• TRADE AND INVESTMENT PUBLICATIONS
• SELECTED WORLDWIDE WEBSITES

Competition Law and Policy Indicators for the OECD Countries. August 2007. Available online (PDF-Format, 39 pages, 365 KB). Economics Department Working Paper No. 568, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The aim of this paper is to construct indicators that measure the strength of policies aimed at preserving and promoting market competition by empowering antitrust and sectoral authorities. The indicators, which cover both general and sector-specific competition policies, extend previous OECD work covering economy-wide and sector-specific regulations that restrict competition and promote governance. The paper focuses on information for 2003 provided by a number of OECD sources. The results show relatively little variation in the overall indicator across countries, partly reflecting the convergence of competition policies across the OECD area over the past decade. However, inspection of individual elements reveals that enforcement efforts (both in terms of devoted resources and actually implemented sanctions) and policies in network industries vary considerably across countries. Thus, the main conclusion arising from this work is that member countries have been improving the general competition policy framework, but still have to fully implement the improved framework. Moreover, there remains a considerable scope for further progress in promoting competition in network industries.
Accessed on 15 October
< http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2007doc.nsf/>

Global Financial Stability Report. Financial Market Turbulence: Causes, Consequences, and Policies. September 2007. Available online (PDF-Format, page numbers and file sizes vary by individually downloadable by chapter). International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Global Financial Stability Report provides semiannual assessments of global financial markets and addresses emerging market financing in a global context. Part one of the report is dedicated to assessing risk to global financial stability and includes a global financial stability map, an analysis of whether investment inflows into emerging markets destabilize local markets as well as a description of policy challenges. Part two asks if market risk management techniques amplify systemic risks and part three analyzes the quality of domestic financial markets and identifies the challenges associated with capital inflows as well as policy responses in a number of cases studies. Country experiences within the Asia-Pacific region are provided in case studies of experiences with recent capital inflows in India and Viet Nam.
Accessed on 15 October < http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/gfsr/2007/02/index.htm >

Integration and Growth in East Asia. September 2007. Available online (PDF-Format, 47 pages, 380 KB). IMES Discussion Paper Series 2007-E-14, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan (IMES).
This paper empirically analyzes the experience of East Asia's economic growth with data both at aggregate-economy and micro-firm levels, focusing on the role of international integration through trade and direct investment. The analysis within a framework of cross-country panel regression shows that trade openness and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows have a positive effect on GDP growth - particularly in the 1970 and 1980s - while FDI outflows appear to have a negative effect on GDP growth. Micro-level evidence based on manufacturing data in the Republic of Korea confirms the positive effect of trade and investment integration on plant-level productivity growth. It also suggests the relationship between FDI outflows and productivity growth depends on the characteristics of a recipient economy. The authors find that FDI to China tends to reduce productivity growth of firms in the Republic of Korea while FDI to the United States or Japan works in favor of productivity growth.
Accessed on 15 October
< http://www.imes.boj.or.jp/english/publication/edps/2007/07-E-14.pdf >

Overlapping Free Trade Agreements of Singapore-United States-Japan: A computational Analysis. October 2007. SCAPE working Paper Series, Paper No. 2007/11. Singapore Centre for Applied and Policy Economics.
The proliferation of overlapping (FTAs in the recent years has led to hub-and-spokes (HAS) throughout the world. Being avid subscribers to FTAs, many countries in the Asia-Pacific region including Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and the United States of America, have become trade hubs to their partners who are in turn relegated to spoke status. In this paper, the authors question whether being a hub is welfare optimal for a small and open economy like Singapore compared to membership in a single bilateral FTA or a multi-member free trade zone. Within this context, the authors use a computable general equilibrium model to examine the welfare implications of the triangular trade relationship of the United States, Singapore and Japan. This is facilitated by the Japan-Singapore Economic Partnership Agreement, the United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, and a hypothetical United States-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. The analysis is extended to incorporate 'super-hub' effects; that is, the spoke countries can be trade hubs in other HAS systems. The experiment reveals that hub status generates positive welfare gain and is the highest Singapore can get from the trade configurations considered. Meanwhile, Japan loses more than the United States when both relegated to spoke status. These findings prove robust under different market structures and productions technologies, deeper economic integration, 'super-hub' effects, as well as uncertainty in the key model parameters and the extent of trade liberalization.
Accessed on 15 October
< http://www.eaber.org/intranet/documents/22/945/SCAPE_Chong_07.pdf >

Review of Article 27.3 (b) of TRIPS Agreement. Policy Issues for South Asia. August 2007. Available online (PDF-Format, 6 pages, 390 KB). SAWTEE Policy Brief NO. 14, YEAR 2007, South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE).
This policy brief relates to the growing concern among biodiversity-rich developing countries that the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the WTO might be in conflict with the spirit and objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Concerned stakeholders argue that TRIPS undermines the equity principles of access and benefit sharing (ABS) and prior informed consent (PIC) of CBD. They consider that TRIPS has created a route for inventors to obtain “excessively broad patents” in a manner that perpetuates and legitimizes bio-piracy and threatens the rights of indigenous, local and farming communities over their biological resources and associated traditional knowledge. On the issue of patenting of life forms allowed under TRIPS Article 27.3 (b), they argue that it has given rise to a number of ethical, religious, environmental and developmental concerns, putting further pressures, among others, on the livelihood of indigenous, local and farming communities of developing countries. Currently, negotiations for the review of this Article are being held at the Council for TRIPS. This policy brief presents the current state of play of review negotiations and analyzes the positions of developed and developing countries on patents on life forms. The major objective of the brief is to highlight policy issues that biodiversity-rich South Asian countries need to consider during the review process and implementation of ABS laws.
Accessed on 15 October < http://www.sawtee.org/pdf/trips.pdf >

The Millennium Development Goals: Progress in Asia and the Pacific 2007. September 2007. Available online (PDF-Format, 65 pages, 2.73 MB). United Naitons Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The Millennium Development Goals: Progress in Asia and the Pacific 2007 is the latest in the Asia-Pacific Millenium Development Goals (MDG) study series under the tripartite initiative between the ESCAP, UNDP and ADB. This report is a midpoint review of the MDG progress in this region, with a special focus on countries and groups of people within countries that are "left behind" in achieving the goals. Part one provides an overview on the general MDG progress in Asia and the Pacific while part two looks beyond national averages and analyzes trends in intra-country disparities. One of the most striking developments it highlights is the rise in income inequality in the past decade or so, out of 20 countries in the region, 14 saw inequality rise while only six saw it fall.
Accessed on 15 October < http://www.unescap.org/stat/mdg/MDG-Progress-Report2007.pdf >

Trade and Development Report 2007 - Regional cooperation for development. September 2007. Available online (PDF-Format, 240 pages, 4.16 MB). United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The Trade and Development Report 2007 recommends that developing countries should strengthen regional cooperation with other developing countries, but proceed carefully with regard to North-South bilateral or regional preferential trade agreements. The report argues that strengthened regional cooperation among developing countries could help accelerate industrialization and structural change and ease integration into the global economy. However, to achieve this, trade liberalization is not enough; active regional cooperation should also extend to areas of policy that strengthen the potential for growth and structural change, including monetary and financial arrangements, large infrastructure and knowledge-generation projects, and industrial policies. The report says the current global economic environment provides great opportunities for catch-up growth and meeting the MDGs. However, it states that the world economy is overshadowed by serious current-account imbalances, and by large speculative capital flows that distort exchange rates and perpetuate these imbalances. A safe correction of the imbalances would be much easier with more appropriate global exchange-rate arrangements, the report argues. Exchange rates should be subject to the same kind of disciplines as tariffs and export subsidies. In the absence of such disciplines, however, regional monetary and financial cooperation among developing countries could fill some of the gaps in global economic governance.
Accessed on 15 October < http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/tdr2007_en.pdf >

Trade liberalization, labour law, and development: A contextualization. September 2007. Available online (PDF-Format, 43 pages, 406 BK). International Institute for Labour Studies (IILS).
This paper is a literature review that emphasizes institutional analysis of trade law, and explores some of the linkages with the development literature. The author contends that the development of trade law needs to be appreciated within its historical context to understand its intimate relationship with labour regulation in the North and labour commodification in the South. She adopts the perspective that from a legal/institutional perspective, the relationship between trade liberalization and labour law was not established autonomously along free trade principles; rather, it was constructed by state action and embedded in social institutions in industrialized market economies of the North during the 1950s to early 1980s. The same was not generally true for many low income countries in the South. The author maintains that contemporary challenges to labour regulation in the South therefore warrant less deterministic analysis of the impact of trade regulation. The study considers labour regulatory experiences in Mexico (NAFTA), CARICOM, Mauritius, Cambodia and the Republic of Korea to argue that the relationship between trade liberalization and labour law must be understood as constantly re-constructed across governance levels and with a view to forms of distributive justice beyond national borders.
Accessed on 15 October < http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inst/download/dp17907.pdf >

http://www.bimstec.org
Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)
On 6 June 1997, a sub-regional grouping was formed in Bangkok and given the name BISTEC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation). Myanmar joined in 1997, upon which the name of the grouping was changed to BIMSTEC. It covers 13 priority sectors lead by member countries in a voluntary manner; including trade and investment; technology, energy, agriculture, environment and disaster management. BIMSTEC member countries agreed to establish the BIMSTEC Free Trade Area Framework Agreement in order to stimulate trade and investment and to attract outsiders to trade with and invest in BIMSTEC at a higher level. The website includes country profiles, an activities and events calendar as well as access to a newsletter.

http://www.capwip.org
Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP)
E-mail: capwip@capwip.org
The Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics is a non-partisan, non-profit and non-governmental regional organization dedicated to promoting equal participation of women in politics and decision-making. CAPWIP was established in 1992 by a group of women from the Asia-Pacific region who share a vision of governance that affirms gender equality, integrity and accountability, excellence, sustainable development and peace. CAPWIP operates through a network of national affiliates clustered into 5 sub-regional groupings: Central Asia, East Asia, Pacific, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. The website informs about various activities, trainings and events, and provides access to various resources, including newsletters, addresses; and a reading room that features papers, research works, case studies, feature articles and news reports on women's participation in politics, with a focus on the experiences of Asian and Pacific women.

http://www.dbsamoa.ws
Development Bank of Samoa (DBS)
E-mail: dbs@dbsamoa.ws
The Development Bank was established in 1974 with the purpose to promote the expansion of the economy of Samoa for the economic and social advancement of its people by making loans and giving financial, technical and advisory assistance to any enterprise in Samoa. DBS is committed to achievement of sustained profitability by adoption of cost effective practices and systems through the implementation of appropriate technology; provide lending and other financial services supporting the people of Samoa to build successful development; manage its capital and loan funds prudentially operating on a commercial basis within accepted compliance standards; and enhance the environmental and social well-being of Samoa’s society. The website informs about assets for sale and provides some statistics on operations as well as general information on the management of DBS.

https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu
Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP)
E-mail: online feedback form at < https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu/feedback.asp >
The Global Trade Analysis Project is a global network of researchers and policy makers conducting quantitative analysis of international policy issues. GTAP's goal is to improve the quality of quantitative analysis of global economic issues within an economy-wide framework. GTAP products and resources incldue a variety of products, such as data, models, and utilities for multi-region, applied general equilibrium analysis of global economic issues. GTAP also organizes courses and conferences and undertakes research projects.

http://www.iic.nic.in
Indian Investment Centre (IIC)
E-mail: iic@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in
The Indian Investment Centre is an agency of the Government of India designed to be the first contact point and single window for information and assistance on investments, technical collaborations and joint ventures. It provides information on conditions, laws, policies, procedures and incentives pertaining to investment, infrastructural facilities available as well as investment opportunities in India and advises and assists foreign entrepreneurs on matters relating to financial and technical collaboration in India. The website provides useful material, including statistics, investment guides, publications, an introduction to India’s economic policies and the Union budget, an FAQ section, useful contacts, and more.

http://www.ictsd.org
International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)
E-mail: ictsd@ictsd.ch
The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development was established in Geneva in September 1996 in order to contribute to a better understanding of development and environment concerns in the context of international trade. It is an non-profit and non-governmental organization that engages a broad range of actors in an ongoing dialogue about trade and sustainable development. With a wide network of governmental, non-governmental and inter-governmental partners, ICTSD plays a systemic role as a provider of reporting and facilitation services at the intersection of international trade and sustainable development. The website serves as gateway to a wide selection of issues. It includes the ICTSD WTO Ministerial section that features information related to past, current and/or upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference proceedings; periodicals such as Bridges monthly review and Bridges weekly digest; publications; references lists; and an issues area that features information on the following topics: Africa, agriculture, dispute settlement, environment, intellectual property, services, and special and differential treatment.

http://www.ico.org
International Coffee Organization (ICO)
E-mail: info@ico.org
The International Coffee Organization was set up in London in 1963 under the auspices of the United Nations and administers six International Coffee Agreements (ICAs). It is the main intergovernmental organization for coffee, bringing together producing and consuming countries to tackle the challenges facing the world coffee sector through international cooperation. Members from the Asian and Pacific region include Japan (importing member country), India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam (exporting member countries). The website includes detailed information on coffee (including the story of coffee, caffeine, botanical aspects, processing, vocabulary, etc.) as well as information on ICO, on the agreements, meetings, members, governance, statistics, and much more.

http://www.success.tid.gov.hk
Support and Consultation Centre for SMEs (SUCCESS); Hong Kong, China
E-mail: success@tid.gov.hk
SUCCESS is the Government information and advisory centre for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) run by the Trade and Industry Department of Hong Kong, China. SUCCESS collaborates with various industrial and trade organizations, professional bodies, private enterprises and other Government departments to provide SMEs with a comprehensive range of business information, advice and facilities. The website offers business information, including comprehensive information on starting up business in Hong Kong, China and on the Government licensing and certification requirements for running different kinds of businesses. It also provides free access to business electronic databases and a regular publication - the "SME Pulse " on SME topical issues. Further useful features are the resources guide, links to SME supporting organizations, an FQA section, etc.

http://www.reservebank.to
National Reserve Bank of Tonga (NRBT)
E-mail: nrbt@reservebank.to
The National Reserve Bank of Tonga was created in 1988. Among the principle purposes of NRBT are to regulate the issue of currency, and the supply, availability and international exchange of money; to manage the external reserves of Tonga; to promote monetary stability; to promote a sound financial structure; to foster credit and exchange conditions conducive to the orderly and balanced economic development of Tonga, to provide advisory services to the Minister on banking and monetary matters; to be the principal banker and fiscal agent of the Government; to undertake banking business, in Tonga or elsewhere; and to undertake the licensing and supervision of financial institutions. The website informs about Tonga’s regulatory framework and provides access to publications, statistics and other resources.

Information is taken mainly from secondary sources and UNESCAP accepts no responsibility for its accuracy. Mention of any companies and their products does not imply endorsement by the United Nations.

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.