Latest content: Trade and economy

Africa’s tourism GVCs are notable for many features, including the durability of package booking channels, low domestic demand for tourism, the presence of global — rather than regional — lead firms and the corresponding implications for leakages from the local economy as well as the importance of business travel.

In the context of the African Union’s 50-year vision, Agenda 2063, this paper provides an analyti­cal account and critical assessment of Africa’s strategic trade relations with two of its most impor­tant traditional partners, the European Union and the United States; and with two of its most important emerging partners, China and India.

The world economy has undergone tremendous change during the past decade, with a range of emerging issues influencing global trade and coming to the fore in discussions among policy-makers and trade negotiators.

Leveraging the power of trade to expand formal employment opportunities, generate greater value addition, assist diversification processes and develop productive capabilities is an aspiration of all Commonwealth governments. These objectives were conveyed clearly at the Commonwealth Trade Ministers Meeting convened in March 2017.

This policy guide reviews the current regulatory frameworks, legal issues, empirical data, WTO member states proposals, and existing literature on e-commerce and digital trade. It is designed to help policy-makers in capacity-constrained Commonwealth small states, least developed countries, and sub-Saharan African countries to participate effectively in global work on the subject area, including in the context of the WTO work programme on e-commerce.

India has always had much less trade and investment with the United Kingdom (UK) than with the European Union (EU).

Very slow progress has been made in multilateral trade negotiations since the initiation of the Doha Development Round in November 2001.

The scale of the challenge posed by the recent universal adoption of the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to the achievement of economic, social and environmental objectives is formidable.

In a dynamic, rapidly liberalising and fiercely competitive international environment, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries see the pooling of their national efforts through the Caribbean Single Market and Economy as a central plank for overcoming their numerous constraints and advancing their economic growth and sustainable development. However, to succeed in the often challenging and fiercely competitive international setting, strategic and supportive external partnerships are vital. The region has therefore been exploring new relationships while it seeks to strengthen and deepen those that have existed for some time, to ensure that they make the intended contribution to helping the region achieve its goals.

This issue of Commonwealth Trade Hot Topics highlights some broad WTO-related factors that need to be considered as a post-Brexit UK reinstates the sovereignty of its trade policy.

Outsourcing – transferring a portion of an organisation’s processes to external entities – has grown significantly over the last 20 years.

This paper examines the interaction of the international fisheries trade regime, global value chains in tuna and socio-economic development in low-income Commonwealth countries.

This paper examines global value chain (GVC) activity in the Caribbean, through the lens of
newly assembled data on value added trade.

This paper examines global value chain (GVC) activity in the Pacific, through the lens of newly assembled data on value added trade.

This paper examines global value chain (GVC) activity in Sub-Saharan Africa, through the lens of newly assembled data on value added trade.

Achieving the Istanbul Programme of Action by 2020: Tracking Progress, Accelerating Transformations is the second contribution from the LDC IV Monitor – an independent partnership set up to assess the outcome of the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (UN LDC IV) with a view to accelerating the delivery of the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA).

The ‘blue economy’ is an evolving concept that recognises the need to maximise the enormous economic potential of oceans while preserving it for future generations.

The single undertaking negotiating model, whereby consensus agreement must be reached on all issues on an agenda, has led to a stalemate in the Doha Round negotiations.

The final paragraph of the ministerial declaration of the 10th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference, held in Nairobi, Kenya, created the possibility of bringing so-called ‘new issues’ to the WTO.