Trading without Doha

Still upset about the failure of the latest round of Doha talks? Don't worry - there are still many ways to improve the outlook for international trade. You can take Simeon Djankov's advice over on the Doing Business blog and reduce the delays related to trade. Or, according to a new World Bank working paper, you could make trade more transparent. In Governance, Corruption, and Trade in the Asia Pacific Region, authors Kazutomo Abe and John S. Wilson estimate huge gains for trade and GDP due to reforms that improve transparency:

[T]he reforming economies in APEC stand to benefit significantly in regard to GDP and welfare gains with the type of reform we examine here. In particular, Vietnam could expect an increase in real GDP by more than 30 percent in Case 1. Russia, Philippines and Thailand’s GDP and welfare would rise substantially, as well. The benefits to Malaysia and China would be almost one year’s growth. The estimated global benefits here with transparency reform, US$406 billion in Case 1 and US$290 billion in Case 2 in the 2006 prices are larger than those reported in previous work on trade facilitation.