July 18, 2008 — World Bank Institute (WBI) Lead Economist Gianni Zanini talked about the newly launched World Trade Indicators (WTI) 2008 at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore. The WTI is an interactive tool designed to benchmark a country’s trade policy and institutions and help policy makers, advisors, and analysts identify the main border and behind-the border constraints to trade integration. Drawing from international databases as well as some new measures of trade policy and performance, the user-friendly WTI database makes it possible for the first time to rank countries and compare their performance on all policy and institutional dimensions, namely trade policy, the external environment, institutions and business climate, and trade facilitation, that economists believe affect trade and export performance. 
 
Mr. Zanini presented several key findings of the report during his discussion with a selected audience at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS). The report shows that in 2007, most countries have continued to improve policies and institutions supporting trade integration in the global economy. The report also shows that countries that have the best policies and institutions tend to have stronger and more consistent trade and export performance. Tariff protection, with or without the inclusion of preferences, has fallen in all regions and income groups from the mid-1990s to 2007. In low income countries, it fell by over 45%, while high income countries still have lowest averages. However, high-income countries have higher nontariff barriers, greater tariff escalation and dispersion, and much higher maximum tariffs than low-income countries. These barriers are especially high in areas of export interest to developing countries, especially agriculture and garments. According to the report, barriers to services trade are still high, especially in low-income but also in middle income countries. Over the past decade, countries with lower barriers have tended to have stronger, more consistent trade and export performance. 
 
Mr. Zanini also highlighted some of the findings of the publication as it relates to Singapore.  Among the highlights, Singapore has the best overall trade policy regime.  This is due to its a virtually duty free tariff schedule.  However, he also noted Singapore’s substantial tariffs on some agricultural imports, as well as its weak services trade liberalization commitments.  The report shows that countries with good institutional environments, such as Singapore, tend to have a higher share of manufactures in their goods exports, have lower export concentration, and tend to be more integrated in the world economy.

You can read Mr. Zanini's presentation (1.65mb ppt) and access the WTI 2008 interactive tool.

About Gianni Zanini

Mr. Zanini leads the WBI’s trade team, working on capacity building and external training programs in trade policy reform, and in the multilateral, regional and bilateral trade agreements and negotiations.  He has more than 21 years experience at the World Bank, first as a country economist and then as an evaluator of the performance of adjustment operations and country assistance programs.