'The Cost of Being Landlocked' proposes a new analytical framework to interpret and model the constraints faced by logistics chains on international trade corridors. The plight of landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) has naturally received special attention for decades, leading to a specific set of development priorities based upon the concept of dependence on the transit state. Therefore, the standard approach used to tackle the cost of being landlocked has been predominantly aimed at developing regional transport infrastructure and ensuring freedom of transit through regional conventions. But without sufficient attention given to the performance of logistics service delivery to traders, the standard approach is unable to address key bottleneck concerns and the factors that contribute to the cost of being landlocked. Consequently, the impact of massive investment on trade corridors could not materialize to its full extent. Based on extensive data collection in several regions of the world, this book argues that although landlocked developing countries do face high logistics costs, these costs are not a result of poor road infrastructure, since transport prices largely depend on trucking market structure and implementation of transit processes. This book suggests that high logistics costs in LLDCs are a result of low logistics reliability and predictability, which stem from rent-seeking and governance issues. 'The Cost of Being Landlocked' will serve as a useful guide for policy makers, supervisory authorities, and development agencies.

& Quot;The Transit Regime for Landlocked States" assesses the strengths and limits of existing international law related to the free access of landlocked states to and from the sea. The book analyzes whether the provisions of international law satisfy the economic demands of landlocked states, the majority of which are among the world's poorest nations. The book reviews the several principles of international law that dominated the evolution of the rights of access. It discusses both general and specific conventions, as well as treaty regimes emanating therefrom, and examines some restrict.

Based on new analytical research and case studies, the authors provide insights on what works and does not work, and they offer policy recommendations to address these issues.

This book assesses Afghanistan’s transit trade with Pakistan in the context of WTO transit regime for landlocked countries and its impacts on Members’ regional transit agreements. The key questions this book seeks to answer are the extent Afghanistan can benefit from WTO transit rules in demanding freedom of transit through the territory of Pakistan, how these rules influence the transit agreement concluded between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and finally how useful it would be to challenge Pakistan under the WTO dispute settlement system for its failure to provide Afghanistan freedom of transit and free access to and from the sea.

This is a highly unusual and beautifully written book. It is the double memoir of a mother and son, Anna and Pierre, and the story takes us from Anna's childhood in Russia and subsequent arrival in Egypt in 1901 to Pierre's enrollment at the American University in Cairo in the late 1930s. It is fascinating, therefore, not only as a personal account of an interesting group of people but also as a social document that portrays a segment of Egypt's society in the first forty years of the twentieth century. As a personal story, it is a rewarding insight into the early formation of a leading, well-known, and respected Arabist. His mother's account of her own early life and tragedies reveals a remarkable woman we would wish to have known. As a social document, it gives us a rare perhaps unique picture of the life of foreigners in Egypt who were not part of the elite, privileged, ruling class, revealing much about the choices that were available to them in education, career, marriage, and social mixing. Landlocked Islands thus offers the social historian a study of some minorities in Egypt during the first half of the twentieth century; it also opens up the whole question of expatriate life in Egypt. But, above all, it is an entertaining and intriguing tale, a book that one constantly finds oneself eager to pick up and read.

This book focuses on strategies to achieve economic diversification in Asian landlocked countries. It does so by analysing the impact of the Dutch disease, non-resource firm heterogeneity, trade logistics operations, trade facilitation, aid for trade, small and medium-sized enterprises, and foreign direct investment. Offering a wide range of expert views and opinions, research findings, information and data, the book will be of value to policy makers and students of trade and development economics.

World Bank demographic and country characteristic statistics identify 16 small landlocked countries that are similar to Lesotho. Ng and Yeats attempt to determine what useful policy information can be derived from the recent trade performance of these "comparators." Among questions they pose are whether the trade profiles of the comparators suggest potentially promising export ventures for Lesotho, do they indicate directions for a geographic diversification of trade, or do they suggest products in which Lesotho might acquire a comparative advantage. The authors also use U.S. partner country statistics to evaluate Lesotho's export performance in this major market. The U.S. data indicate Lesotho lost competitive export shares for about three-quarters of its major clothing products during the late 1990s. The data show these losses were primarily to the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) countries in the Caribbean. Lesotho was competing on basically equal terms and did not fare well. But it is generally held that the most efficient clothing exporters are in the Far East and not Latin America. Lesotho's difficulties in competing with the latter have worrisome implications for its ability to compete with East Asian exporters when the Multifiber Arrangement is phased out. The comparative advantage profiles of the landlocked comparator countries suggest Lesotho's options for a greatly needed export diversification may be wider than is assumed. One or more of the comparator countries developed a comparative advantage in 110 four-digit SITC (non-clothing) manufactures which are generally labor-intensive in production. Many of these goods should also be suitable for production and export by Lesotho. International production sharing often involves the importation and further assembly of components in developing countries. This activity can significantly broaden the range of new products in which a country can diversify. Statistics show many landlocked comparator countries have moved into component assembly operations, and it appears this activity could contribute to Lesotho's export diversification and industrialization. But the quality problems associated with Lesotho's trade statistics makes it impossible to determine the extent to which local production sharing is occurring. A special effort is needed to tabulate reliable statistics on Lesotho's current involvement in this activity. Finally, the authors attempt to determine how the commercial policy environment in Lesotho compares with that in other countries. Policymakers previously had difficulty in addressing this issue, but several recent efforts to compile comprehensive cross-country indices of the quality of governance and commercial policies now provide relevant information. These statistics suggest domestic commercial policies make Lesotho relatively less attractive to foreign investment than many other developing countries. Less than 20 percent of all Latin American countries have a domestic commercial environment judged to be inferior to that in Lesotho, while the corresponding share for East Asia is under 30 percent. Overall, almost 70 percent of all developing countries appear to pursue commercial policies that make them as, or more, attractive to foreign investment than Lesotho. This paper--a product of Trade, Development Research Group--was prepared for the background study of Lesotho Diagnostic Trade Integration Study in summer 2002.