U.N. Commodity Trade (COMTRADE) statistics have major shortcomings for many analyses relating to tariffs and other trade barriers. The use of a cost-insurance-freight valuation base for these data results in an upward (sometimes severe) bias in the implied dutiable value of imports for countries...

This paper investigates exchange rate pass-through in Singapore using band-pass spectral regression techniques, allowing for asymmetric effects over the business cycle. First stage pass-through is estimated to be complete and relatively quick, confirming existing views that the exchange rate...

South-South trade agreements are proliferating: Developing countries signed 70 new agreements between 1990 and 2003. Yet the impact of these agreements is largely unknown. This paper focuses on the static effects of South-South preferential trade agreements stemming from changes in trade...

This paper presents the midyear review of the 2004 Staff-Monitored Program (SMP) for Sudan. Policy performance in the first half of 2004 was broadly in line with the program. All quantitative benchmarks and most structural benchmarks were met. Real GDP growth has been stronger than anticipated...

This paper examines Sudan’s 2005 Article IV Consultation and the Final Review of the 2004 and 2005 Staff-Monitored Program (SMP). Between 2001 and 2004, the economy of Sudan grew at an average rate of 6.4 percent per year, and the non-oil sector expanded at an annual rate of 5.3 percent....

This paper examines the Philippines’s 2004 Article IV Consultation and Post-Program Monitoring Discussions. GDP growth has exceeded expectations, but unemployment remains high. With exports staging a recovery and consumption boosted by overseas remittances and the election, GDP grew by...

The discussions focused on reviewing the reforms that were implemented since the last consultation, policies for the remainder of the year as well as the parameters of the 2004 program, and the medium-term outlook. Executive Directors encouraged the exchange and monetary systems, but additional...

This paper reports on an analysis made of Tanzania's 1998 imports, undertaken as part of the Macmod project. The analysis entails the classification of imported goods according to their sector of origin and their end use.

A comprehensive empirical investigation is carried out to ascertain the import-reducing effect of trade protection barriers. We first present a statistical summary of the status of global trade protection. Then, based on a monopolistic competition trade model and 1994 cross-country data on trade...

This paper studies the behavior of China’s foreign trade in the 1980s. Chinese customs data are used to construct, for the first time, quarterly unit value and volume series that are then used to estimate foreign trade income and price elasticities. The estimated export supply price...