An unprecedented regional treaty that will cut trade time and costs in the Asia-Pacific region was finalized at a United Nations led forum in Bangkok on 21-23 March.

The agreement drafted by working groups bringing together 27 member states of ESCAP, will result in long-term benefits for the region by promoting cross-border paperless trade to make international trade more efficient and transparent, while improving regulatory compliance. ARTNeT research has made an important contribution to understanding the benefits of trade facilitation measures, including paperless trade, for reducing trade costs. Additional studies are available on the ARTNeT website. 

The agreement will also provide momentum for member states to implement advanced trade facilitation measures, particularly paperless systems such as a Single Window, in connection with the implementation the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.

The now finalized treaty text will be submitted for adoption at the 72nd session of the Commission in May, and is expected to be open for signature and ratification by Asia-Pacific member States later this year.

An updated and revised version of the Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Agreements Database (APTIAD) is now available. APTIAD was established by ESCAP in order to provide a useful tool for observers and stakeholders (governments, researchers and policy analysts) to monitor and analyze the development of trade agreements. APTIAD provides detailed descriptive information on the provisions of trade agreements involving one or more economies from the Asia-Pacific region that are either signed, in force or under negotiation. The database shows that the Asia-Pacific economies still lead in the global process of establishing new PTAs. Out of 262 PTAs in implementation world-wide, Asia-Pacific economies are party to 156. Access to the database is available here and a briefing note highlighting key findings is here.

A new Business Process Analysis (BPA) online training course has been developed by ESCAP based on the UNNExT BPA Guide to Simplify Trade Procedures. BPA is considered the first necessary step to simplifying trade procedures. The course consists of 7 modules and introduces a step-by-step approach to conducting BPA. It is aimed at government officials and other stakeholders responsible for trade facilitation. The total estimated learning time is about 5 hours.

The material can be used for self-study, as well as incorporated in existing courses and programmes related to international trade, supply chain management, and regulations. Access to the e-learning series and related study guide is available here. 

ARTNeT, in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale (GIZ, Germany), and the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) will organise a capacity building workshop on "Gravity Modelling for Trade Policy Analysis" on 18-22 April in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The workshop aims to build the capacity of policy researchers and analysts in Mongolia on evidence-based policy formulation and analysis, with a particular reference to gravity models for trade-policy analysis. Interested parties should contact artnetontrade@un.org.

This training course, held in Bangkok on 31 March-1 April, was co-organized by ESCAP and the International Institute for Trade and Development (ITD), Thailand.

The course offered an opportunity for personnel in Thailand and regional low-income economies to share experiences, techniques and best practices with respect to trade negotiations in services. On the first day, features of services trade and service liberalization in the context of GATS and EIA were shared, followed by negotiation pratice on scheduling approaches and stakeholder consultation. On the second day, the topics of global value chains, international investment agreements and Aid for trade were covered and discussed. The course was attended by policymakers, researchers and civil society members. Presentations and materials from the course are available here.

Trade policy remains a contentious policy issue. In Bangladesh, support for trade liberalisation is weak. Although the country has come a long way from the 'bad old days' of large quantitative restriction and heavy tariff rates, trade reforms have faltered over the past several years. This paper from PRI asks the question "has the resulting trade protection supported the expansion of manufacturing and job creation in Bangladesh?" It finds that trade policy in Bangladesh has been guided more by revenue considerations than by trade protectionism. Nevertheless, trade policy reform has taken a back seat in recent years partly on protectionist grounds. 

Trade and transport facilitation are vital for increasing countries’ international trade and it is important to ensure that the measures implemented to facilitate trade are effective. The crucial factors behind the successful implementation of trade facilitation are ensuring effective co-ordination among the various government agencies as well as private players involved in trading goods. This paper from ICRIER, suggests the need for a Trade and Transport Facilitation Committee for India and provides a review of such bodies around the world. It recommends that a committee could have both regulatory and advisory functions and be empowered to implement facilitation measures.

The Eighteenth Annual Conference of the European Trade Study Group (ETSG) will take place in Helsinki, Finland on 8-10 September 2016. The conference is being hosted by Aalto University School of Business and the VATT Institute for Economic Research. The ETSG is a forum for academic discussion and research on international trade among universities and research institutes. ETSG conferences are open to any researcher with an interest in international trade issues. For more information on the conference please see here. 

Professor Orlando da Silva, of the Department of Economics at University Federal de Viçosa, Brazil, has been spending two weeks at United Nations ESCAP as a visiting ARTNeT research fellow. During his time he has been sharing and discussing his work on trade and non-tariff barriers in Latin America with ESCAP staff.

Mr. Pradeep S Mehta, the Secretary General of CUTS International, has been nominated as a member of the board of trade (BoT), an advisory body of India. The BoT is going to have its first meeting on April 6 to discuss ways to boost exports.  

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 (May 2016), please e-mail us at artnetontrade@un.org.