Download or read book The Impact of Regional Trade Agreements and Trade Facilitation in the Middle East North Africa Region written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Impact of Regional Trade Agreements and Trade Facilitation in the Middle East and North Africa Region written by Allen Dennis and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's trade performance over the past two decades has been disappointing. Efforts to boost trade through a plethora of regional trade agreements (RTAs) are underway. This study examines the potential contribution of regional trade agreements, as well as trade facilitation improvements, in enhancing the development prospects of the region. Using the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model and database, both intra-regional integration and integration with the European Union are observed to have a favorable impact on welfare in the MENA region. The welfare gains from integrating with the European Union are observed to be at least twice as much as intra-regional integration. Furthermore, these welfare gains are observed to at least triple when the implementation of the RTAs is complemented with trade facilitation improvements.
Download or read book Regional Economic Integration in the Middle East and North Africa written by Mustapha Rouis and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012-12-11 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book summarizes the constraints to and opportunities for deepening economic integration within the MENA region and beyond. Trade and investment reform are discussed together with physical connectivity, cross-border trade facilitation, infrastructure networks, and the vital role of logistics.
Download or read book Trade Policy Developments in the Middle East and North Africa written by Bernard M. Hoekman and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "While very diverse in many respects, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries nevertheless also share some common characteristics, including a number of important shared challenges for policymakers."The Middle East and North Africa region has great potential for economic growth and prosperity in the 21st century. Yet, this potential will not be realized unless governments and private sector leaders in the region forge partnerships for development. An indispensable resource for all those working within the international development community, especially within the Middle East and North Africa region, Trade Policy Developments in the Middle East and North Africa offers policy and institutional alternatives to help both parties achieve that goal.This volume describes and analyzes recent trade policy developments in the Middle East and North Africa. Contributorsalmost all economists from the regionreview recent trends in trade performance, assess current trade and investment regimes, and discuss some of the emerging microeconomic policy challenges that confront governments and firms seeking to export and trade. Topics addressed include the need and scope for using regional integration and economic free zones as a tool of development, mobilization of non-trade tax bases, efficient enforcement of product standards to ensure health and safety of citizens, and implementation of modern information technologies to facilitate customs clearance.This book is the second in a series from the Mediterranean Development Forum, a partnership of 10 Middle East and North Africa Region think tanks and the World Bank Institute. This volume will be of interest to development specialists, policymakers, and investors.
Download or read book Trade Competitiveness of the Middle East and North Africa written by Jos R. L pez-C lix and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Trade Policy and Economic Integration in the Middle East and North Africa written by Hassan Hakimian and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important book examines the impact of recent changes in the world economy on trade policy within the MENA region and its economic relations with the rest of the world.
Download or read book Regional Integration in the Middle East and North Africa written by Tarik Oumazzane and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-03-25 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses and assesses the Agadir Agreement’s impact on economic integration, its effect on political cooperation, and its role in promoting peace between participating countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Since the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011, the geo-political situation in MENA has further drifted towards instability and uncertainty. Expert analysis of the region seems to lurch from one crisis to another without moving beyond a focus on conflict. Few scholars have recognised that the MENA governments have long regarded regional economic integration as a chief policy objective to facilitate intra-regional trade and promote political cooperation and peace. Realising the shortcomings of the various integrative processes, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan signed the Agadir Agreement in 2004. To this date, it stands as one of the most significant economic agreements in the MENA region. Taking into account this variety of factors, this book offers a new assessment of the pull between unity and disunity in the Middle East and North Africa region
Download or read book Trade Facilitation Capacity Needs written by Gbadebo Odularu and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive analysis of both national and regional trade facilitation capacities, issues, challenges and lessons, with a special interest in sustainably advancing West Africa’s regional trade facilitation agenda. It examines the contributions of trade facilitation towards enhancing regional integration and economic expansion in the face of increasing non-tariff barriers that highly characterises West African agri-food and non-agricultural markets. The authors recommend new conceptual frameworks, appropriate initiatives, and workable policy recipes towards enhancing West Africa’s trade facilitation agenda as well as the regional economic transformation trajectory in the face of the ongoing African Continental Free Trade Agreements (AfCFTA). The book underscores the geopolitics, opportunities and challenges that confront West Africa in the increasingly dynamic regional trade facilitation policy space. Readers will learn how West Africa can improve its regional trade facilitation game amidst emerging capacity challenges.
Download or read book Trading Together written by Rabah Arezki and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part I of this report discusses the short- and medium-term growth prospects for countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The region is expected to grow at a subdued rate of 0.6 percent in 2019, rising to 2.6 percent in 2020 and 2.9 percent in 2021. The growth forecast for 2019 is revised down by 0.8 percentage points from the April 2019 projection. MENA’s economic outlook is subject to substantial downside risks—most notably, intensified global economic headwinds and rising geopolitical tensions. Part II argues that promoting fair competition is key for MENA countries to complete the transition from an administered to a market economy. Part II first examines current competition policies in MENA countries and to promote fair competition calls for strengthening competition law and enforcement agencies. It also calls for corporatizing state-owned enterprises, promoting the private sector and creating a level-playing field between them. Any moves to reform MENA economies would be aided by professional management of public assets, which could tap into a new source of national wealth.
Download or read book Trade Facilitation in North Africa for Enhanced Regional Economic Integration written by Vereinte Nationen Economic Commission for Africa and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over recent years, the issue of trade facilitation has emerged as an important element of multilateral, regional, and bilateral trade debates. The growing importance of this issue has reflected the important structural changes in global production and trade over the last few decades. In particular, the expansion of global value chains as the key channel for organizing global production and trade over the last few decades entailed new requirements to facilitate the movement of parts and components and final goods across national borders. This report provides an analysis of the position of North Africa with regard to the trade facilitation agenda. The discussion is presented at three levels of analysis. The first is the national level, at which a thorough analysis is made of the policies of each North African country in respect of trade facilitation. The second is the regional level, where the focus is placed on initiatives within the North Africa region related to trade facilitation. At a third level, the analysis looks at this regional picture in the context of broader developments in the area of trade facilitation and, in this process, a comprehensive review of developments in this area has been conducted. In addition to multilateral processes, a special focus was given to other regional initiatives in this area with the objective of identifying examples of best practice policies that could be implemented in North Africa. The report is based on a number of sources. An analysis was made of the key policies on trade facilitation and a review conducted of the manner in which trade facilitation is dealt with in different trade agreements. A detailed analysis was also made of trade facilitation in a number of regional blocs. Lastly, a country-by-country analysis was carried out of trade facilitation in North Africa.
Download or read book Trade Investment and Development in the Middle East and North Africa written by Dipak Das Gupta and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a large potential for expanding trade in the Middle East and North Africa region. This work discusses ways forward for trade integration, capturing the diversity of country experiences within the region without losing the generality of principles involved.
Download or read book Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements written by Aaditya Mattoo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2020-09-23 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deep trade agreements (DTAs) cover not just trade but additional policy areas, such as international flows of investment and labor and the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. Their goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. These agreements matter for economic development. Their rules influence how countries (and hence, the people and firms that live and operate within them) transact, invest, work, and ultimately, develop. Trade and investment regimes determine the extent of economic integration, competition rules affect economic efficiency, intellectual property rights matter for innovation, and environmental and labor rules contribute to environmental and social outcomes. This Handbook provides the tools and data needed to analyze these new dimensions of integration and to assess the content and consequences of DTAs. The Handbook and the accompanying database are the result of collaboration between experts in different policy areas from academia and other international organizations, including the International Trade Centre (ITC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and World Trade Organization (WTO).
Download or read book Regional Trade Arrangements in Africa written by Yongzheng Yang and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2005-09-20 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, African policymakers have increasingly resorted to regional trade arrangements (RTAs) as a substitute for broad-based trade liberalization. This trend has long-term implications for the effectiveness of trade policy as a tool for poverty reduction and growth. This paper examines the record of RTAs in promoting trade and investment. It also explores policy measures that may help improve RTAs' performance.
Download or read book Maghreb Regional and Global Integration A Dream to be Fulfilled written by and published by Peterson Institute. This book was released on 2008 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Monetary Policy and Central Banking in the Middle East and North Africa written by David Cobham and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-01-13 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines monetary policy, central banking and exchange rate regimes in the Middle East and North Africa. Part I covers central banking and monetary policy, while Part II covers monetary policy and exchange rate regimes. Some chapters focus on the monetary frameworks of particular countries, including Lebanon, Algeria, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey, outlining the different systems operated in each case, considering their successes and failures, and discussing important issues such as government policy, macroeconomic performance, inflation and inflation targeting, central bank independence and the impact of broader political economic developments on the conduct of monetary policy. Other chapters cover thematic issues across the whole region, including: central bank independence, operations of debtor central banks, the effect of exchange rates on inflation, and the effect on countries’ trade of alternative exchange rate regimes. Drawing on the insights of scholars and policy-makers, this book is a vital resource for anyone wanting to understand the economies of the Middle East and North Africa.
Download or read book Exports to Improve Labor Markets in the Middle East and North Africa written by Gladys Lopez-Acevedo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2023-06-26 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), trade liberalization measures have coincided with stable economic growth, and GDP per capita growth has surpassed that of other developing regions. However, MENA's labor-market outcomes--such as average wage levels, informality rate, and female labor force participation--continue to underperform. Why has rising trade failed to produce better labor market outcomes in low- and middle-income countries in the region? 'Exports to Improve Labor Markets in the Middle East and North Africa' focuses on the impact of trade policy on trade-flows and their relationship with local labor market outcomes in three low- and middle-income countries--the Arab Republic of Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. Given their idiosyncratic labor markets, export diversification, and trade policy history, these three countries other important lessons for economic development in the region. Policy makers and stakeholders can use these findings to design policies to improve the chances that higher trade flows will deliver better labor market outcomes and ensure that the benefits are more equally shared. 'This report, led by Gladys Lopez-Acevedo and Raymond Robertson, pushes forward the frontier of knowledge about the relationship between trade and the labor market in MENA. Although focusing on three countries (the Arab Republic of Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia), it gives us broader lessons on how to solve the apparent puzzle of greater exposure to trade not being followed by greater labor market outcomes in the region. It points out, among other factors, how market segmentation by gender shapes the effects of trade shocks like higher exports. Policy makers in the region will definitely benefit from the evidence and analysis conveyed by the report on how to turn trade integration into a lever for shared prosperity.' --Otaviano Canuto, Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, and former Vice President of the World Bank 'This timely report attempts to understand why trade expansion did not produce the desired improvements in labor market outcomes in three non-oil-exporting countries in MENA. The main reason for the weak link between trade expansion and widely shared labor market improvements appears to be the segmented nature of labor markets in the three countries, by gender as well as by formality status. In Morocco and Tunisia, the highly segmented labor markets along gender lines, in combination with the concentration of trade in male-dominated capital-intensive sectors, led to few employment benefits accruing to women. In Egypt, the limited impact of trade on formal employment is attributable to the small size of the nation’s export sector and its lack of integration with the rest of the economy. These findings are critical to understanding how barriers to widely shared prosperity can be tackled in the region.' --Ragui Assaad, Professor, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
Download or read book Multilateral vs Regional Economic Integration The Middle East and North African Region written by Benjamin Hätinger and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diploma Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 2,3, University of Hohenheim, language: English, abstract: In this study it is intended to investigate today ́s actual economic interdependence of what we would call the Middle East and North African (MENA) region and to analyze its economic interweaving, both among its member countries and into the global trading system. Being aware of the complexity and breadth of this topic, the author has chosen only three subset economic integration agreements, both between the countries of the MENA region (intraregional) – also comprising a subregional agreement – and between the MENA region and other regions (interregional), for closer analysis. Concerning the efforts made towards interregional economic integration, this thesis concentrates mainly on the so-called EU-MED Partnership which was initiated at the Barcelona Conference in 1995 and aims to establish an EU-Med Free Trade Area (EMFTA) by the year 2010 including the EU and the 12 so-called Mediterranean countries which, apart from Malta, Cyprus and Turkey, all belong to the MENA region. In contrast, on the intraregional level, the latest initiative in 1997 will be examined, where 17 out of 22 Arab League member states - all of which also belong to the MENA region apart from Sudan – joined to constitute a “Greater Arab Free Trade Area” (GAFTA, mainly to get rid of traditional trade barriers for goods. On the smaller subregional level, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), consisting of 6 Gulf countries, which plans the establishment of a common currency by 2010, will be examined more closely. With GAFTA, GCC and the EU-MED Partnership all being in a different depth of integration and each representing one of the three different levels of integration (subregional, intraregional, interregional), the author holds the view that this choice reflects the actual state of integration in the region best. In a nutshell, this study tests the compatibility and correlation of the two different integration trends – multilateral and regional – using the example of the MENA region. Are they supplements or substitutes? Does regional integration inhibit or facilitate multilateral integration or vice versa? Are the above-mentioned regional integration arrangements contradictory, compatible or even mutually dependent? By approaching these questions the reader is to gain some insight into the so-called “Spaghetti Bowl” of cross-cutting integration agreements in the region.
