This publication was prepared in order to respond to several of the LDC members of ESCAP and to assist them in preparing to position their trade-related development interests through the upcoming MC12. Considering the state of affairs in the global economy and the weakening confidence in the multilateral solutions, the present publication focuses on four issues. First, it presents some of the key developments that form the global scenario and which have important implications for the LDCs as they prepare their stance for the next Ministerial Conference.

This is the 'Gravity Model of International Trade: A User Guide' (R version) prepared by Ben Shepherd, with R code written by Hrisyana Doytchinova and Alexey Kravchenko.

Foreign investment has been and still is an important factor for the economic development of many countries, especially developing countries. Transnational investment activities bring about the needed capital and technology to the host states, but they may also give rise to sustainable development concerns, such as environmental and labour rights concerns. To many developing countries, such concerns could be particularly profound. 

A proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs)  has been witnessed across the world but also in the Asia-Pacific region, which has contributed to its trade-driven growth. Indeed, over the last three decades,  the Asia-Pacific region has experienced export-oriented development, with economic growth closely linked to a reduction in poverty levels. This has increasingly occurred through improved integration into regional and global value and supply chains, which has been central to Asian growth.

The drafting of the Handbook on negotiating development oriented intellectual property provisions in trade and investment agreements (Handbook here forth) was guided by the objective of supporting Asia and the Pacific economies in reaching successful and sustainable outcomes in trade agreement negotiations that involve intellectual property. To accomplish this objective, this Handbook first introduces the multilateral intellectual property system and explains the trends for additional intellectual property protection in international trade and investment agreements.

In 2014, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) decided to launch and finance a research and capacity-building project on economic integration within ASEAN. More specifically, the project was aimed at dealing with the specific problems that the four less prosperous countries of ASEAN (i.e., Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam, collectively known as the CLMV group) would have to cope with in the context of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which was to be fully realized by the end of 2015.

Among the most notable recent developments in the trading environment of the Asia-Pacific region has been the proliferation of preferential trading arrangements (PTAs). Many of the agreements are bilateral, involving small, developing Asia-Pacific economies partnering with other similar economies, and in some cases with the major economic powerhouses (Japan, United States, and China). A number of very large trade agreements, involving multiple economies in the region, are also under consideration.

The gravity model is the workhorse of the applied international trade literature. It has been used in literally thousands of research papers and published articles covering all areas of trade. It is of particular interest to policy researchers because it makes it possible to estimate the trade impacts of various trade-related policies, from traditional tariffs to new “behind-the-border” measures.

This report deals with land concessions in Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Thailand – a much contended topic which leads discussants from issues such as land ownership and utilization to social structures, human rights and beyond. Overall, this report aims to examine changes in relative competitiveness in selected tradable commodities of Thailand and whether they are impacted through increases of land concession in selected countries in the subregion.