This toolkit provides a novel approach and a set of tools for policymakers and analysts to identify non-tariff measures (NTMs), assess their trade restrictiveness and impact on prices and welfare, and to strengthen the institutional coordination mechanism, transparency, and regulatory governance on NTMs.

Non-tariff measures (NTMs) in international trade continues to cause trade costs to be high and to impede the further growth of trade and the gains that can be derived from trade. This book discusses some of the analytical methods that can be used to estimate the impact of NTMs on international trade, and the possible gains from their reform.

This toolkit is to offer a practical methodology to government officials and staff from development organizations on how to identify and assess laws and regulations that affect international trade and investment in the services sector.

This volume provides a fresh and non-dogmatic examination of the emergence on nontariff measures (NTMs) and their impact on international trade and welfare, questioning the traditional premise that most NTMs are protectionist and reduce trade and welfare.

This 2017 Article IV Consultation highlights that the Indonesian economy has continued to perform well. The economic outlook is positive. Real GDP growth is projected at 5.1 percent in 2017, rising gradually to 5.6 percent over the medium term, led by robust domestic demand. Inflation is projected to remain about 3.5 percent, within the official target range, owing to stable food and administered prices, and well anchored inflation expectations. The current account deficit is expected to remain contained at near 2 percent of GDP owing to firm commodity prices and robust exports. Risks to the outlook remain tilted to the downside, including spikes in global financial volatility, uncertainty around the United States economic policies, lower growth in China, and geopolitical tensions.

An examination of how WTO accession negotiations have expanded the reach of the multilateral trading system both geographically and conceptually.

Critical Connections examines how trade, investment, migration, and other linkages among countries drive economic growth in the Europe and Central Asia region. The study breaks new ground by using a multidimensional approach that recognizes how each connectivity channel for growth is likely to be affected by the strength of other channels. This multidimensional view makes it easier to see that diversity in country connections and balance in all channels of connectivity are critical for achieving the greatest impact on growth.Europe and Central Asia provides a great laboratory for observing the role of multidimensional connectivity in action. The region’s 30 countries vary widely in the openness of their economies. Its collective experience shows how the various elements of cross-border connectivity work together to accelerate progrowth knowledge transfers, which in turn boost productivity through participation in today’s global value chains. A country’s economic partner might be just as important as the type of connection. Being well connected to highly connected countries can provide benefits beyond being well connected to comparatively isolated countries.Although greater connectivity can expose countries to external shocks, the report presents fact-based argument for policies that seek to build deeper and more diverse connections within the Europe and Central Asia region and globally. The message is timely. Europe’s once-confident march toward economic integration has slowed over the past decade, with voices in many countries questioning the wisdom of opening to the global economy. Critical Connections serves as a reminder to citizens and policy makers that greater regional and global connectivity has been a tremendous “convergence machine,” raising living standards of lower-income countries toward those of wealthier middle- to high-income countries.

The African Economic Outlook 2014 analyses the continent’s growing role in the world economy and predicts two-year macroeconomic prospects. It details the performance of African economies in crucial areas.

In an era of globalization, trade in goods and cross-border services and capital flows play a key role in determining the economic growth path of countries. Over the last two decades, countries have embarked on several alternate tracks to liberalize and deepen their linkage with the world economy. The growing trade-investment nexus and the emerging developments lead to deeper international production networks, rise in cross-border trade in services and in regional trade agreements and so on. The debate of whether it is possible to empirically validate the potential benefits of this deepening trade-investment linkage is ongoing. The evidence in literature is, however, ambiguous. This book contributes to the literature by looking at Asian economies and at the EU, Maghreb countries and Pacific Island economics. It examines the issues under four broad areas, namely: (1) trade: theoretical and policy issues, (2) factor flows: impact on trade and welfare, (3) impact of trade and factor flows on environment and (4) institutions, international trade and policy issues.

This Research Handbook explores the latest frontiers in services trade by drawing on insights from empirical economics, law and global political economy. The world’s foremost experts take stock of the learning done to date in services trade, explore policy questions bedevilling analysts and direct attention to a host of issues, old and new, confronting those interested in the service economy and its rising salience in cross-border exchange. The Handbook’s 22 chapters shed informed analytical light on a subject matter whose substantive remit continues to be shaped by rapid evolutions in technology, data gathering, market structures, consumer preferences, approaches to regulation and by ongoing shifts in the frontier between the market and the state.