Trade And Trade Facilitation In The Greater Mekong Subregion

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Program, with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other development partners, has scored impressive gains in promoting regional connectivity over the past 2 decades. Efforts have also been made to strengthen institutions and policies for trade and transport facilitation to increase the impact of the regional physical infrastructure. This book, prepared under an ADB technical assistance project financed by the Australian Agency for International Development, brings together studies highlighting deeper, structural challenges to trade facilitation in the GMS, including need for governance and bureaucratic reforms, trade competitiveness, and improved alignment of the regional corridors to trade flows. Importance of greater synergy between subregional and regional platforms for trade facilitation, for example between the GMS and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is also highlighted. The analyses should be of interest to development practitioners working to improve trade and transport facilitation in the GMS, elsewhere in Asia, and in the rest of the world.

Trade facilitation of agri-food products can potentially reduce trade barriers, lower transaction costs, foster efficiency along the supply chains, and reduce poverty in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). A comprehensive analysis of a range of policy options that influence trade behaviors of selected agri-food products in the GMS will help policy makers in their decision making. This agriculture trade facilitation plan lays out systematic ways to increase movement and flow of agri-food products and their impacts on the GMS sector. It proposes that the GMS adopt a cluster approach to trade facilitation and develop itself into regional hubs of agri-food trade.

About trade facilitation in Cambodia, China, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam

Trade facilitation increases trade flows, lowers trade cost, and ultimately contributes to sustainable and inclusive growth. This publication, jointly prepared by the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, reviews the state of play of trade facilitation and paperless trade in Asia and the Pacific. It investigates the evolution of trade costs in the region, examines trade facilitation and paperless trade implementation, and highlights the key initiatives and efforts in Central Asia, the Greater Mekong Subregion, South Asia, and the Pacific. It includes impact assessments of trade facilitation implementation and corridor performance on reducing trade costs and increasing trade.

This training module highlights the central contribution of services to development and the role of trade and investment liberalization and effective regulation in key service sectors. It distills a number of policy- and rule-making insights arising from the practice of trade and investment liberalization in services at both the multilateral and preferential levels, with particular focus on negotiating issues and sectoral challenges emerging in the Greater Mekong Subregion.

To promote smoother flows of goods across borders while reducing trade costs, this report explores an integrated approach to facilitating trade and transport across Asia and the Pacific, for better engagement in value chains. The report examines the current state of trade and transport facilitation, analyzes gaps in the available guidance, and provides strategic recommendations. It includes a framework for the assessment of trade readiness at national and subnational levels and illustrates its implementation through case studies of Cambodia and Thailand. The report aims to help governments boost the region's recovery from COVID-19 disruption by making cross-border trading and transport arrangements more efficient and more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable.