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"Rules of origin are legitimate policy instruments to prevent trade deflection in a preferential trade agreement short of a customs union. Trade deflection takes place when a product imported into the preferential trade agreement through the member with the lowest external tariff is transhipped to a higher-tariff member, while yielding a benefit for the re-exporter. Yet, when captured by special interest groups, rules of origin can restrict trade beyond what is needed to prevent trade deflection. By how much do political economy factors account for the stringency of rules of origin? This study quantifies the impact of both determinants - those considered "justifiable" because they prevent trade deflection and those deemed to arise from "political economy" forces - on the restrictiveness of rules of origin under the North American Free Trade Agreement, approximated by a restrictiveness index. The main finding is that political economy forces, especially from the United States, raised significantly the restrictiveness of the rules of origin. Indeed, in industries where political-economy forces were strong prior to the North American Free Trade Agreement, as when the U.S. Most Favored Nation tariff was high or the revealed comparative advantage of Mexico (the United States) was strong (weak), more stringent rules of origin were introduced. Thus, stricter rules of origin are associated with higher production costs reducing the potential benefits of enhanced market access that is initially pursued by this type of agreement. "--World Bank web site.

Certificates of origin

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In Credit and State Theories of Money, Professor Randy Wray continues and extends the influential tradition established by his path-breaking contribution Money and Credit in Capitalist Economies (1990). The focus in the current book is on the work of A. Mitchell Innes and his contributions in the early 20th century which had caught Keynes's eye. This focus enables this important contribution to push the frontiers of our knowledge on monetary and credit phenomena both in terms of analysis and of their historical development.

Money. --- Money --- Credit. --- Origin. --- Innes, A. Mitchell

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This report examines the cocoa supply chain, its associated deforestation, and the role and limitations of certification schemes to reduce deforestation. The deforestation-related commitments from cocoa companies are analyzed across the value chain by looking at commitment types, implementation, and the enabling environment. These findings are compared with lessons from palm oil since it has the most similarities to cocoa due to its large contingent of smallholder producers and limitations that exacerbate deforestation. Finally, a vision for zero-deforestation cocoa with key principles and strategies is described. This work is meant to inform industry, governments, and development partners to be effective actors in a zero-deforestation cocoa future.

Cocoa --- Deforestation --- Environment --- Environmental Economics & Policies --- Law and Development --- Rules of Origin

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The African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) and Everything But Arms (EBA), two preferential agreements extended by the United States (AGOA) and the European Union (EU) (EBA) to some developing countries seem to have contributed somewhat to boost Sub-Saharan Africa's exports since 2001. However, not all African countries have benefited from them, among which West African countries. Paradoxically, these latter countries host two of the most advanced regional economic communities in Sub-Saharan Africa: the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) sharing a common monetary policy that has consistently maintained inflation low and forming a customs union with a compensation mechanism to uphold the common external tariff; and the economic community of West African States (ECOWAS) maintaining a regional military force (ECOMOG) and peer pressure that have rooted out military coups in its member countries. Simulations derived from a Pseudo Poisson maximum likelihood gravity model estimation show that West Africa could be exporting 2.5 to 4 times more to the EU and the US if AGOA and EBA were not implemented in a differentiated manner, in terms of country eligibility, product coverage, and rules of origins. Given such trade creation potential for a group of countries committed to deep regional integration, a revision of AGOA and EBA, or a special ECOWAS and WAEMU provision will make these preferential trade agreements a driving force behind the success of regional integration in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Export Competitiveness --- International Trade and Trade Rules --- Preferential Trade Agreements --- Rules of Origin --- Trade Policy

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What is the structure of the Most-Favored Nation (MFN) tariff of Russia? How has it been changing over time? What are the sectors in which tariffs are high or low? How diverse is the tariff structure of Russia? Surprisingly, these questions have not been answered to date due to a lack of data that would allow calculation of the ad valorem equivalents of the specific Russian tariffs. The authors have obtained a new data set that they describe in this book. As a result of these new data, the authors are able to calculate the ad valorem equivalents of the specific tariffs. This allows them to provide the first detailed and accurate assessment of the tariff structure of Russia. The authors are able to assess, for the years 2001-2003, the actual number of tariff lines in which specific tariffs apply, what are the tariff lines with the highest tariffs, and investigate many other properties of the Russian tariff structure for the first time. This book is arranged as follows: In section two the authors discuss the key results. The authors calculate average tariffs and standard deviations based on an unweighted basis and also an import trade weighted basis. In section three the authors discuss the data set. The authors discuss methodology in section IV. The key results are presented in tables 1-8. The authors have a one-page note on technical details in the calculations following the tables. In Appendix A the authors present tables with more detailed results, namely of 2-digit industry calculations and the tariff lines with tariff rates above 50 percent. In appendix B, the authors provide a second set of parallel tables called Estimated collected tariff rates. These tables reflect the fact that imports from CIS countries enter tariff free with some notable exceptions, so the collected tariff rate is lower than the MFN rate. As the authors discuss the results, they evaluate the trends in the tariff structure based on the view, elaborated by Tarr (2002), that low and uniform tariffs are preferable to high and diverse tariffs. This paper is methodological and descriptive, so the reader interested in a discussion of tariff policy should consult Tarr (2002).

Finance --- Foreign Trade Promotion and Regulation --- Rules of Origin --- Sugar --- Trade --- Trade Policy