R4D Trade

Trade Analysis and Information System Long Time-Series Version (LTS TRAINS) User’s Manual. Version 1.0, October 2011.

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:16 GMT

Document Type: Manual

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Anon. Trade Analysis and Information System Long Time-Series Version (LTS TRAINS) User’s Manual. Version 1.0, October 2011. UNCTAD, Geneva, Switzerland (2011) 38 pp.

Summary:

UNCTAD, in collaboration with IMF, initiated a new project in May 2010 to build this time-series database based on the longest standing product nomenclature, namely, the Standard International Trade Classification, Revision 1 (SITC Rev.1) and develop an application to manipulate the database.

The database draws raw tariff data from various sources that include UNCTAD TRAINS Harmonized system database, WTO IDB database, GATT Tariff Study files, and International Customs Tariff Bureau (BITD) files purchased by IMF (converted by IMF in SITC Revision 1 classification), standardized and transferred to a single historical database.

This new application allows researchers to, inter alia, construct trade restrictiveness indices (TRIs) that overcome the weaknesses inherent in the indices that have been used to date - the simple average tariff rate and the others mentioned above.

The new database is a homogenous analytical one of tariff and import statistics from 1970 to the present. The package of the database and the application is available as UNCTAD Long Time-Series TRAINS database. The use of SITC Rev 1 product classification enables easy multi-country, multi-year comparisons.

This document provides a brief introduction to the Long Time-Series version of UNCTAD Trade Analysis and Information System (LST TRAINS), and shows you how to build queries and retrieve data through a series of demonstrations and examples.

Trade Analysis and Information System Long Time-Series Version (LTS TRAINS). Installation Manual.

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:11 GMT

Document Type: Manual

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Anon. Trade Analysis and Information System Long Time-Series Version (LTS TRAINS). Installation Manual. UNCTAD, Geneva, Switzerland (2011) 7 pp.

Summary: This is the installation manual for the Long Time-Series Trade Analysis and Information System (LTS TRAINS).

Project TAAJ: Final Report. Construction of a Cross-Country Historical Database on Tariff and Trade Indicators of Trade Openness

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:00 GMT

Document Type: Technical Report

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Anon. Project TAAJ: Final Report. Construction of a Cross-Country Historical Database on Tariff and Trade Indicators of Trade Openness. UNCTAD, Geneva, Switzerland (2011) 4 pp.

Summary: This final report outlines the key policy issue/research question, project outputs, potential users/user engagement, and communication strategy. The principal output of the project is a comprehensive package of information combining a long time series database of tariff and import statistics, powered by easy-to-use software that enables calculation of various indicators and allows users to perform simple simulations.

The poverty impact of the proposed graduation threshold in the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) trade scheme

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:19 GMT

Document Type: Technical Report
Creator: Stevens, C.; Keane, J.; Kennan, J.; Bird, K.; Higgins, K.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Stevens, C.; Keane, J.; Kennan, J.; Bird, K.; Higgins, K. The poverty impact of the proposed graduation threshold in the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) trade scheme. ODI, London, UK (2011) 122 pp.

Summary:

The European Commission’s (EC’s) proposal for a new Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) includes more stringent provisions on graduation (whereby countries’ eligibility for the GSP is removed) than does the current system.

The proposal is that the number of countries eligible for the GSP is reduced from 176 states to about 80. Exact figures are not yet known: the Commission has only proposed the eligibility criteria and that these should be applied definitively shortly before implementation (expected to be in 2014) and periodically thereafter.

But the proposal includes an illustrative list of country eligibility if the criteria were applied now, and it is this list that has largely been used for the results in this report. Although the cut will be achieved partly by tidying up, it will also involve increasing European Union (EU) tariffs on imports from two groups of countries:
1. All imports from upper-middle income countries (UMICs) that do not have a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU – ‘income graduation’;
2. Some imports from those lower-middle and low-income countries (LMICs and LICs) not covered by an FTA or the Special Incentive Arrangement for Sustainable Development and Good Governance (GSP+) regime – ‘product graduation’.

The EC proposal argues that this will create space in the European market for poorer states that find it difficult to compete head on with richer and highly competitive developing countries. The explanatory memorandum argues that graduation ‘would focus GSP preferences on the countries most in need’. But will it help poor states’ exports? And what will be the net effect on poverty reduction: are the producing communities in the states that may gain exports poorer than those in the graduates, and will the relative economy-wide poverty reduction effects be greater? This report answers both questions.

The report does not consider the possible effects of the EC proposal to alter the eligibility criteria for GSP+, partly because this would involve speculation over which countries will fulfil the social, political and environmental requirements. Two complementary studies of the reform proposals (by the EC and the University of Sussex) do assess the assumed effects of the GSP+ change but do not look in as much detail at the effects of graduation. Taking account of these differences, the findings of all three studies are broadly compatible with each other which increases confidence that the results described provide an accurate picture.

The poverty impact of the proposed graduation threshold in the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) trade scheme.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:35 GMT

Project Status: Completed

Project Objectives: Europe is reviewing the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), its broadest-based trade policy to support developing country exports. The European Commission has proposed the most radical changes in the scheme’s three-decade history, arguing that this will ‘focus the GSP preferences on the countries most in need’. But will it? This research was conducted to test the validity of this hypothesis

Actual Outputs: The outputs consist of a final report and a project briefing. The Project Briefing summarises ODI research, including case studies on Bangladesh, China, India, Kenya, Madagascar and Viet Nam to identify the potential impact of the proposals on key exports. The research finds that only a very small part of any gains will accrue to poor countries and that workers in the graduates may be just as poor and vulnerable as those in beneficiary states.

An Integrated Adaptation and Mitigation Framework for Developing Agricultural Research: Synergies and Trade-Offs.

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:53 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article
Creator: Jarvis, A; Lau, C.; Cook, S.; Wollenberg, E.; Hansen, J.; Bonilla, O.; Challinor, A.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Experimental Agriculture (2011) 47 (02) 185-203 [doi: 10.1017/S0014479711000123]

Summary: Global food security is under threat by climate change, and the impacts fall disproportionately on resource-poor small producers. With the goal of making agricultural and food systems more climate-resilient, this paper presents an adaptation and mitigation framework. A road map for further agricultural research is proposed, based on the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. We propose a holistic, integrated approach that takes into account trade-offs and feedbacks between interventions. We divide the agenda into four research areas, three tackling risk management, accelerated adaptation and emissions mitigation, and the fourth facilitating adoption of research outputs. After reviewing specific technical, agronomic and policy options for reducing climate change vulnerability, we acknowledge that science and good-faith recommendations do not necessarily translate into effective and timely actions. We therefore outline impediments to behavioural change and propose that future research overcomes these obstacles by linking the right institutions, instruments and scientific outputs. Food security research must go beyond its focus on production to also examine food access and utilization issues. Finally, we conclude that urgent action is needed despite the uncertainties, trade-offs and challenges.

Can trade openness reduce real income volatility? : evidence from colonial India’s famine era.

Tue, 31 May 2011 03:52 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Burgess, R.; Donaldson, D.

Production Year: 2010

Civil society participation in trade policy-making in Latin America: The Case of the Environmental Movement

Tue, 17 May 2011 07:43 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Newell, P.

Production Year: 2006

Citation: CSGR Working Paper No. 201/06, Warwick University, UK. 58 pp.

Summary: By comparing the documented experiences of NAFTA with analysis of Mercosur and the evolving FTAA negotiations, in terms of the participation of the environmental movements, important insights may be gained about: who is participating in trade policy, how and with what effect and, equally importantly, who is not participating and what are the implications of this? By comparing across different sets of trade negotiations and institutional arrangements this paper discusses what the key drivers and shapers of change appear to be. In other words, the extent to which these appear to derive from the nature of the institution or process itself, the strategies of the movement engaging with it, or more likely still, some combination of both these elements. The challenge is to account for diverse forms of engagement and non-engagement and, more importantly, to derive lessons from them about the possibility of constructing more effective, sustainable and transparent mechanisms of participation and representation in trade policy based on experiences to date in Latin America.

Civil Society Participation in Trade Policy-making in Latin America: Reflections and Lessons. IDS Working Paper No. 267.

Mon, 16 May 2011 07:54 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Newell, P.; Tussie, D.

Production Year: 2006

Citation: Newell, P.; Tussie, D. Civil Society Participation in Trade Policy-making in Latin America: Reflections and Lessons. IDS Working Paper No. 267. IDS, Brighton, UK (2006) ISBN 1 85864 616 2

Summary: This paper explores the question of civil society engagement with trade policy in Latin America, identifying key factors which shape the dynamics and possibilities of participation. These include (a) key strategic issues within the movements and among groups themselves; (b) the organisation of institutional access; and (c) key economic and political regional dynamics. The authors compare three different sets of trade negotiations and institutional arrangements: NAFTA, Mercosur and FTAA, and examine the key drivers and shapers of change in each case through a comparative analysis of the dynamics of the environmental, labour and women’s movements. In examining the diverse forms of engagement and nonengagement, lessons are derived about the possibilities of constructing more effective, sustainable and transparent mechanisms of participation and representation in trade policy. The paper begins with an analytical framework, followed by sections exploring and comparing the strategies of the environmental, labour and women’s movements in trade policy. In each case, the authors ask: Who mobilises and how, around what sort of issues? How do the coalitions use the spaces that exist in trade arenas or protest the limitations imposed? How do regional dynamics affect these processes? Diverse and imaginative sets of strategies are used by groups interested in or affected by trade policy in Latin America, which change over time, accommodating a rapidly changing context; though a key lesson showed that merely having mechanisms of participation in place does not mean they are used effectively. Civil society groups move in and out of policy spaces and shift between ‘insider’ or ‘outsider’ strategies, including movement across levels and between arenas. Just as states practice two-level games, so too civil society engages in double-edged diplomacy, playing national and international arenas off against one another depending on the political opportunity structures available in each and the political dynamics underpinning them.

Trade and Biotechnology in Latin America: Democratization, Contestation and the Politics of Mobilization.

Mon, 16 May 2011 07:30 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Newell, P.

Production Year: 2008

Citation: Journal of Agrarian Change (2008) 8 (2-3) 345-376 [DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-0366.2008.00173.x]

Summary: This research explores the role of agrarian and environmental movements in contesting the development and promotion of agricultural biotechnology through trade liberalization in Latin America. Organized around themes of mobilization, participation and representation, it raises key questions about who mobilizes and how, and about the strategic dilemmas that arise when movements with different histories, membership bases and cultures of protest attempt to work together. Issues of accountability, representation and participation run through the analysis of strategies of organization and claim-making adopted by an eclectic range of groups seeking to contest the role of biotechnology in the structure of agricultural production, the institutions that manage that relationship and the discourses which sustain it. In particular, analysis centres on their responsiveness to the concerns and agendas of poorer groups in the front line of the ‘gene revolution’ as it plays out in the Latin American countryside, in particular in Argentina and Brazil, the key players in biotechnology in the region.