Download or read book Nontariff barriers Africa faces what did the Uruguay Round accomplish and what remains to be done written by Azita Amjadi and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Nontariff Barriers Africa Faces What Did the Uruguay Round Accomplish and What Remains to be Done written by Alexander Yeats and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: March 1995 Perhaps the major accomplishment of the Uruguay Round is agreements reached on nontariff barriers (NTBs). All NTBs imposed under the Multifiber Arrangement (MFA) will be phased out over 10 years, and all voluntary export restraints will be abolished. OECD countries' NTBs on agricultural goods will be converted to tariffs and then reduced by an average of 36 percent. Agreement was also reached on limiting subsidies and other agricultural export incentives. As a result, the profile of OECD nontariff protection Africa faces will change dramatically. Formerly, about 11 percent of all Sub-Saharan Africa exports encountered NTBs; now this ratio will fall to about 2 percent. Formerly, 83 percent of Reunion's pre-Uruguay Round exports were affected by NTBs; now none will. Some African countries, however, will be largely unaffected by the Uruguay Round's accomplishments. No NTBs on energy products were liberalized so coverage ratios for Angola, Congo, ad Nigeria are still high - but the measures applied (largely quantitative restrictions and special import charges) apparently do not raise the cost of imports significantly. The exclusion of fish from the agreement on agriculture also limited the potential benefits to countries like the Seychelles. Others simply faced no (or few) nontariff restrictions before the negotiations. The new developments are regarded as positive for developing countries as a group, although some countries may incur losses. Trade in textiles and clothing has been closely regulated for three decades through MFA quotas. Phasing these restrictions out will subject African countries to aggressive international competition. Whether they can maintain a viable textile and clothing export sector depends on whether they can achieve reforms aimed at cost-cutting. The MFA liberalization is heavily backloaded, with roughly half the restrictions being removed at the end of 10 years, so there is ample time for adjustment. Africa should also face more vigorous competition on footwear and ferrous metals when voluntary restraints on some other developing countries are lifted. Any losses in market share that may occur, however, may not reflect welfare changes, especially if African exports were heavily subsidized. Agriculture could also be harmed unless appropriate domestic policies are adopted. The tariffication (and reduction) of NTBs, along with limits on export subsidies, could raise international prices on some staples, which would hurt net food importers. Reforms to ensure that prices paid to domestic producers increase in line with international prices (thus stimulating a local supply response) could limit increases in the food import bill. In the post-Uruguay Round world, it is increasingly important to remove domestic constraints that prevent local producers from taking full advantage of new export opportunities. Unfinished business includes further initiatives needed to address NTBs on fish, chemicals and energy products which the Round bypassed. Stricter regulations on safeguards and the use of antidumping duties are also needed to ensure that these measures are not substituted for those eliminated. But much of the unfinished business involves domestic reform needed to ensure that African countries can react to new export opportunities and competitive challenges.
Download or read book Nontariff Barriers Africa Faces written by Alexander J. Yeats and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perhaps the major accompl ...
Download or read book The Impact of the Uruguay Round on Africa written by Peter Harrold and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation World Bank Discussion Paper No. 311.Examines the effects of the Uruguay Round on the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings show that the effects will be minimal overall and may be beneficial to countries which make the necessary domestic reforms for participation in the world market.
Download or read book Efficiency and Equity Considerations in Pricing and Allocating Irrigation Water written by Yacov Tsur and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Policy based Finance Financial Regulation and Financial Sector Development in Japan written by Dimitri Vittas and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: April 1995 Is Japan a good model for developing countries? Certainly macroeconomic stability, good information systems, effective monitoring, and financial discipline are essential for smooth-functioning, efficient financial systems. But is there scope for state intervention in organizing the financial system and using well-designed, narrowly focused directed credit programs in the transition from malfunctioning financial systems to modern, efficient ones? The Japanese government's role in creating a macroeconomic and financial environment conducive to rapid industrialization and economic growth went beyond maintaining price stability, say Vittas and Kawaura. The government created a stable but segmented and tightly regulated financial system that favored the financing of industry over other sectors of economic activity. Lending practices, the direction of policy-based finance, and the structure of Japan's financial system changed over time, but one thing stayed constant: the authorities' vision. Some observers maintain that Japanese policies -- emphasizing the development of internationally competitive industries -- retarded economic growth. And government policies were not the only or even the most important factor in Japan's success. One key to success was government agencies' close cooperation with the private sector, and the government's reliance on privately owned and managed corporations to achieve government-favored industrial goals. Japan's financial system was quite different from Anglo-American and continental European financial systems. Vittas and Kawaura discuss some characteristics of the Japanese system in the high growth era: * The preponderant role of indirect finance. * The overloan position of large commercial banks. * The overborrowing of industrial companies. * Artificially low interest rates. * The segmentation and fragmentation of the financial system. * The underdevelopment of securities markets and institutional investors. * The key role played by the main bank system. * The close relations between banks and industry. * The different roles debt and equity played in the Japanese system. * The role large conglomerate groups, especially general trading companies, played in channeling funds to small firms at the industrial periphery. * The role of policy-based financial institutions. These features evolved in the context of high savings rates and an accumulation of assets, mobilized mostly through deposit institutions, including the postal savings system, and transformed into short- and long-term and risky loans through commercial and long-term credit banks as well as specialized government financial institutions. Are hard work and good management the secrets of Japan's success? Hard work may be as much a symptom as a cause of economic success, say Vittas and Kawaura. But good management has unquestionably been a key to Japan's economic success. Whether Japan's approach is better than others is more difficult to answer. Japan may have overtaken several European countries but was still lagging behind the United States and a few European countries in per capita income expressed in purchasing power parity terms. And although the Japanese approach played a significant part in promoting industrialization and accelerating economic growth during the period of reconstruction and high growth, it also entailed significant long-term costs -- in terms of poor-quality housing and other urban infrastructure, for example. And the excesses of the 1980s and Japan's current economic recession undermine claims about its ability to continuously outperform other countries. This paper -- a product of the Financial Sector Development Department -- is part of a project to study the effectiveness of credit policies in East Asia. Dimitri Vittas may be contacted at [email protected].
Download or read book Trade Policy Issues written by Ms.Naheed Kirmani and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1997-04-15 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book edited by Chorng-Huey Wong and Naheed Kirmani, examines a wide range of trade policy issues relevant in the 1990s that were the subject of a seminar organized by the IMF in 1996. The topics include the design and implementation of trade reform, trade liberalization in industrial and transition economies, regional trading arrangements, the impact of the Uruguay Round, the role of the World Trade Organization, and post Uruguay Round issues.
Download or read book Poverty and Social Transfers in Poland written by Christiaan Grootaert and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book child labor written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1998 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Human Capital and Industry Wage Structure in Guatemala written by Chris N. Sakellariou and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Review of Integrated Approaches to River Basin Planning Development and Management written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tentative First Steps written by Bernard Hoekman and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Stock Market Development and Firm Financing Choices written by Aslı Demirgüç-Kunt and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Credit Policies written by Dimitri Vittas and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Environmental inspections and emissions of the pulp and paper industry the case of Quebec written by Benoit Laplante and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Air Pollution and Mortality written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Equity Markets Transaction Costs and Capital Accumulation written by Valerie R. Bencivenga and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
