ARTNeT Secretariat is happy to introduce Dr. Susan Stone, who has been appointed as Director of the ESCAP Trade and Investment Division as of June 2015. 

Dr. Stone previously served as Senior Trade Policy Analyst in the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the OECD. Her work has been published in national and international government reports as well as peer-reviewed journals. Prior to joining the OECD, she was a Senior Research Fellow at the Asian Development Bank Institute and prior to that, Research Manager at the Australian Productivity Commission.

This new database makes available bilateral value added trade costs for the goods and services sectors across 56 developed and developing economies over the years: 1995, 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2009. The value added trade costs are calculated using data from the OECD-WTO TiVA database and are based on the micro-founded gravity model of trade. Value added trade costs in the goods sector cover total trade, agriculture and manufacturing, and in the services sector cover total trade, transport and telecoms, and finance and insurance. A new working paper (see below) details construction of the dataset. The full trade cost database is available for public use on the ARTNeT website.

This new working paper uses the newly available database on value added trade costs in goods and services (see above) to analyse gross and value added trade costs in the Asia-Pacific, BRICs and selected advanced economies. It is the first study to calculate value added trade costs for a set of developed and developing economies.

The paper finds that in the goods sector and in absolute term, international trade costs calculated using value added data are lower than those calculated using gross trade and output data. In relative terms, bilateral trade costs remain broadly similar regardless of the trade data employed. Value added trade costs are declining over time and integration into global supply chains and production networks is found to be associated with lower value added trade costs. The agricultural sector is characterised by higher trade costs than in both manufacturing and services sectors. Value added trade costs are slightly higher in services than in manufacturing, although substantial cross-country heterogeneity is observed at the sub-sectoral level.

This new working paper introduces the concept of Trade in Value Added (TiVA) and presents an initial analysis of TiVA for selected regional ESCAP economies. It introduces Global Value Chains (GVCs) and issues that arise for the measurement of trade statistics because of the proliferation of GVCs. It presents the TiVA estimation methodology, as defined in the literature, and provides an overview of the data requirements for estimation. The paper concludes with a TiVA analysis of selected regional ESCAP economies that are available in the current data sources.

This new working paper outlines analyses legal, political and security concerns in the Caspian Basin. Because of its geographical setting, the Caspian is of central interest for European energy security. The EU is becoming increasingly ambitious in planning Caspian pipelines that bypass the Russian Federation’s territory. The Caspian is therefore also at a crossroads between conflicting energy and geo-strategic interests of the Russian Federation and Western Europe.

The WTO in collaboration with ARTNeT, is holding the 10th Capacity Building Workshop for Trade Research from 15-19 June 2015. The  workshop is focused on the use of applied empirical methods in analysing trade costs and trade facilitation. The hands-on workshop is providing a review of how applied econometrics, gravity models, and existing databases such as the ESCAP-World Bank Trade costs and World Bank Enterprise Surveys databases which could be used in research related to trade costs and trade facilitation.

One attendee, Mr. Sattayanuwat (Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok) summarised the event as "a comprehensive workshop which combines everything in one week." Another participant, Ms. Puspitawait (Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia) stated that "this has been a valuable experience, and has greatly enhanced my skills in gravity modelling."

CUTS  and CIRC are pleased announce  a  ‘Call  for  Papers’  for the 4th  Biennial  Competition  Regulation &  Development  Conference  2015 to be  held  on  12-13  December,  2015 in  Nairobi     (Kenya).     Interested  scholars and practitioners (working  on   Competition   and   Regulatory  reforms   from  a  developing/least  developed  country perspective) are  invited   to   submit  a  500  word  abstract    for    a    chance   to  participate  in this Conference and  present their paper. 

The abstract should be based on any  one  of the four knowledge sessions  of   the   Conference  (below)  and  submitted  to  Mr  Kshitiz Sharma (ks@cuts.org)   by  15th  June  2015  along with a brief two-page CV of the  author.  Authors are requested to mention the specific ‘Knowledge Session’ that their paper is based on while submitting the abstract.

This policy brief argues that IP Policy should highlight India’s commitment to provide an intellectual property right regime in compliance with its TRIPS obligations and, at the same time, safeguard the public interest concerns in health and education. It should also address alternative models of IP and explore innovative ways of ensuring that IP protection is granted to only genuine innovation and not to traditional knowledge or minor tinkering of existing inventions. The policy should also focus on how to make IP a tool in India’s campaign for ‘Make in India’ and also in generating more innovations that benefit the South. 

The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia's (ERIA's) 2014 Annual Report gives a picture of how the Institute has continued to support and contribute to the community building efforts of the ASEAN and the East Asia region in FY2014 through its various activities. The report summarises the Institute's research and research-related activities, events, seminars and symposia, publications, capacity building seminars, and media exposure--all geared towards responding to and anticipating the challenges faced by the region in an emerging new global environment.

If you are an ARTNeT member, partner or collaborator and would like to publicise your publications, research or events in the next newsletter (July 2015), please e-mail us at artnetontrade@un.org.