Person:
Brenton, Paul

Trade and Regional Integration
Profile Picture
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
INTERNATIONAL TRADE, CLIMATE CHANGE, CARBON ACCOUNTING, TRADE POLICY
Degrees
ORCID
External Links
RePEc
Departments
Trade and Regional Integration
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated: January 31, 2023
Biography
Paul Brenton is Lead Economist in the Trade and Regional Integration Unit of the World Bank. He focuses on analytical and operation work on trade and regional integration. He has led the implementation of World Bank lending operations such as the Great Lakes Trade Facilitation Project in DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. He co-authored the joint World Bank-WTO report on The Role of Trade in Ending Poverty and has managed a range of policy-oriented volumes including: De-Fragmenting Africa: Deepening Regional Trade Integration in Goods and Services; Africa can Help Feed Africa; and Carbon Footprints and Food Systems: Do Current Accounting Methodologies Disadvantage Developing Countries? Paul joined the World Bank in 2002, having previously been Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Trade Policy Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. Before that, he lectured in economics at the University of Birmingham in the UK. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of East Anglia. A collection of Paul’s work has been published in the volume International Trade, Distribution and Development: Empirical Studies of Trade Policies (https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/9172 ).
Citations 1 Scopus

Filters

20093
Browse document type tree
Reset filters

Settings

Statistics
Citations
Author: Walkenhorst, Peter × Subject: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT ×

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Breaking into New Markets, Raising Quality, and Improving Services : Neglected Avenues for Export Diversification
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-09) Walkenhorst, Peter; Brenton, Paul
    Expanding international trade is an important avenue for growth and development in low-income countries. In addition to increasing the quantity of existing export flows, many countries seek to diversify into production and export activities that provide a higher return to the labor and capital resources employed. Export diversity also reduces a country's vulnerability to pronounced price swings in international markets. This note reviews the findings of a series of papers on the diversification process contained in Newfarmer, Shaw, and Walkenhorst (2009). The analysis suggests that there has been too much focus on simply adding new products to export portfolios, which often underscores the use of industrial policies. While such actions are important, a more comprehensive view of diversification, and hence a more comprehensive trade policy, is needed that improves the quality of existing exports, breaks into new geographic markets, and increases services exports.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Avenues for Export Diversification: Issues for Low-Income Countries
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009) Walkenhorst, Peter; Brenton, Paul; Newfarmer, Richard
    While diversification of exports is often a desirable trade objective, it is far from clear how best to tap into new opportunities. This paper discusses the range of avenues of diversification, including (i) expanding the range of markets into which existing products are sold (geographic diversification); (ii) upgrading the value of existing products, including agricultural exports (quality diversification); and (iii) taking advantage of opportunities to expand non-merchandise exports (services diversification), in addition to introducing entirely new export products. All offer opportunities for cost?effective positive policies relating to the incentive regime, backbone services, and export support institutions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Assessing the Direct Economic Effects of Reallocating Irrigation Water to Alternative Uses Concepts and an Application
    (2009-04-01) Andriamananjara, Soamiely; Brenton, Paul; von Uexkull, Jan Erik; Walkenhorst, Peter
    This study discusses potential economic implications for Nigeria of an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union. It uses the World Bank s Tariff Reform Impact Simulation Tool to assess the effects of preferential tariff liberalization with respect to the European Union. The results suggest that the impact of an Economic Partnership Agreement on total imports into Nigeria will be slight. This is in part because the Agreement will likely allow the most protected sectors to be excluded from liberalization, and also because where substantial tariffs are involved much of the increase in imports from the European Union will occur at the expense of other suppliers of imports. It is this trade diversion, arising from the discriminatory nature of the EPA, which generates a negative welfare impact of the tariff reforms. One way for Nigeria to limit these losses is to pursue non-preferential trade liberalization before implementing an EPA. The paper looks at the large number of import bans in Nigeria and argues that the positive impact on welfare of removing these import bans is likely to be substantial. Their removal would undermine a major reason for cross border smuggling and pave the way for a return to normal regional trade flows. The paper shows how an Economic Partnership Agreement presents an opportunity for accelerating the reforms that are needed to support a strategy to increase regional and global trade integration. Such an agreement is more likely to have positive and significant impacts when integrated into a comprehensive strategy toward competitiveness and alleviation of the supply constraints that have stifled the impact of previous trade agreements. Key issues that should be addressed include liberalization and regulatory strengthening of services sectors to ensure that all firms in Nigeria have access to efficiently produced backbone services and initiatives to address the country s poor trade logistics performance.