The Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report (APTIR) is a recurrent publication prepared by the Trade and Investment Division. It aims to deepen understanding of regional trends and developments in trade and investment; emerging issues in trade, investment and trade facilitation policies; and impacts of these policies on countries’ abilities to meet the challenges of achieving inclusive and sustainable development. APTIR 2012 focuses on trends and developments in the economies of Asia and the Pacific in their post-recovery from the 2008-2009 crisis and trade collapse. According to Dr Ravi Ratnayake, Director of the Trade and Investment Division that published this Report, the Report finds that after the initial promising signals of a recovery in 2010, exports from Asia and the Pacific are again facing a risk of deceleration. “Pressure in the euro zone and the rising threat from a slowdown in the emerging economies has raised the fear of a re-emergence of trade and investment contraction”, states Dr. Ratnayake. “How economies in the region will react to this continued weakening of external demand for their export will determine the speed and quality of growth in the region. This Report provides useful analysis to assist Governments in sorting through available options”, says Dr Ratnayake.

The Report focuses on trends and developments in merchandise trade and commercial services trade, foreign direct investment, trade facilitation, dealing with protectionists pressures, and preferential trade policies and agreements. The Report also zooms-in and explores several topical issues, among others: trading waste, problems with economic diversification in South Asia, growth of royalties and license fees payments by the Asia-Pacific region, inclusion of IPR clauses and clauses on mobility of labour in preferential trade agreements, and Thai companies’ difficulties to utilize PTA-negotiated preferences.

The Report also includes the trade performance indicators with a set of key indicators and up-to-date statistics on export and import growth, intraregional trade shares, growth of FDI inflows and outflows, indicators of progress in trade facilitation, tariffs and trade covered by partners in preferential trade agreements.

MAIN MESSAGES
PRESENTATION OF MAIN FINDINGS