'In the last decade trade costs have been a subject of intense study in the international trade literature. Richard Pomfret and Patricia Sourdin provide a timely and accessible summary of what we know so far. Their comprehensive review of what we have learned is paired here with important new research in the area of trade facilitation. This is important reading for policymakers interested in international trade and trade-related economic development.' Russell Hillberry, University of Melbourne, Australia 'Few topics are as important in international economics as trade costs. Surprisingly, there are few studies that explicitly address that issue in detail. This makes the book of great value to both professional economists and policy makers worldwide helping them to understand the different concepts of trade costs, their determinants and how to reduce them using trade facilitation measures. The book is very well written and a must read for any person that has an interest in trade costs!' Matthias Busse, Ruhr-University of Bochum, Germany This up-to-date and informative book provides a comprehensive treatment of the costs of trading across borders and of trade facilitation policies. While traditional tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade have been reduced, international trade continues to involve higher costs in money and time than domestic trade. These include not only transport costs, that are determined by distance and commodity characteristics, but also at-the-border and behind-the-border costs which can be reduced by appropriate policies. Research on trade costs has flourished since the turn of the century, and this book by Patricia Sourdin and Richard Pomfret, takes stock of our increased knowledge of the nature and magnitude of trade costs, analysing why they are high and how they can be reduced to increase the gains from trade. Trade Facilitation will appeal to economists and policymakers at the national level and in multinational institutions, researchers and postgraduate students interested in international trade and trade policy, as well as students in international business.

In a globalised world, where goods cross borders many times as intermediate and as final products, trade facilitation is essential to lowering overall trade costs and increasing economic welfare, in particular for developing and emerging economies. Facilitation efforts undertaken by various countries around the world also show that the benefits of such measures clearly compensate the costs and challenges posed by their implementation.

As tariffs have fallen worldwide, the increasing importance of non-tariff policies for further trade liberalization has become widely recognized. The methods for assessing the potential effects of such liberalization have lagged significantly behind those available for analyzing tariffs. This book is the first volume that comprehensively addresses this gap. It has been designed to be useful for both economists and policymakers, especially for those involved in communicating ideas and results between economists and policymakers. This indispensable book contains cutting-edge discussions of the full range of methodologies used in this area, including business surveys, summary statistics such as effective rates of protection and price gaps, time-series and panel econometrics, and simulation methods such as computable general equilibrium. It covers the entire spectrum of policies under discussion in current trade negotiations, including trade facilitation, services policies, quantitative measures, customs procedures, standards, movement of natural persons, and anti-dumping. Some prominent contributors to this book are Bijit Bora (World Trade Organization), John Wilson, Tsunehiro Otsuki and Vlad Manole (World Bank), Catherine Mann (Institute of International Economics), Alan Deardorff and Robert Stern (University of Michigan), Joe Francois (Erasmus University), Dean Spinanger (University of Kiel), Antoni Estevadeordal and Kati Suominen (Inter-American Development Bank), Thomas Prusa (Rutgers University), Thomas Hertel and Terrie Walmsley (Purdue University), Scott Bradford (Brigham Young University), Judith Dean, Robert Feinberg, Soamiely Andriamananjara and Marinos Tsigas (US International Trade Commission).

This book discusses trade relations and facilitation issues at both the regional and the continental African level, highlighting the increasing business opportunities and challenges that confront Africa in the digital age. It also examines the effects of trade policies and other policy instruments on Africa’s economic development and presents workable policy measures for a more business-friendly ecosystem. Discussing various topics, including trade relations between African countries, African and international trade agreements, and trade liberalization policies, the book appeals to scholars of economics, business and management as well as professionals and policymakers interested in fostering free trade and sustainable business development in Africa.

This edition focuses on trade connectivity, which is critical for inclusiveness and sustainable development. Physical connectivity enables the movement of goods and services to local, regional and global markets.

Trade facilitation measures seek to speed up the movement of goods and the flow of trade information across borders. This publication contains policy papers written by the UNECE Secretariat and edited papers presented at an international forum, held in Geneva in May 2002. This conference was organised by the UNECE in order to discuss the need for trade facilitation policies to address the widening gap between the position of developed economies compared to many developing and transition countries in a global trade environment.

Negotiations on trade facilitation were concluded at the WTO 9th Ministerial Conference in 2013, and the Agreements on Trade Facilitation (TFA), therefore, became the first fully multilateral agreement in WTO history. Since then, trade facilitation has been in the limelight on the stage of the world trading system. During recent years, the TFA has been consistently on the agenda of the summits of G20, G7, and APEC. The Agreement has come into force and shall be implemented on a global scale. As a result, the WTO members shall be prepared to translate the Agreement into their domestic legislation, which will involve a series of reforms in trade laws and policies. There are extensive voices demanding a comprehensive expatiation on trade facilitation and the TFA. It is essential to systematically delve into the genesis of trade facilitation, revisit the course where the TFA came into being, and analyse the well-turned legalese of the TFA. This book meets this demand. This book is path-breaking in these aspects: it expounds on the rationales for trade facilitation and the significance of constituting an international accord on trade facilitation; it restores the one-century track of the international community’s talks on trade facilitation, from the times of the League of Nations to the WTO era; it reveals how the WTO negotiating mechanisms enabled the TFA to be nailed down, which would be enlightening for trade diplomats engaged in other WTO negotiations; and it provides an in-depth commentary on the TFA articles, which will help stakeholders more accurately understand and implement the Agreement. This book will be especially valuable for government officials and policy-makers, trade practitioners, lawyers, advisers, and scholars interested in international economic law, WTO law, international trade, international relations, and international development studies.