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This working paper assesses cross-border economic integration in the Lower Congo region. It focuses on the Kinshasa-Brazzaville conurbation, which is projected to become Africa's largest urban area by 2025, and is already serving as the gateway to large hinterlands. Despite their size and proximity, formal economic exchanges between the two cities are extremely limited. The volume of recorded passenger travel between Kinshasa and Brazzaville corresponds to about one-fifth of the volume of traffic between East and West Berlin during the time of the Berlin Wall, and formal trade volumes are derisorily small. As a consequence, the authors find evidence of statistically significant differences in retail prices, indicating unexploited scope for cross-river arbitrage. Through a survey of firms, they find that local traders perceive substantial scope for increasing cross-border economic activity if cross-river trade costs were reduced. Trade in locally produced goods and by small firms would especially benefit from such reductions. Existing high trade costs mainly result from a lack of competition in cross-river transport services, which are dominated by a duopoly of state-controlled operators. High administrative border costs, exacerbated by the presence of multiple government agencies at the border, act as a further obstacle. Liberalization of cross-river transport and customs reform could yield large economic benefits for local producers and consumers.

Cross-border trade --- Economic Theory & Research --- Emerging Markets --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Free Trade --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Market segmentation --- Poverty Reduction --- Trade Law --- Transport Economics Policy & Planning --- Transport services --- Africa --- Congo

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The transformations in globalization's past that show us how to navigate its futureGlobalization has profoundly shaped the world we live in, yet its rise was neither inevitable nor planned. It is also one of the most contentious issues of our time. While it may have made goods less expensive, it has also sent massive flows of money across borders and shaken the global balance of power. Outside the Box offers a fresh and lively history of globalization, showing how it has evolved over two centuries in response to changes in demography, technology, and consumer tastes.Marc Levinson, the acclaimed author of The Box, tells the story of globalization through the people who eliminated barriers and pursued new ways of doing business. He shows how the nature of globalization changed dramatically in the 1980s with the creation of long-distance value chains. This new type of economic relationship shifted manufacturing to Asia, destroying millions of jobs and devastating industrial centers in North America, Europe, and Japan. Levinson describes how improvements in transportation, communications, and computing made international value chains possible, but how globalization was taken to excess as a result of large government subsidies and the systematic misjudgment of risk by businesses. As companies began to account properly for the risks of globalization, cross-border investment fell sharply and foreign trade lagged long before Donald Trump became president and the coronavirus disrupted business around the world.In Outside the Box, Levinson explains that globalization is entering a new era in which moving stuff will matter much less than moving services, information, and ideas.

Globalization --- Economic aspects --- History. --- Brexit. --- China. --- Mexico. --- NAFTA. --- North American Free Trade Agreement. --- capitalism. --- container. --- cross-border trade. --- environment. --- environmentalism. --- financial crisis. --- foreign investment. --- global economy. --- industrial capitalism. --- information technology. --- international business. --- international finance. --- logistics. --- offshoring. --- risk management. --- shipping. --- supply chains. --- tariffs. --- trade barriers. --- unemployment. --- world economics.

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June 2000 - If negotiations on trade in services at the World Trade Organization are to advance liberalization beyond levels undertaken unilaterally and lead to more balanced outcomes, reciprocity must play a greater role in negotiations. This may be facilitated by the use of negotiating rules that establish credible links across sectors and modes of delivery. Negotiations on trade in services at the World Trade Organization (WTO) have so far produced little liberalization beyond levels countries have undertaken unilaterally. One reason: limited application of the traditional negotiating principle of reciprocity. In particular, participants have failed to exploit the scope of the services agreement (GATS) for the exchange of market-access concessions across different modes of supply - cross-border delivery and the movement of capital and workers. Using the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek framework, Mattoo and Olarreaga propose a negotiating formula that generalizes the fundamental WTO principle of reciprocity to include alternative modes of delivery. Adoption of this formula as a basis for negotiations could bring greater commitments to liberalization on all modes of delivery, producing substantial gains in global welfare and more balanced outcomes. This paper - a product of Trade, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to improve trade policy in goods and services. The authors may be contacted at amattoo@worldbank.org or molarreaga@worldbank.org

Agreement on Trade --- Border Trade --- Comparative Advantage --- Concessions --- Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Foreign Labor --- Foreign Markets --- Free Trade --- International Economics & Trade --- International Trade and Trade Rules --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Market Access --- Private Sector Development --- Public Sector Development --- Reciprocal Reduction --- Reciprocity --- Tariff --- Tariff Reduction --- Terms Of Trade --- Terms Of Trade Effects --- Trade and Services --- Trade Effect --- Trade Negotiations --- Trade Policy --- Volume Of Trade --- Welfare Gains --- World Trade --- World Trade Organization

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An important question in the design of bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) covering services is to what extent nonmembers benefit from the trade preferences that are negotiated among members. This question is resolved through services rules of origin. The restrictiveness of rules of origin determines the degree of preferences entailed in market opening commitments, shaping the bargaining incentives of FTAs and their eventual economic effects. Even though the number of FTAs in services has increased rapidly in recent years, hardly any research is available that can guide policymakers on the economic implications of different rules of origin. After outlining the key economic tradeoffs and options for rules of origin in services, the paper summarizes the main findings of a research project that has assessed the rules of origin question for five countries in the ASEAN region. For selected service subsectors and a number of criteria for rules or origin, simulation exercises evaluated which service providers would or would not be eligible for preferences negotiated under a FTA. Among other findings, the simulation results point to the binding nature of a domestic ownership or control requirement and, for the specific case of financial services, a requirement of incorporation.

Agreement On Trade --- Banks and Banking Reform --- Bilateral Trade --- Border Trade --- Corporate Law --- Debt Markets --- Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Exporters --- Exports --- External Tariffs --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Free Trade --- Free Trade Agreements --- International Economics & Trade --- Law and Development --- Liberalization of Trade --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Market Access --- Preferential Tariff --- Preferential Tariff Treatment --- Private Sector Development --- Public Sector Corruption and Anticorruption Measures --- Public Sector Development --- Rules of Origin --- Tariff Rates --- Tariffs --- Trade Agreement --- Trade and Services --- Trade Barriers --- Trade Law --- Trade Policy --- Trade Preferences --- Transport Costs --- World Trade

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June 2000 - Members of the World Trade Organization have decided provisionally to exempt electronic delivery of products from customs duties. There is growing support for the decision to be made permanent. Is this desirable? Some countries in the World Trade Organization initially opposed WTO's decision to exempt electronic delivery of products from customs duties, out of concern for the revenue consequences. Others supported the decision as a means of securing open trading conditions. Mattoo and Schuknecht argue that neither the inhibitions nor the enthusiasm are fully justified. First, even if all delivery of digitizable media products moved online - an unlikely prospect - the revenue loss for most countries would be small. More important, however, the prohibition of customs duties does not ensure continued open access for electronically delivered products and may even prompt recourse to inferior instruments of protection. Barrier-free electronic commerce would be more effectively secured by deepening and widening the limited cross-border trade commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and by clarifying and strengthening certain GATS disciplines. This paper-a product of Trade, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to improve trade policy for goods and services. It is part of a larger project on trade in services supported in part by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development. Aaditya Mattoo may be contacted at amattoo@worldbank.org.

Commodities --- Cross-Border Trade --- Customs --- Customs Duties --- Debt Markets --- E-Business --- Economic Theory and Research --- Electronic Commerce --- Emerging Markets --- European Union --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Services --- Free Trade --- Importing Country --- International Economics & Trade --- International Trade --- Law and Development --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Market Access --- National Treatment --- Preferential Trading Arrangements --- Preferential Treatment --- Private Sector Development --- Public Sector Development --- Recourse --- Tariff Reductions --- Trade --- Trade and Services --- Trade Diversion --- Trade Law --- Trade Policies --- Trade Policy --- Trade Regime --- Transport --- Transport and Trade Logistics --- World Trade Organization