International Trade and Finance
Agenda from 15 January 2015
Regional cooperation in services trade
Why trade costs matter: The 5th global review of aid for trade
Women in IT in Bangladesh are empowered and connected
Overcoming political risk for SMEs through infrastructure investment
Development investment, not development aid, is the way forward
Promoting growth by reducing barriers to trade
Service sector in Barbados charting a new strategic direction
Boosting trade through extended outreach
Putting principles into practice with WTO domestic regulation disciplines
Mexico: Building a global brand footprint
How business can help us meet the global goals
We are all women!
A new strategy to address gender inequality
UNCTAD insights: Improving the analysis of global value chains: the UNCTAD-Eora Database
The UNCTAD-Eora Global Value Chain (GVC) database offers global coverage (189 countries and a “Rest of World” region) and a timeseries from 1990 to 2018, reporting on key GVC indicators. This paper explains the methodology for compiling the UNCTAD-Eora GVC database, including nowcasting employed in the estimation of recent years; second, it provides a comparison of the results against other value-added trade databases, with a focus on the OECD Trade in Value Added (TiVA) dataset; and lastly discusses the relevance of GVC data for the analysis of globalisation patterns, particularly at the intersection between trade, investment and development.
Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for human rights and modern slavery vulnerabilities in global value chains
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed vulnerabilities and fragilities in global value chains. The worldwide economic lockdowns to contain COVID-19 have led in some industries to unilateral cancellations and suspensions of orders from overseas suppliers by transnational corporations (TNCs). These decisions are argued to be in conflict with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Sustainable Development Goals, and related national laws because they have contributed to the risk that the human rights of workers will be violated and that they will become victims of modern slavery. In response, international business policies that target the conduct of TNCs and global value chains need to be reconsidered to achieve global value chain integration while strengthening local bargaining, affording sustainable growth, and protecting human rights.
Book review: International Business
The faces behind the projects
At its very heart, trade-related assistance is about investing in four Ps: People, processes, policies and productivity. Behind every intervention, every project, every dollar spent, there is a human face.
Change and continuity in special economic zones:a reassessment and lessons from China
Special economic zones (SEZs) have been used as an important national development instrument around the world for the past several decades. While SEZs have continued to grow, they vary considerably across developing countries in form, function and effectiveness. This wide variation challenges development scholars and policymakers to probe factors that render some SEZs more successful than others and at certain stages of development than at others, and, second, allow some SEZs to sustain their success while triggering others to fail or become obsolete. China stands out not only in having created the largest number and variety of SEZs but also in building some SEZs in other developing countries. With this exceptional combination of inside and outside experience with SEZs, China presents a timely opportunity for reassessing the new global landscape of SEZs. This paper traces the evolution of SEZ development in China and draws out policy lessons.