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The World Bank's 'World Trade Indicators' (WTI) database on the CD-ROM in this volume provides more than 300 performance indicators measuring at-the-border and behind-the-border country trade policy, institutions, and outcomes from 1995 to 2007. The database allows each country to be ranked by any policy or performance dimension relative to others. Trade-at-a-Glance tables for the 210 countries in the database facilitate comparisons among countries in key areas. Complementing the rich database are Trade Briefs for 142 developing countries summarizing insights from the data and the main findings of analytical work conducted by the Word Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization for individual countries.The companion volume to the 'World Trade Indicators 2008' highlights the main patterns in policy and performance revealed by the database grouping countries by region or income. The 20 best and 20 worst country rankings for a number of indicators are shown. For country policy makers, trade negotiators, and advisors, this volume provides the rich context within which to interpret a single country's standing on various dimensions. Business people will gain new insights about the countries in which they and their competitors operate. Trade researchers will find tantalizing country stories on trade policy and institutional dimensions and trade outcomes.Country performance is benchmarked in five key areas: ? Border protection, such as tariffs and nontariff barriers on imports of goods and services ? Market access barriers in the rest of the world to exports of goods ? Overall business and institutional environment ? Trade facilitation ? Trade outcomes, such as trade growth, integration, and diversification.

This paper examines whether the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) creates trade for Thailand or actually diverts it away from the country. It does this by analyzing various trade indicators: the Export Similarity Index, the Intra-Industry Trade Index, & Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) rank correlation. By examining the patterns of trade between Thailand & other members of ASEAN, it reveals a high degree of similarity regarding the trade structure between Thailand & AFTA, which indicates that there will be fewer trade-creation benefits from AFTA & a greater likelihood of trade diversion once the AFTA scheme has been fully implemented. This similarity pattern explains the reasons for future collaboration among member countries & supportive arguments for the future extension of ASEAN ("ASEAN+"). Market-penetration & development strategies should be employed by Thai exporters when accessing the ASEAN market. Adapted from the source document.

This paper examines whether the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) creates trade for Thailand or actually diverts it away from the country. It does this by analyzing various trade indicators: the Export Similarity Index, the Intra-Industry Trade Index, and Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) rank correlation. By examining the patterns of trade between Thailand and other members of ASEAN, it reveals a high degree of similarity regarding the trade structure between Thailand and AFTA, which indicates that there will be fewer trade-creation benefits from AFTA and a greater likelihood of trade diversion once the AFTA scheme has been fully implemented. This similarity pattern explains the reasons for future collaboration among member countries and supportive arguments for the future extension of ASEAN ("ASEAN+"). Market-penetration and development strategies should be employed by Thai exporters when accessing the ASEAN market. (JCSA/GIGA)

The article discussesthe structural changes in exports and imports during the transition process in Serbia. To address this issue, we calculated several indicators of the Serbian merchandise trade in the 2000-2018 period. After having computed the absolute growth of export and import and the values of intra-industry trade indices in the period under review, we compared the similarity of the export structure of Serbia and the import structure of the EU, which was used as a referent structure. To detect possible quality improvement of the Serbian trade sector, we analyzed qualitative changes of Serbia's exports (imports), through tendencies of goods at higher levels of processing, using more classifications, as such possible improvement would create important conditions for a sustainable and stronger export growth. After the calculation of trade specialization indicators, all obtained results were compared with those achieved by other Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies. The conclusion is that, despite strong Serbian export growth from 2000 to 2018 and moderate structural improvements, there are no conclusive signs of sufficient convergence to the EU import demand structure or sufficient growth of the share of goods at higher levels of processing in Serbian exports to imply the significant structural improvement of Serbia's trade, compared with CEE countries.

In examining the spillover effects of tourism receipts and the uncertainty-induced factors in Turkey, this study examines the spillover effects of tourism receipts and related sources of uncertainties from trade- and political-related factors. Using the novelty of Diebold and Yilmaz "Better to give than to receive: Predictive directional measurement of volatility spillovers" approach, the study reveals that tourism receipts have a net spillover of 4.1%, thus indicating that the country's tourism industry received a significant shock. Spillover effects from other variables are observed, thus suggesting a hedging policy mechanism for the country's tourism sector.

The recent process of the transition to market systems in the Central
European economies has had profound effects on both trade and domestic
output. Two of the by‐products of the transition, the fall in the volume
of intra‐COMECON trade as well as the deliberate tightening of the
fiscal stance in the economies of these countries, have contributed
significantly to a fall in the level of manufacturing output,
particularly in the case of the former Czechoslovakia. Examines the
implications of the behaviour of the trade account and of government
fiscal policy for the domestic manufacturing sector in former
Czechoslovakia between 1990 and 1992. Industrial restructuring was
extreme, leading to increased reliance on imports: however, the
contraction in the manufacturing sector may have kept wages pressures
and inflation low, as well as attracting foreign investment, leading to
a relatively successful transition for the Czech Republic.

Stronger regional integration has been a policy priority in Africa for several decades. Countries in Africa have committed to a process of deeper integration, but have made little progress in implementing commitments and removing barriers. This report looks at the monitoring of regional integration in Africa and argues that more effective monitoring processes for existing integration arrangements can help to raise the profile of the prevailing implementation deficits and provide policy makers and civil society with the necessary information to push for corrective action. Currently, most integration monitoring systems are scorecard-based compliance assessments. To obtain information on the impact of integration policies on ordinary traders, indicators of trade transaction costs are required. These can be indirect measures of trade volume changes or price differences, or direct estimates of the various trade cost components. The overall aim of this report is to explore indicators that capture the impact of regional policy reforms on trade transaction costs for ordinary traders, with a focus on indicators that can be linked to the implementation of specific policy measures. The report is organized as follows: section one gives introduction. Section two briefly discusses integration monitoring systems and related indicators in general. Section three presents an overview of regional trade indicators that are currently used by policy makers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Section four discusses the three main types of indicators, compliance with integration commitments, outcomes indirectly and at an aggregate level, and capturing specific trade cost components either directly or indirectly. Section five focuses on generating new indicators from new types of data sources; and section six discusses the way forward.

Cover -- A Multidimensional Approach to Trade Policy Indicators -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Selected trade policy indicators -- 3. Assessing trade policy based on the indicators: A visual aid -- 4. On the evolution of trade regimes -- 5. The diversity of trade policy -- 6. Data gaps -- 7. Concluding remarks.