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Malouche, Mariem

Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice

Fields of Specialization

international economics, trade regulations, regional integration, trade policy, non-tariff measures, diaspora, North Africa, Bangladesh

Departments

Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice

Last updated January 31, 2023

Biography

Mariem Mezghenni Malouche is a Senior Economist at the World Bank in Washington, DC. Her professional areas of interest include trade and competitiveness, economic integration, trade policy, non-tariff measures, export diversification, trade finance, and diaspora. She joined the World Bank in 2004 as an economist in the MENA region then in the World Bank International Trade Department. Before joining the Bank, Malouche earned a PhD in international economics from Université Paris-Dauphine, France, and a master degree in business from University of Tunis III with the highest honors. She is a co-author of Streamlining Non-Tariff Measures: a Toolkit for Policy Makers (World Bank 2012); co-editor of Non-Tariff Measures - A Fresh Look at Trade Policy's New Frontier; and co-editor of Trade Finance during the Great Trade Collapse (World Bank 2011). She also participated in and contributed to a number of country level policy dialogue, development policy loans and reports in MENA, South Asia and Africa Regions, notably in Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Mauritius, and Lao DPR.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 10

Trade Finance during the Great Trade Collapse

(World Bank, 2011-06-22) Chauffour, Jean-Pierre ; Malouche, Mariem

The bursting of the subprime mortgage market in the United States in 2008 and the ensuing global financial crisis were associated with a rapid decline in global trade. The extent of the trade collapse was unprecedented: trade flows fell at a faster rate than had been observed even in the early years of the great depression. G-20 leaders held their first crisis-related summit in November 2008. The goal was to understand the root causes of the global crisis and to reach consensus on actions to address its immediate effects. In the case of trade, a key question concerned the extent to which a drying up of trade finance caused the observed decline in trade flows. This book brings together a range of projects and studies undertaken by development institutions, export credit agencies, private bankers, and academics to shed light on the role of trade finance in the 2008-09 great trade collapse. It provides policy makers, analysts, and other interested parties with analyses and assessments of the role of governments and institutions in restoring trade finance markets. A deeper understanding of the complexity of trade finance remains critical as the world economy recovers and the supply of trade finance improves. The international community continues to know too little about the fragility of low income economies in response to trade finance developments and shocks, as well as about the ability and conditions of access to trade finance by small and medium enterprises and small banks in developing countries. Similarly, there is uncertainty regarding the impact on trade finance of recent changes in the third Basel regulatory framework.
Financing More Resilient Trade and Value Chains

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10) Dornel, Arnaud ; Engel, Jakob ; Malouche, Mariem

This report aims to improve the knowledge base on the financing of trade and related data, institutions, and instruments. An improved knowledge base can support interventions that strengthen the infrastructure and the flow of funds underpinning the financing of trade in the context of value chains in client countries and regions. First, it defines trade finance and other ways in which trade is financed. Second, it provides an overview of trade financing supply and demand dynamics, including during the two recent global economic crises: the 2008–09 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. Third, it discusses a policy agenda focused on how the World Bank Group and other international institutions and donors can more effectively support developing countries in meeting the growing demand in this area, including for (a) country-level technical assistance and diagnostic work, (b) improvement of the data infrastructure, and (c) global engagement and advocacy.
Streamlining Non-Tariff Measures : A Toolkit for Policy Makers

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012) Cadot, Olivier ; Malouche, Mariem ; Sáez, Sebastián

This volume is organized as follows. Chapter one discusses the newly revamped non-tariff measure (NTM) classification system, the data collection effort so far, and the key characteristics of the data. It also highlights the private-sector view that NTMs should support domestic firms' competitiveness across countries. Chapter two describes the analytics of an NTM review, step by step through the key questions, for example, is there a market failure, which market is affected, what are the costs of regulatory action vs. the risks of deregulation, and explains how to answer these questions and how to go about quantification when it is possible. Chapter three focuses on the institutional setup and key principles required to successfully pursue the streamlining of regulations. Since the mid-1990s, developed countries have introduced new regulatory approaches aimed at improving the quality of the decision-making process by enhancing both the analytical framework used by policy makers and the participation of interested parties in the regulatory process. Finally, chapters four and five provide practical examples of streamlining NTMs. Chapter four overviews selected experiences with tackling the trade regulatory agenda at both country and regional levels. Chapter five presents case studies on streamlining NTMs, including technical regulation and prohibition, particularly illustrating the analytics that may support the review process. Finally, NTM reviews should be seen as part of national competitiveness agendas rather than as concessions to trading partners. When NTMs are perceived by the domestic private sector as hampering access to key inputs, business regulatory reviews should naturally lead to NTM reviews. Joint use of the triangle of products will facilitate the adoption by governments of coherent national competitiveness strategies centered on the reduction of trade costs.
Trade and Trade Finance Developments in 14 Developing Countries Post September 2008 : A World Bank Survey

( 2009-11-01) Malouche, Mariem

In the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse in September 2008, drop in the supply of trade finance, a critical engine for trade transactions, has become an acute concern for the development community. Banks were increasing pricing on trade finance transactions to cover increased funding costs and higher credit risks, and trade was dropping drastically in most countries, with global trade projected to decline in 2009 for the first time in decades. Yet, little was known about the real impact of the crisis on developing country s capacity to export. The World Bank has commissioned a firm and bank survey on trade and trade finance developments in developing countries during the first quarter of 2009 to collect field information. In total, 425 firms and 78 banks were surveyed in 14 developing countries across five regions. This paper summarizes the findings of the survey as well as discusses the type of policies governments and international organizations put in place to mitigate the impact of the crisis. In sum, the survey findings confirmed that the global financial crisis has constrained trade finance for exporters and importers in developing countries. But the impact varied by the firm size, sectoral activity, and countries integration into the global economy. In particular, SMEs were particularly affected, and export diversification was made more difficult, especially in low income countries. Nevertheless, drop in demand has emerged as the top concern of firms at the time when the survey was conducted in March-April 2009.
China's Emerging Regional Trade Policy

( 2008) Zhao, Longyue ; Malouche, Mariem ; Newfarmer, Richard

The purpose of this paper is to provide a timely review and analysis of China's regional trade agreements, its motivations, and its economic implications for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) member countries and other trading partners. The paper uses the SMART model of the World Integrated Trade Solution to quantify the economic implications of the ACFTA on merchandise trade flows among member countries and other trading partners. Then, for comparative purposes, the impact of two possible paths beyond the ACFTA is simulated: an East Asia Free Trade Agreement (EAFTA) and the possible Doha Round multilateral trade liberalization. The paper finds that, if regional and bilateral trade arrangement (RTA) were only concentrated in tariff reductions, the impact on trade flows would be quite limited. China's trade liberalization will bring the similar impacts to ASEAN in three of the scenarios modeled. Japan and Korea would get more market access to China if an EAFTA were to become reality. Only in a multilateral liberalization would all RTA member countries and the rest of the world benefit. Three limitations are noteworthy. First, these types of models capture only static gains from trade. Second, the simulations do not include services liberalization, which could readily provide benefits in several multiples of merchandise trade, and third, it is assumed that full removal of all border barriers at once, in a multilateral scenario, would be of illuminating heuristic value but is unlikely to occur in reality. The paper demonstrates the wisdom of China's simultaneous pursuit of unilateral, regional, and multilateral liberalization--because the wider the trading group involved in the liberalization, the more China and its partners will benefit. The tariff reductions in RTAs will have limited effects on expanding merchandise trade, especially when compared with comprehensive and multilateral liberalization agreements.
Taking Stock of Trade Protectionism Since 2008

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-12) Datt, Mohini ; Hoekman, Bernard ; Malouche, Mariem

The onset of the financial crisis in September 2008 and the subsequent 'Great Trade Collapse' (Baldwin 2009), many countries actively used trade policy instruments as part of their response to the global recession. Governments pursued a mix of trade liberalization, trade promotion, and trade restrictions. The choice of trade policy has varied, with limited use of tariff hikes or antidumping and safeguard actions. Sector-specific support to industries dominated initial responses to the crisis, and there has been increasing resort to nontariff measures. Recent research suggests that vertical specialization the growth in global supply chains has played a significant role in limiting the use of traditional protectionist instruments. Pressures on governments to support domestic economic activity may increase, given current gloomy economic prospects and more binding macroeconomic policy constraints, and the number of protectionist measures has recently risen. Open trade cannot be taken for granted, thus the need for monitoring persists.
Strengthening Competitiveness In Bangladesh—Thematic Assessment: A Diagnostic Trade Integration Study

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-07-15) Kathuria, Sanjay ; Malouche, Mariem Mezghenni ; Kathuria, Sanjay ; Malouche, Mariem Mezghenni

This is volume 2 of a three-volume publication on Bangladesh’s trade prospects. Bangladesh’s ambition is to build on its very solid growth and poverty reduction achievements, and accelerate growth to become a middle income country by 2021, and share prosperity more widely amongst its citizens. This includes one of its greatest development challenges: to provide gainful employment to the over 2 million people that will join the labor force each year over the next decade. Moreover, only 54.1 million of its 94 million working age people are employed. Bangladesh needs to use its labor endowment even more intensively to increase growth and, in turn, to absorb the incoming labor. The Diagnostic Trade Integration Study identifies the following actions centered around four pillars to sustain and accelerate export growth: (1) breaking into new markets through a) better trade logistics to reduce delivery lags ; as world markets become more competitive and newer products demand shorter lead times, to generate new sources of competitiveness and thereby enable market diversification; and b) better exploitation of regional trading opportunities in nearby growing and dynamic markets, especially East and South Asia; (2) breaking into new products through a) more neutral and rational trade policy and taxation and bonded warehouse schemes; b) concerted efforts to spur domestic investment and attract foreign direct investment, to contribute to export promotion and diversification, including by easing the energy and land constraints; and c) strategic development and promotion of services trade; (3) improving worker and consumer welfare by a) improving skills and literacy; b) implementing labor and work safety guidelines; and c) making safety nets more effective in dealing with trade shocks; and (4) building a supportive environment, including a) sustaining sound macroeconomic fundamentals; and b) strengthening the institutional capacity for strategic policy making aimed at the objective of international competitiveness to help bring focus and coherence to the government’s reform efforts. This second volume provides in-depth analysis across seven cross-cutting themes that underpin most of the findings of pillars 1 and 2 above.
Toward New Sources of Competitiveness in Bangladesh: Key Insights of the Diagnostic Trade Integration Study

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016) Kathuria, Sanjay ; Malouche, Mariem Mezghenni

The Diagnostic Trade Integration Study identifies the following actions centered around four pillars to sustain and accelerate export growth: (1) breaking into new markets through a) better trade logistics to reduce delivery lags; as world markets become more competitive and newer products demand shorter lead times, to generate new sources of competitiveness and thereby enable market diversification; and b) better exploitation of regional trading opportunities in nearby growing and dynamic markets, especially East and South Asia; (2) breaking into new products through a) more neutral and rational trade policy and taxation and bonded warehouse schemes; b) concerted efforts to spur domestic investment and attract foreign direct investment, to contribute to export promotion and diversification, including by easing the energy and land constraints; and c) strategic development and promotion of services trade; (3) improving worker and consumer welfare by a) improving skills and literacy; b) implementing labor and work safety guidelines; and c) making safety nets more effective in dealing with trade shocks; and (4) building a supportive environment, including a) sustaining sound macroeconomic fundamentals; and b) strengthening the institutional capacity for strategic policy making aimed at the objective of international competitiveness to help bring focus and coherence to the government's reform efforts.
Mobilizing the Middle East and North Africa Diaspora for Economic Integration and Entrepreneurship

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-12) Malouche, Mariem Mezghenni ; Plaza, Sonia ; Salsac, Fanny

This paper advocates for the need to rally the MENA professional and skilled diaspora. It discusses the findings of a unique outreach exercise to the MENA diaspora and provides policy recommendations. First, the paper highlights the linkages between the diaspora and trade, investment, and knowledge transfer based on the literature and concrete examples. Second, it describes the outreach and the profile of the diaspora members surveyed. Third, it presents the main findings of the survey of the MENA diaspora in four areas: (i) overall engagement, (ii) appetite for investment, (iii) trade, and (iv) the role of institutions. The paper concludes with policy recommendations.
Trade Finance during the 2008–9 Trade Collapse : Key Takeaways

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-09-01) Chauffour, Jean-Pierre ; Malouche, Mariem

Trade finance matters for trade, and when financial markets and world trade collapsed three years ago, a shortage in trade finance was hailed as a possible culprit. Because of the potential for global repercussions, world leaders called on the international community to act swiftly to avoid a depression. Governments and international institutions intervened to mitigate the impacts of the crisis. Then the economy bounced back, and trade picked up. But what did we learn from the crisis? In retrospect, what role did trade finance actually play? Did the freeze in the financial markets cause the unprecedented drop in global trade in 2008-9? This note presents evidence on the role of trade finance during 2008-9 and highlights a few takeaways on the data and knowledge gap of trade finance and government interventions during financial crises.