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Trade Liberalization and Development in ICT Sector and its impact on household welfare in Viet Nam

The term of “information society” was first introduced by Malchup and Porat in the 1970s. Since then information has increasingly been considered as a critical factor in the development process. Various scholars have used information deficiencies to explain development differences among countries and argued that information and communication technologies (ICTs) 1 may facilitate and speed up the development process by providing cheaper and more efficient ways and tools of information gathering, processing and dissemination.


Impact of Trade Costs on Trade: Empirical Evidence from Asian Countries

Trade costs include all costs incurred in getting a good to a final user other than the marginal cost of producing the good itself, such as transportation costs (both freight costs and time costs), policy barriers (tariffs and non-tariff barriers), information costs, contract enforcement costs, costs associated with the use of different currencies, legal and regulatory costs, and local distribution costs (wholesale and retail). Higher trade costs is an obstacle to trade and it impedes the realization of gains from trade liberalisation...


Trade Facilitation Measures in South Asian FTAs: An Overview of Initiatives and Policy Approaches

Several South Asian countries have joined the current wave of bilateral and subregional free trade agreements (FTA) in the region. The dynamics of regional cooperation is supported by the rapid economic expansion which is creating complementarities for trade expansion. The economic expansion in South Asia has shown divergence in performance. The number of FTAs has gone to as high as 23 in the region of which one is a sub-regional trade grouping (BIMST-EC) and one regional trade agreement (SAFTA) while there are 21 bilateral trade agreements in the region.


Utilization of Preferential Trade Arrangements: Sri Lanka’s Experience with the EU and US GSP Schemes

The GSP scheme was initiated by UNCTAD in 1968 with the objective of enabling developing country exports to enter developed country markets under preferential rates. Sri Lanka has been a beneficiary under the GSP scheme over the last three decades. However, meeting the scheme’s objective of export expansion seems to have fallen short and Sri Lanka has not been able to export effectively under the EU and US GSP schemes, which are the most important non-reciprocal preference arrangements providing access to Sri Lanka’s main export markets.


Health-related Services in Multilateral and Preferential Trade Arrangements in Asia and the Pacific

In many developing countries, the health-care sector is under-developed, lacking basic infrastructure and human capital, and attracting little attention from investors and policymakers. While encouraging globalization and trade may aggravate those problems and create additional costs in some circumstances, trade liberalization and deeper integration into the global economy could also provide opportunities and resources to address those problems more effectively.


Mapping and Analysis of South Asian Agricultural Trade Liberalization Effort

The South Asian Economies comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (SAEs) represent 22 percent of world’s population but they only account for just over 1 percent of world’s trade. In 2003, agricultural trade in the SAEs amounted to US$ 22 billion and it accounted for approximately 4 percent of world’s agricultural trade and 23 percent of the regional trade. During the 1970s, SAEs had highly protected trade regimes supported by high tariffs, Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and stringent controls on exchange.


Customs Valuation in India: Identifying Trade Facilitation related Concerns

India has introduced several trade facilitation related measures in the last couple of years. The pro-active strategy adopted by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has helped in introducing several policy measures which have not only streamlined the role of the customs department but has also helped industry in a major way without compromising collection of revenue. However, a private sector survey in India conducted in 2005/6 identified customs valuation as an issue of particular concern among other TF related initiatives.


Trade Facilitation Needs and Customs Valuation in Fiji

In line with most developing countries, the last decade has seen Fiji adopt an export oriented, outward-looking approach to trade relations. Import restrictions have been largely lifted in favour of export promotion, and as such Fiji now has a more liberalized or open economy with increased volumes of both exports and imports. A concept very much related to trade liberalization and openness is trade facilitation.


Enhancing the movement of natural persons in the ASEAN region: Opportunities and constraints

The overall objective of the movement of natural persons (MNP) in the ASEAN region is to contribute to expanding trade in services and to deepening economic integration. However, the regional movement of human resources has proceeded beyond the expansion of trade and has persisted in response to labor market imbalances. Thus, movement of workers in the region can be viewed from two perspectives: trade negotiations and labor market disparities.


Foreign investment liberalization and incentives in selected Asia-Pacific Developing Countries: Implications for the health service sector in Nepal

To take full advantage of the opportunity provided by integration with the global economy – reflected partly by membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) - it is essential that developing countries have built-up appropriate supply capacity to ably meet with the standards of consumers and governments in other countries; this point is especially true in the leading sector of growth for developing economies – the services sector.