TY  - BOOK
AU  - Maur,Jean-Christophe
AU  - Maur,Jean-Christophe
TI  - Regionalism and Trade Facilitation: A Primer 
PY  - 2008///
CY  - Washington, D.C.
PB  - The World Bank
KW  - Border Crossing
KW  - Economies of Scale
KW  - Electronic Customs
KW  - Externalities
KW  - Free Trade
KW  - Inspection
KW  - International Economics & Trade
KW  - Law and Development
KW  - Public Sector Development
KW  - Rail
KW  - Road
KW  - Trade and Regional Integration
KW  - Trade Law
KW  - Trade Policy
KW  - Transit
KW  - Transport
KW  - Transport Economics, Policy and Planning
KW  - Trucks
N2  - This paper investigates when trade facilitation reform should be undertaken at the regional level. First, looking at both efficiency and implementation considerations, it confirms the perception that the regional dimension matters. Investigating where efficiency gains can be made, this research explains why national markets alone fail to produce the full scale economies and positive externalities of trade facilitation reform. Second, because trade facilitation policies need to address coordination and capacity failures, and because of the operational complexity challenge, the choice of the adequate platform for delivering reform is crucial. The lessons are that regional trade agreements offer good prospects of comprehensive and effective reform and can effectively complement multilateral and national initiatives. However, examples of implementation of trade facilitation reform in regional agreements do not seem to indicate that regional integration approaches have been more successful than trade facilitation through specific cooperation agreements or other efforts, multilateral or unilateral. Customs unions may be an exception here, and the author suggests reasons why this could be the case
UR  - http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596/1813-9450-4464
ER  -