6 countries are explored using a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. Quantitative assessments of intra and extra-regional effects on welfare, trade and output are offered. When both trade facilitation and endogenously determined productivity are included in the FTA scenarios, Singapore, other ASEAN countries and China would be able to realize relatively large welfare gains, while the welfare effects on the EU and North America are negligible. The trade and output effects on the latter two regions are also relatively small, with the notable exception of crops, other than rice, in North America.

The brutal drop in global trade during the last quarter of 2008 and the first months of 2009 has been the subject of much discussion. Some have seen this fall-off, which was considerably steeper than the accompanying decline in production, as a reversal of previous trends. The international fragmentation of supply chains is believed to have sped up the growth of trade during recent years and subsequently led to the current downturn. The globalisation process is thus being held responsible for the collapse of trade. We will show, based on a simulation carried out using the MIRAGE model, that the intensity of trade of intermediate goods on a global scale is not a factor behind the overreaction of trade to the shock suffered by business. This overreaction can instead be explained by short-term factors unique to the crisis that began in the financial sector.

This paper gives a quantitative assessment of possible trade and welfare effects resulting from different trade liberalization scenarios within the EU. First, we econometrically estimate the existing services trade barriers in the EU (inside the EU and with respect to the third countries). Then we run simulations to estimate effects of the currently achieved liberalization of cross-border trade in services inside the EU, and of the elimination of the remaining trade barriers. The simulations are based on the GTAP model, a computable general equilibrium model. We use the GTAP database V7 (pre-release, benchmarked to 2004) and own estimates of protection in the services sector. Our findings point towards larger gains from more comprehensive cuts in trade barriers. We further observe a reinforcement of specialization patterns, with the new members intensifying their position as EuropeÕs manufacturing base and the old members specializing increasingly in services.

With exports almost half of its GDP and most of these directed to Europe and North America, negative financial shocks in those regions might be expected to retard China’s growth. Yet mitigating factors include the temporary flight of North American and European savings into Chinese investment and some associated real exchange rate realignments. These issues are explored using a dynamic model of the global economy. A rise in American and European financial intermediation costs is shown to retard neither China’s GDP nor its import growth in the short run. Should the Chinese government act to prevent the effects of the investment surge, through tighter inward capital controls or increased reserve accumulation, the associated losses would be compensated by a trade advantage since its real exchange rate would appreciate less against North America than those of other trading partners. The results therefore suggest that, so long as the financial shocks are restricted to North America and Western Europe, China’s growth and the imports on which its trading partners rely are unlikely to be significantly hindered.

For years, the agricultural policies of the United States and the European Union have been the object of internal debate at the same time as they have been at the heart of agricultural discussions in the Doha round of WTO negotiations. The CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) is being examined in the framework of the “Health Check” and of the general review of EU community finances, the American discussions about the Farm bill are making no headway and the Doha round of negotiations is still blocked. Now suddenly the food crisis that has been developing over the last few months has put agricultural issues into the headlines again. A workshop on European and American agricultural policies took place last March, organised by Bruegel, the CEPII, the German Marshall Fund and the IFPRI. The CEPII presented the conclusions of its evaluation of the effects of opening the European and American agricultural markets to the developing economies. This Letter summarises the principle results of this work.

Most CGE trade models fix current account balances exogenously, in accordance with the widely accepted view that trade policy may influence trade flows, but that current accounts are constrained by symmetric capital account balances, on which trade policy has little effect. The MIRAGE-D model was developed to make explicit the international capital flows which must take place to balance the current account implications of the simulated trade flows, and to compute the cumulative consequences of such capital flows on the international investment positions (IIP) of countries. In MIRAGE-D, current account balances and their capital account counterparts are endogenous, following a three-tier portfolio management model, adapted from Decaluwé and Souissi (1994; Souissi, 1994; Souissi and Decaluwé, 1997), which represents country-agent wealth allocation behavior. The allocation of capital among countries and industries is determined by an investment supply and demand equilibrating mechanism. Investment supply is the demand for new physical capital ownership titles resulting from the wealth allocation process, while investment demand is a constant elasticity function of Tobins's q in the Jung-Thorbecke (2001) style. An illustrative simulation scenario was run with both MIRAGE-D and the standard version of MIRAGE. Apart from the IIP of countries, which the standard version does not produce, other simulation results, although not identical, show moderate differences, which are fully explained by the financial aspects, and arise from the consistency required between such financial aspects and the rest of the model.

This paper estimates the effects on production, trade and economic welfare of current trade policy regimes throughout the world on Uganda relative to other economies. This will be a benchmark against which to examine various multilateral and preferential trade policy scenarios that might emerge over the next decade as part of the WTO's Doha Round and from the expected move later this decade towards Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union. The results suggest modest gains or worse for Uganda, in part because it already has low tariffs and ready preferential access to rich-country markets. Several important caveats to this type of analysis are stressed though, before drawing out some trade and policy implications for Uganda.

Despite being somewhat paradoxical, the world has in recent times witnessed ambitious multilateral trade negotiations along with a proliferation of regional trading blocs. Almost all countries are now involved in both types of trading arrangements, with Bangladesh actively participating in several important trade talks under the World Trade Oganisation (WTO) alongside its commitments to the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA). Different multilateral and regional trade negotiations have, however, different implications. For example, while the liberalisation of global agricultural trade – by reducing subsidies in rich countries and thereby causing prices to rise – will benefit many developing country farmers, it may hurl a formidable challenge for the net food importing countries in ensuring food security for their poor populations. Similarly, WTO negotiations in non-agricultural goods aim at improving market access for many, but for the least developed countries, including Bangladesh, currently enjoying tariff preferences in a large range of products in major markets, the ensuing outcomes could lead to preference erosion, undermining their competitiveness. Regional trading arrangements can also be challenging as they tend to replace global imports with less efficient regional supplies resulting in adverse welfare consequences. Effective trade negotiations partly depend on a priori assessments of possible negotiation outcomes. As such, it is very important to provide the policymakers and trade negotiators with informed inputs on the potential implications of negotiating issues. Since trade negotiations comprise subject matters of conflicting interests – often amongst countries at comparable levels of development that otherwise share and support similar views and positions – only country-specific objective analyses based on appropriate research methods can inform the negotiators in the best possible way. This book is an endeavour in that direction. It focuses on some of the major issues in the on-going multilateral and regional trade negotiations, and employs state-of-the-art analytical tools to empirically assess their likely implications for Bangladesh. While the analyses and results presented would be useful for policymakers and trade negotiators, this volume would also be of interest to trade analysts involved in empirical research.

This paper has evaluated the possible effects of the Economic Partnership Agreement using a global general equilibrium modelling framework, namely the GTAP model. The latest version of the GTAP database (version 6.22) has been employed as a benchmark database. The study has explored the implications of different EPA scenarios (in terms of changes in GDP, exports, and other measures for welfare) for ACP countries (both developing and LDCs), based on the sample of countries in the database.