Regionalism and Trade Facilitation : A Primer
This paper investigates when trade facilitation reform should be undertaken at the regional level. First, looking at both efficiency and implementation considerations, it confirms the perception that the regional dimension matters. Investigating wh...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/01/8916040/regionalism-trade-facilitation-primer http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6463 |
Summary: | This paper investigates when trade
facilitation reform should be undertaken at the regional
level. First, looking at both efficiency and implementation
considerations, it confirms the perception that the regional
dimension matters. Investigating where efficiency gains can
be made, this research explains why national markets alone
fail to produce the full scale economies and positive
externalities of trade facilitation reform. Second, because
trade facilitation policies need to address coordination and
capacity failures, and because of the operational complexity
challenge, the choice of the adequate platform for
delivering reform is crucial. The lessons are that regional
trade agreements offer good prospects of comprehensive and
effective reform and can effectively complement multilateral
and national initiatives. However, examples of
implementation of trade facilitation reform in regional
agreements do not seem to indicate that regional integration
approaches have been more successful than trade facilitation
through specific cooperation agreements or other efforts,
multilateral or unilateral. Customs unions may be an
exception here, and the author suggests reasons why this
could be the case. |
---|