Trade facilitation measures and impacts upon international trade

• Grant number: 10/18021-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: June 01, 2011
• End date: May 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics - International Economy
• Principal Investigator: Maurício Jorge Pinto de Souza
• Grantee: Maurício Jorge Pinto de Souza
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade de Ribeirão Preto (FEARP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The intensification of international trade and the trade liberalization that occurred in the last years has increased the relative importance of border procedures as a determinant of trade costs. In this context trade facilitation became increasingly important in the international political scenario, starting being discussed by the WTO at the Singapore ministerial conference of 1996. Studies on trade facilitation are still scarce, particularly those including Brazil and its trade partner's issues. Therefore, the present study aims to contribute in this direction by evaluating the effects of trade facilitation on international trade flows. More specifically we intend to: (i) define variables associated to trade facilitation; (ii) construct indexes of trade facilitation for a set of countries based on these variables; (iii) evaluate the relationship between facilitation indexes and bilateral trade pattern using the econometric estimative of a gravitational equation. The proposed study is important for developing information and statistics that turn possible the quantification of the importance of these factors related to trade facilitation, following an analytical line still in development on the international literature. (AU)