Transparency and Regional Integration in the Asia Pacific

• Tác giả: Matthias Helble
• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 342.25 Constitutional and administrative law
• Thông tin xuất bản: 2012
• Bộ sưu tập: Tài liệu truy cập mở
• ID: 328125
• Chủ đề: 1. Country and Industry Studies of Trade F140; 2. Economic Integration F150; 3. International Linkages to Development; 4. International Trade Organizations F130; 5. Trade Policy

Tóm tắt

We show in this paper that increasing the transparency of the trading environment can be an important complement to traditional liberalisation of tariff and non-tariff barriers. Our definition of transparency is grounded in a transaction cost analysis. We focus on two dimensions of transparency: predictability (reducing the cost of uncertainty) and simplification (reducing information costs). Using the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies as a case study, we construct indices of importer and exporter transparency for the region from a wide range of sources. Our results from a gravity model suggest that improving trade-related transparency in APEC could hold significant benefits by raising intra-APEC trade by approximately US 48 billion or 7.5 per cent of baseline trade in the region. Action to improve transparency measures examined could be undertaken in many forms, including within the current APEC framework or future talks on a Free Trade Area in the Asia Pacific.