African Perspectives on Trade and the WTO
African Perspectives on Trade and the WTO

Author: Patrick Low

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-09-29

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781316626528

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Twenty-first century Africa is in a process of economic transformation, but challenges remain in areas such as structural reform, governance, commodity pricing and geopolitics. This book looks into key questions facing the continent, such as how Africa can achieve deeper integration into the rules-based multilateral trading system and the global economy. It provides a range of perspectives on the future of the multilateral trading system and Africa's participation in global trade and underlines the supportive roles that can be played by multilateral and regional institutions during such a rapid and uncertain transition. This volume is based on contributions to the Fourth China Round Table on WTO Accessions and the Multilateral Trading System, which took place just before the World Trade Organization's Tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in December 2015.

Why the West Rules - For Now
Why the West Rules - For Now

Author: Ian Morris

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

Published: 2011-01-14

Total Pages: 767

ISBN-13: 1551995816

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Why does the West rule? In this magnum opus, eminent Stanford polymath Ian Morris answers this provocative question, drawing on 50,000 years of history, archeology, and the methods of social science, to make sense of when, how, and why the paths of development differed in the East and West — and what this portends for the 21st century. There are two broad schools of thought on why the West rules. Proponents of "Long-Term Lock-In" theories such as Jared Diamond suggest that from time immemorial, some critical factor — geography, climate, or culture perhaps — made East and West unalterably different, and determined that the industrial revolution would happen in the West and push it further ahead of the East. But the East led the West between 500 and 1600, so this development can't have been inevitable; and so proponents of "Short-Term Accident" theories argue that Western rule was a temporary aberration that is now coming to an end, with Japan, China, and India resuming their rightful places on the world stage. However, as the West led for 9,000 of the previous 10,000 years, it wasn't just a temporary aberration. So, if we want to know why the West rules, we need a whole new theory. Ian Morris, boldly entering the turf of Jared Diamond and Niall Ferguson, provides the broader approach that is necessary, combining the textual historian's focus on context, the anthropological archaeologist's awareness of the deep past, and the social scientist's comparative methods to make sense of the past, present, and future — in a way no one has ever done before.

Informal cross-border trade in Africa: How much? Why? And what impact?
Informal cross-border trade in Africa: How much? Why? And what impact?

Author: Bouet, Antoine

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2018-12-21

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13:

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Informal cross-border trade (ICBT) represents a prominent phenomenon in Africa. Several studies suggest that for certain products and countries, the value of informal trade may meet or even exceed the value of formal trade. This paper provides a review of existing efforts to measure informal trade. We list 18 initiatives aimed at measuring ICBT in Africa. The paper also summarizes discussions conducted with many stakeholders in Africa between December 2016 and May 2018 regarding the measurement, the determinants, and the implications of ICBT. The methodologies used to measure ICBT in Africa differ widely, but they do confirm that informal trade in Africa is both sizeable and volatile. Both evidence on the determinants of ICBT and discussions with stakeholders suggest that policies should aim to reduce the existing costs associated with formal trade and provide positive incentives for traders and producers to move into the formal economy in order to avoid the loss of economic potential stemming from informal trade.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Author: Jared Diamond

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1999-04-17

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13: 0393069222

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"Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."—Bill Gates In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's Gold Medal.

Does Freer Trade Really Lead to Productivity Growth?
Does Freer Trade Really Lead to Productivity Growth?

Author: Lauren Bresnahan

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2013-04-17

Total Pages: 28

ISBN-13:

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Manufacturing is intensive in the use of reproducible factors and exhibits greater technological dynamism than primary production. As such, its growth is central to long-run development in low-income countries. African countries are latecomers to industrialization, and barriers to manufacturing growth, including those that limit trade, have been slow to come down. What factors contribute most to increases in output and productivity growth in African manufacturing? Recent trade–industrial organization theory suggests that trade liberalization should raise average total factor productivity (TFP) among manufacturing firms (Melitz 2003). However, these predictions are conditional on maintained assumptions about the nature of industries, factor markets, and trade patterns that may not be appropriate in a developing-country setting. Manufacturing firms are heterogeneous, so the analysis demands disaggregated data. We use firm-level data from the World Bank’s Regional Program on Enterprise Development, covering Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania for 1991–2003. Among other things, the data distinguish exports by destination (Africa and the rest of the world), which is important due to the spread of intra-African regional trade agreements (RTAs). Econometric results confirm well-known relationships, such as a positive association between export intensity and TFP, which implies that more productive firms are more likely to select in to exporting. However, we also find the destination of exports to be important. Many exporters have experienced declining TFP growth rates, which have occurred at different rates depending on the country and the export destination. The evidence for “learning by exporting” is thus mixed. These results add a new dimension to controversies over the development implications of trade liberalization and the promotion of intra-African RTAs.

Africa's Role in Multilateral Trade Negotiations
Africa's Role in Multilateral Trade Negotiations

Author: Zhen Kun Wang

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 38

ISBN-13:

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Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa won fewer concessions on their exports in the Uruguay Round than did other developing countries, but they still emerged facing fewer or lower restrictions than others. They should be more active in the next Round, focusing negotiations not on trade preferences but on bound most-favored-nation tariff reductions.Openness and liberal trade policies are associated with higher exports and economic growth. Sub-Saharan African countries are mostly still relatively closed, and one of their top priorities should be to open up. With some important, identifiable, exceptions African exports are not disproportionately restricted in OECD markets. Because of Sub-Saharan Africa's small economic size and because its decline in competitiveness has been spread over nearly all sectors, improvements in its performance should not unduly disturb other members of the world economy and should not encounter major resistance among trading partners.Sub-Saharan African countries won fewer concessions on their exports in the Uruguay Round than did other developing countries - possibly because they offered fewer concessions on imports. Nonetheless, because they started the Round with more favorable treatment, they still emerged from it facing fewer or lower restrictions than other developing countries.In the next Round of trade negotiations, Sub-Saharan countries have some rights to negotiate (according to the GATT/WTO principal suppliers traditions) and a little leverage. They should be active in this Round, both giving and requesting concessions, and economists should help them prepare the ground.Trade preferences are not the route to integrating with the world economy. In terms of access to partners' markets, trade preferences are no substitute for bound most-favored-nation tariff reductions, and they also encourage shortsighted and distortionary behavior within the recipients' economy. Africa should focus its negotiating efforts on most-favored-nation reductions rather than trade preferences.This paper - a joint product of the New Products and Outreach Division, Economic Development Institute, and Development Research Group - was prepared for the African Economic Research Consortium`s Biannual Research Workshop, Nairobi, May 24-29, 1997.

Report
Report

Author: Commonwealth Shipping Committee

Publisher:

Published: 1909

Total Pages: 776

ISBN-13:

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