A warm welcome to the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, Pakistan, ​which joined ARTNeT as an institutional member. IBA has established itself as a premier business school in Pakistan with a strong track record of over fifty years of producing quality undergraduates and post-graduates in Business and Computer Sciences. The Centre for Business and Economics Research (CBER), a research centre within IBA, is dedicated to stimulate research by faculty, students and staff at IBA. CBER has taken many initiatives since its inception including the establishment of a research grant, inauguration of the IBA Working Paper Series, initiation of seminar sessions (regular dissertation presentations by students and faculty), conferences, collaborations with education and Government Institutions. CBER aims to deliver opportunities for researchers to publish their work and later present it at national and international conferences. The focal contact for ARTNeT would be Dr. Aadil Nakhoda.

Recent restoration of democracy in Myanmar is one of the most important developments in the country’s history and potentially of large significance for the region. Owing to its strategic position, Myanmar connects Asia’s three big markets—Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, and India. Since 2011, Myanmar has embarked on a path of political and economic reforms, paving the way for unlocking the country’s large potential. Myanmar’s underdeveloped infrastructure, unavailability and mismatching of skilled human resources and poor connectivity with neighbouring countries seriously limit Myanmar’s participation in the regional and global economies. This non-technical paper by Prabir De from RIS discusses Myanmar’s participation in regional integration initiatives and argues that greater integration with the neighbours would be of paramount importance in building the country’s infrastructure and setting it on the faster growth path.

An earlier version of this text has been published as a chapter under the title “Regional Integration and Myanmar: Current Status and Prospects” in the book entitled “Myanmar’s Integration with the World: Challenges and Policy Options”, edited by Prabir De and Ajitava Raychaudhuri, published by Palgrave Macmillan, August 2017.

For the full paper please visit here. 

ARTNeT currently relies on using three social media outlets: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as the official website and monthly newsletter to assist in dissemination of its work, In order to improve its service to the institutional members and partners, ARTNeT Secretariat is conducting this short survey to collect users’ opinions and feedback.

Your opinion is valuable to us – we want to make sure that this network continues meeting your needs. You are encouraged to provide further comments and ideas in the text fields.

The results of the survey will be reflected in our future media operational strategies soon. Please answer the survey here. The survey will be close on 13 August.

The ESCAP, in collaboration with the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is organizing a capacity-building workshop on preferential trade agreements on 13-15 August 2017, Tehran. The purpose of the workshop is to increase awareness of government officials and trade negotiators of the potential socio-economic impacts of preferential trade agreements and how they can be managed through ex-ante and ex-post adjustments, thereby enhancing the understanding of participants of how liberalisation through preferential trade agreements can lead to more inclusive and equitable trade.

Dr. Seyed Komail Tayebi and Dr. Zahra Zamani, from the Centre of Excellence for International Economics of the University of Isfahan, an institutional member of ARTNeT, will contribute a session to this workshop by reviewing the evolution of trade policy and impacts from preferential trade liberalization in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

For more information please visit here.

In late 2011, ESCAP and the World Bank joined hands to develop a common standard methodology for calculating comprehensive international trade costs and provide the research and policy community with a global reference. The current version includes data from 1995 to 2015 for over 180 countries. In addition to maintaining the ESCAP-World Bank trade cost dataset, ESCAP also issued a Value-Added trade cost database in May 2015, based on the OECD-WTO TiVA data. The current version includes data up to 2011. 

The database is available here.

SANEM invites its competitive call for papers and participation for the 3rd SANEM Annual Economists’ Conference (SAEC) 2018 on “Leave no one behind in South Asia”. SANEM aims to promote quality economic research among academicians, researchers, policy advocates, students and young aspiring economists. The theme of the 3rd SAEC 2018 focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Last date of abstract submission: 31 August 2017. For the details of the call please visit here. 

ERIA invites submission of research proposals for the ERIA Microdata Research Project for Fiscal Year 2017. This project is under the scope of one of the three research pillars of ERIA, namely Deepening Economic Integration. The theme of this fiscal year’s research project is Export Dynamics and Export Industry Development. This project comprises country studies by authors mainly from ERIA member countries. ERIA provides financial support of US$9,000 per paper for the selected proposals. ERIA also covers the travel costs of one author per paper to attend the workshops of the project.

Deadline: 21 August 2017. For the submission details please visit here. 

PEP invites teams of (individual) developing country researchers to submit proposals for policy analysis projects related to growth and employment issues at home. In addition to financial support, PEP grant recipients benefit from a unique program of manifold support to conduct high-quality and policy-engaged research. Priority is given to researchers in low-income economies, fragile and/or conflict-affected situations (LFCs). Proposals from all developing countries are welcome. PEP particularly encourages female led teams (at least 50% female participation is required).

Deadline: 13 September 2017. For submission detail please visit here. 

ARTNeT member, the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) is seeking innovative, timely and essential topics for research. The KIEP sincerely hope to receive any suggestions civil society might have for research topics, which people believe KIEP should pursue. The KIEP would like to listen to opinion of experts from various areas and make significant contributions to the governments’ decision-making process.

All the insightful ideas and suggestions will be carefully reflected in KIEP's planning of new research projects and contribute ultimately to formulating policies for a more open international economic order.

More call for topics details please find here.

Interested in trade and trade-related issues (such as inclusive and sustainable development linkages to trade), regional trade agreements (RTAs), trade flows, tariffs or non-tariff measures (NTMs)? Check this internship opportunity. 

For more works in trade policy and facilitation section please visit here. For the application details please visit here.

Our partner ADBI recently launched podcast "Asia's Developing Future" presenting the institute's work in short, simple episodes. You can access the series here.

The focus of the report from our member International Think Tank for Landlocked Developing Countries (ITT for LLDCs) has been on Mongolia’s trade and transport trajectory, given that Mongolia is the intended beneficiary of this report. The report is not intended to be an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of trade, transit, economic and regulatory issues pertaining to Mongolia and Nepal. It is intended to address these issues as they relate to the central question of the report, i.e. How can Mongolia benefit from the lessons of the Nepal-India trade and transit regime? This is because the trade and transit regime of the aforementioned countries is complex and changing. Analysis is based on material available online, provided by interviewees and the ITT for LLDCs. Allowance must be made for linguistic differences.

For the full report please visit here. 

The objective of this book by Matthias Helble and Ben Shepherd from our partner ADBI​, is to demonstrate to the international development community, including policy makers in developing countries, the contribution that international trade can make to achieving the SDGs. Economists have long argued that trade can promote income growth, which can then support sustainable development. But there are also more direct linkages between trade and sustainable development, for instance by affecting the price and availability of important goods and services for development, such as health and education. This book maps out a triple-win scenario when good trade policy spurs international trade, contributes to development-friendly outcomes, and supports the achievement of the SDGs.

For the full book please visit here. 

The design of China's foreign direct investment (FDI) and export promotion policies has intrinsic elements not helpful with the original policy intent to generate spillovers to the wide Chinese economy. Applying panel estimation models to Chinese provincial-level data for 1993–2008, the authors examine the impacts of China's coastal FDI and exports on its inland regions. The authors find that the coastal FDI has overall positive inter-regional impacts, while the coastal exports do not. Cooperative joint ventures generate positive impacts, but little for wholly foreign-funded enterprises and even negative for equity joint ventures. The inter-regional impacts do not exhibit any significance and robustness across exporters' ownership status. The authors attribute these counter-intuitive findings to the protectionist behaviours of state-owned enterprises in equity joint ventures and the prevalence of processing exports. For the full paper please visit here. 

This paper previously circulated as ARTNeT Working Paper No 138. ARTNeT Secretariat would like to encourage you publish your work with our working paper series. Please also let us know when your ARTNeT work is published. 

The negotiations leading up to the continental free trade area (CFTA) present a unique opportunity to improve the livelihoods of millions of African people. But trade agreements and economic integration do not necessarily lead to fair and sustainable outcomes. Assessing the distributional impacts of an agreement such as the CFTA is therefore crucial to ensure that human rights and trade are complementary. This assessment applies human rights standards and tools to assist in identifying human rights concerns in the negotiation, design, implementation and monitoring of the CFTA, with a view to supporting the creation of a robust agreement that is responsive to the needs of the continent’s peoples.

For the full report please visit here.

Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)

Protectionism and Non-Tariff Measures: Myths and Truths

The Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (ISAS-NUS) 

The Goods and Services Tax in India: Impressions and Realities

The G20 Hamburg Summit: Declaration, Divisions and Dividends

The Road to the Good and Services Tax – Growing Importance of India’s States

Advancing Global Trade Integration: India and the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement

An Analysis of India’s Participation in the RCEP Negotiations

The Shaping of the ‘Trumpian’ World Economic Order

Yusof Ishak Institute (ISEAS)

Trade Facilitation Synergies between WTO and ASEAN Initiatives

Should Thailand Join the TPP?

Impact of TPP-11 on Japanese Manufacturing Affiliates in ASEAN

Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)

East Asia Updates - June 2017

Summary of ERIA Research Projects 2016 - 2017

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Digital Trade DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS

World Trade Organization (WTO)

World Trade Statistical Review 2017

Trade Profiles 2017

World Tariff Profiles 2017

Trade and Food Standards

Global Value Chain Development Report 2017

WTO Dispute Settlement: One-Page Case Summaries (1995-2016)

“Investing in Skills for Inclusive Trade”

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Strengthening the Creative Industries for Development in the Republic of Korea

INVESTMENT FACILITATION: The Perfect Match for Investment Promotion

Regional trade agreements, integration and development

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The ARTNeT Secretariat welcomes submissions of policy briefs, working papers, book reports, research reports, and book reviews by ARTNeT members, partners and collaborators. For any submission to be considered, the editorial 'Guidelines for Submissions to the ARTNeT Working Papers Series' must be adhered to.

If you are an ARTNeT member, partner or collaborator and would like to publicise your publications, research or events in the next newsletter, please e-mail us at artnetontrade@un.org.