The Urgent Call for Harmonizing Preferential Rules of Origin

The Urgent Call for Harmonizing Preferential Rules of Origin
Author: Hatem Mabrouk
Publisher: Editora Dialética
Total Pages: 117
Release: 2024-06-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 6527027656

In an increasingly interconnected world, rules of origin—laws determining the national source of a product—play a crucial role in international trade. Yet, with each country setting its own standards, the global market faces a complex web of regulations that often impedes rather than facilitates trade. "The Urgent Call for Harmonizing Preferential Rules of Origin" by Hatem Mabrouk delves into these complexities and challenges. The book reveals how preferential rules of origin, designed to determine eligibility for tariff preferences under trade agreements, are often manipulated for protectionist and political aims, creating significant obstacles for global producers and traders. Through rigorous analysis and case studies, Mabrouk explores the detrimental impacts of these systems and proposes a harmonized approach aligned with the World Trade Organization to streamline and improve international trade practices. Mabrouk's proposal offers a robust blueprint for policymakers and trade bodies to refine global trade mechanisms. "The Urgent Call for Harmonizing Preferential Rules of Origin" is essential reading for anyone involved in international trade or global economics, advocating for clearer and fairer trade regulations to enhance global economic prosperity.

Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements

Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements
Author: Aaditya Mattoo
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 768
Release: 2020-09-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1464815542

Deep trade agreements (DTAs) cover not just trade but additional policy areas, such as international flows of investment and labor and the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. Their goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. These agreements matter for economic development. Their rules influence how countries (and hence, the people and firms that live and operate within them) transact, invest, work, and ultimately, develop. Trade and investment regimes determine the extent of economic integration, competition rules affect economic efficiency, intellectual property rights matter for innovation, and environmental and labor rules contribute to environmental and social outcomes. This Handbook provides the tools and data needed to analyze these new dimensions of integration and to assess the content and consequences of DTAs. The Handbook and the accompanying database are the result of collaboration between experts in different policy areas from academia and other international organizations, including the International Trade Centre (ITC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and World Trade Organization (WTO).

Lessons from NAFTA

Lessons from NAFTA
Author: Luis Serven
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2004-11-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0821383744

Analyzing the experience of Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 'Lessons from NAFTA' aims to provide guidance to Latin American and Caribbean countries considering free trade agreements with the United States. The authors conclude that the treaty raised external trade and foreign investment inflows and had a modest effect on Mexico's average income per person. It is likely that the treaty also helped achieve a modest reduction in poverty and an improvement in job quality. This book will be of interest to scholars and policymakers interested in international trade and development.

World Development Report 2009

World Development Report 2009
Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2008-11-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 082137608X

Rising densities of human settlements, migration and transport to reduce distances to market, and specialization and trade facilitated by fewer international divisions are central to economic development. The transformations along these three dimensions density, distance, and division are most noticeable in North America, Western Europe, and Japan, but countries in Asia and Eastern Europe are changing in ways similar in scope and speed. 'World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography' concludes that these spatial transformations are essential, and should be encouraged. The conclusion is not without controversy. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. Globalization is believed to benefit many, but not the billion people living in lagging areas of developing nations. High poverty and mortality persist among the world's 'bottom billion', while others grow wealthier and live longer lives. Concern for these three billion often comes with the prescription that growth must be made spatially balanced. The WDR has a different message: economic growth is seldom balanced, and efforts to spread it out prematurely will jeopardize progress. The Report: documents how production becomes more concentrated spatially as economies grow. proposes economic integration as the principle for promoting successful spatial transformations. revisits the debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration and shows how today's developers can reshape economic geography.

Special Economic Zones in Africa

Special Economic Zones in Africa
Author: Thomas Farole
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821386395

"This book, designed for policymakers, academics and researchers, and SEZ program practitioners, provides the first systematic and comprehensive analysis of SEZ programs in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is the result of detailed surveys and case studies conducted during 2009 in ten developing countries, including six in Sub-Saharan Africa. The book provides quantitative evidence of the performance of SEZs, and of the factors which contribute to that performance, highlighting the critical importance not just of the SEZ itself but of the wider national investment climate in which it functions. It also provides a comprehensive guide to the key policy questions that confront governments establishing SEZ programs, including: if and when to launch an SEZ program, what form of SEZ is most appropriate, and how to go about implementing it. Among the most important findings from the study that is stressed in the book is the shift from traditional enclave models of zones to SEZs that are integrated ? with national trade and industrial strategies, with core trade and social infrastructure, with domestic suppliers, and with local labor markets.Although the book focuses primarily on the experience of Sub-Saharan Africa, its lessons will be applicable to developing countries around the world."