Assessing the Potential Benefit of Trade Facilitation: A Global Perspective
The relationships between trade facilitation, trade flows, and capacity building are complex and challenging to assess, both empirically and in implementation. The authors measure and estimate the relationship between trade facilitation and trade f...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, D.C.
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/02/3934064/assessing-potential-benefit-trade-facilitation-global-perspective http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14733 |
| Summary: | The relationships between trade
facilitation, trade flows, and capacity building are complex
and challenging to assess, both empirically and in
implementation. The authors measure and estimate the
relationship between trade facilitation and trade flows
across 75 countries in global trade, considering four
important categories: port efficiency, customs environment,
regulatory environment, and service sector infrastructure. A
gravity model is employed that accounts for bilateral trade
flows in manufactured goods in 2000-01 between the 75
countries, using traditional factors such as GDP, distance,
language, and trade areas, and is augmented by the trade
facilitation measures in the four categories for each
country. The results suggest that both imports and exports
for a country and for the world will increase with
improvements in these trade facilitation measures. Potential
gains from trade facilitation reforms are predicted by using
the estimated parameters. The gains from trade facilitation
are presented by comparing the gains across geographical
regions and trade facilitation categories, and by domestic
and partner improvements. The total gain in trade flow in
manufacturing goods from trade facilitation improvements in
all the four areas is estimated to be $377 billion. All
regions gain in imports and exports. Most regions gain more
in terms of exports than imports, in large part through
increasing exports to the OECD market. The most important
ingredient in getting these gains, particularly to the OECD
market, is the country's own trade facilitation
efforts. The detailed presentation of the results of the
analysis may help inform policy decisions and capacity
building choices. |
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