On Planning for Development: Trade and Development Reports (TADR):
Trade and Development Report
2002
Developing countries in
world trade
The standard advice to developing countries
experiencing difficulties in promoting primary
sector exports is to move to labour-intensive
manufacturing. Such a strategy is advocated on a
number of grounds. First, since labour is in more
plentiful supply in most developing countries than
natural resources, there is more scope for expanding
production based on labour than on natural
resources. This proposition, which draws on the
traditional theory of comparative advantage,
is probably valid for most developing countries
outside Africa; in that region comparative advantage
lies more in natural resources (TDR 1998,
Part Two, chap. IV). Second, it is easier to upgrade
to technology- and capital-intensive activities
and to supply-dynamic products from low-skill,
labour-intensive manufacturing than from primary
production. Again, this is generally correct. However,
the evidence surveyed in chapter III shows
that many of the developing countries involved in
the labour-intensive segments of international production
networks have not been able to make much
progress in graduating to more sophisticated
manufactures. The third reason posited in favour
of labour-intensive manufacturing activities is that
demand for these products is more stable than the
demand for primary products. Again, the evidence
reviewed in the previous chapter, on the volatility
of export values of products around their longerterm
trends and on the behaviour of export and
import prices of the United States, confirms the
validity of this proposition. However, it is also
true that in recent years a number of manufactures,
notably in computers and electronics, have
shown extreme volatility, causing serious disruptions
in the export earnings and external payments
of a number of developing economies in
East Asia.
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text here
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Table of
contents
Foreword |
Overview |
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Overview [PDF,
12pp., 56KB] |
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Part
One
Global Trends and Prospects |
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Chapter
I
The World Economy: Performance and prospects |
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A. |
Introduction |
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B. |
Developed
economies |
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C. |
International
trade, financial flows and developing countries |
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D. |
Economic
prospects |
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Chapter
II
The Multilateral Trading System After Doha |
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A. |
Introduction |
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B. |
Background
to Doha: developing countries in the GATT/WTO system |
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C. |
Doha
and the new WTO work programme |
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D. |
Conclusions:
beyond Doha |
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Part
Two
Developing Countries in World Trade |
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Chapter
III
Export Dynamism and Industrialization in Developing
Countries |
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A. |
Introduction |
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B. |
Dynamic
products in trade expansion in different products |
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C. |
Factors
contributing to trade expansion in different products |
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D. |
Export
dynamism and the potential for productivity growth |
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E. |
Variations
among developing countries |
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F. |
Exports,
industrialization and growth |
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G. |
Conclusions |
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Chapter
III [PDF, 37pp., 1,067KB] |
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Chapter
III Annexes [PDF, 25pp., 282KB] |
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Chapter
IV
Competition and the fallacy of composition |
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A. |
The
issues at stake |
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B. |
The
terms of trade of developing country exports: a review
of the evidence |
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C. |
Competition
in world markets for labour-intensive manufactures |
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D. |
Skill
profile of world trade and shifts in competitiveness |
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E. |
Tariff
barriers to exports of labour-intensive manufactures |
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F. |
Policy
responses |
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Chapter
IV [PDF, 29pp., 449KB] |
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Chapter
V
China´s accession to WTO: Managing integration and
industrialization |
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A. |
Introduction |
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B. |
Accession:
changes in Chins´a import regime |
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C. |
Industrial
structure, trade and employment |
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D. |
Trade
prospects |
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E. |
Conclusions:
managing integration |
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Chapter
V [PDF, 29pp., 135KB] |
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Part
II of the report (one file) [PDF, 126pp. 3.2MB] |
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Back to Trade and Development Reports (various years)
UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics:
2002 -
2003
-
2004 -
2005 -
2006/07
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World Investment Reports (WIR)
World Investment Reports (selected
statistics)
Digital
library of UNCTAD, CD-Roms and on-line data sources
UNCTAD X: documents and papers
|
UNCTAD investment brief, No. 1, 2007, Foreign
direct investment surged again in 2006 (UNCTAD/ITE/IIA/MISC/2007/2)
01/02/07, 2 Pages, 58 Kb
Transport Newsletter, No. 34, Fourth Quarter
2006 (UNCTAD/SDTE/TLB/2006/5)
31/01/07, 21 Pages, 466 Kb
World economic situation and prospects 2007 (WESP/2007)
Sales no.: E.07.II.C.2
01/01/07, 177 Pages, 1913 Kb
UNCTAD investment brief BRIEF, No. 5, 2006, Top TNCs
present in 40 host countries on average (UNCTAD/WEB/ITE/IIA/2006/10)
01/12/06, 2 Pages, 55 Kb
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