Year in Review

Year in Review
Author: United States International Trade Commission
Publisher:
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2009
Genre: Commerce
ISBN:

Global Textiles and Clothing Trade

Global Textiles and Clothing Trade
Author: Umair Hafeez Ghori
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2012-04-05
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9041142010

The author presents substantial case studies of the effect of the abolition of quotas on global trade in this sector. Concentrating mainly on China and Pakistan but also examining India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and seven other Asian T&C manufacturing countries, he contrasts post-abolition reality with pre-abolition predictions of the impact of abolishing quotas, and details the continuing distortion caused by tariffs, non-tariff barriers and through trade remedies such as safeguards and anti-dumping. All of the analysis is supported by the judicious use and interpretation of extensive statistics, compelling arguments, and interviews with entrepreneurs and trade officials in Pakistan (as a case study of a country predicted to be a major beneficiary of quota expiry).

Light Manufacturing in Zambia

Light Manufacturing in Zambia
Author: Hinh T. Dinh
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 127
Release: 2013-07-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821399365

This book argues that light manufacturing is appropriate for a resource-based country like Zambia. While Zambia's recent growth has been impressive, it has not been accompanied with adequate job creation. Long-term job creation in copper production is very small; links to the rest of the economy tend to be weak as well. Besides, the development of natural resources tends to discourage job-creating sectors such as manufacturing. To be sustainable and to create productive employment for its people, growth needs to be accompanied by structural transformation. Such transformation entails a growing share of manufacturing output in the economy. In the past, Zambia's efforts to promote and facilitate industrial growth have not been very successful. Policy regimes swung from one extreme to another. In the 1980s, Zambia put complete control of the industrial sector in the hands of the state. When this model proved unsuccessful, policy shifted in the opposite direction in the 1990s, and all earlier government interventions were lifted. Neither extreme led to sustained growth of manufacturing. This book suggests an alternative: directing government policies toward removing constraints in a few of the most promising light manufacturing sectors using practical and innovative solutions inspired by the fast-growing Asian economies whose starting point 20 years ago was not very different from Zambia's today. This book has several innovative features. First, it provides in-depth cost comparisons between Zambia and four other countries in Asia and Africa at sector and product levels. Second, the book uses a wide array of quantitative and qualitative techniques to identify key constraints to enterprises and to evaluate differences in the performance of firms across countries. Third, it uses a focused approach to identify country- and industry- specific constraints. It proposes market based measures and selected government intervention to ease these constraints. Fourth, it highlights the interconnectedness of constraints and solutions. For example, solving the manufacturing input problem requires actions in agriculture, education, and infrastructure. The book shows that Zambia has the potential to become regionally competitive in several light manufacturing subsectors by leveraging its comparative advantage in natural resource industries such as agriculture, livestock, and forestry. Interventions include both the provision of public goods and the removal of existing policy distortions in the economy. Growing production of light manufacturing goods would allow Zambia to capture more value from its raw materials and create more jobs.

African Cities Through Local Eyes

African Cities Through Local Eyes
Author: Giuseppe Faldi
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2021-10-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030849066

This book provides readers with a wide overview of place-based planning and design experiments addressing such powerful transformations in the African built environment. This continent is currently undergoing fast paced urban, institutional and environmental changes, which have stimulated an increasing interest for alternative architectural solutions, urban designs and comprehensive planning experiments. The international and balanced array of the collected contributions explore emerging research concepts for understanding urban and peri-urban processes in Africa, discuss bottom-up planning and design practices, and present inspirational and innovative co-design methods and participatory tools for steering such change through public spaces, sustainable services and infrastructures. The book is intended for students, researchers, decision-makers and practitioners engaged in planning and design for the built environment in Africa and the Global South at large.

Trade Competitiveness of the Middle East and North Africa

Trade Competitiveness of the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Jos R. L pez-C lix
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2010-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0821380753

Over the past decade, four major developments in global economic integration have shaped trade policy and the economic performance of countries within the Middle East and North Africa region: the emergence of global supply chains, the growth of trade in services, the rise of China and India as major international trading powers, and regional integration. These developments, along with the labor and natural resource endowments of particular countries (some are resource-poor but labor-abundant, some resource-rich and labor-abundant, and some resource-rich and labor-importing), have influenced export diversification outcomes across the region. Yet these countries may not be taking full advantage of all of the opportunities the four new trends offer to them. 'Trade Competitiveness of the Middle East and North Africa: Policies for Export Diversification' examines the region's trade policy agendas and their results by focusing on the countries' response to these four key developments in international trade. As the region recovers from the global financial and economic crises, the book identifies reforms that could allow countries to further strengthen global production networks, benefit more from trade in services, better compete in external markets to face the rise of China and India, and reach the full potential of regional integration. If thoroughly implemented, especially by oil exporters, all of these reforms could help boost growth and job creation in the region.