Publication: Trade Competitiveness of the Middle East and North Africa : Policies for Export Diversification
Date
2010
ISSN
Published
2010
Author(s)
Lopez-Calix, Jose R.
Walkenhorst, Peter
Diop, Ndiame
Abstract
International trade was deeply affected
by the global financial and economic crisis. Mimicking
worldwide trends, imports from and exports to the Middle
East and North Africa dropped significantly in 2009. This
sudden decline in global trade should not divert attention
away from four major developments in global economic
integration that have shaped the region's trade
policies and performance over the past decade: the emergence
of global supply chains, the growth of trade in services,
the rise of China and India as major international trading
powers, and regional integration. The first development is
the rise of global production networks in which different
stages of the production of a single good occur at different
locations. As a result of this development, consumer
products often contain parts, components, and inputs from a
large number of countries. The second major trend relates to
trade in services. With the wave of liberalization and of
information and communications-related technological
developments, off-shoring in services such as back-office
work processes, call center operations, medical
transcription, accounting, and legal research has boomed.
India is a good example of a country that has hugely
benefited from this trend. The third important development
is the emergence of China and India as new trade,
innovation, and growth poles alongside the United States and
Europe. The fourth development is the increase in regional
and preferential trade agreements, which have been
proliferating, not least because progress in multilateral
trade negotiations under the auspices of the World Trade
Organization has been slow. Integration with selected
partners can help countries reap benefits from international
integration while avoiding the large-scale adjustment needs
that are often associated with broader-based trade reforms.
The Middle East and North Africa comprises countries that
are resource-poor but labor-abundant, resource-rich and
labor-abundant, and resource-rich and labor-importing, each
displaying its own idiosyncrasies. The eleven chapters of
this volume examine the region's trade policy reforms
and performance by focusing on the four key developments in
international trade, with a twist. Instead of examining
production chains as such, the volume focuses on export
diversification (part one), a major development challenge in
the region, especially for oil exporters. It then explores
services trade (part two), the relations with China and
India (part three), and regional integration (part four).
Citation
“Lopez-Calix, Jose R.; Walkenhorst, Peter; Diop, Ndiame. 2010. Trade Competitiveness of the Middle
East and North Africa : Policies for Export Diversification. Directions in Development ; trade. © World Bank. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/2466 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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