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291. India’s Future in Asia: The APEC Opportunity

Author:
Harsha Singh and Anuphav Gupta
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
At a time of slowing global economic growth, the international community needs to fully tap all the sources of new dynamism and demand available in the world today. India, the world’s fastest-expanding major economy, holds the potential to shore up growth in both the Asia- Pacific region and globally. For that potential to be realized, however, India’s domestic reforms and integration with the Asian and world economies need to progress more rapidly. The advent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement offers much hope of reinvigorating trade growth in the Asia-Pacific region once it comes into force, but the TPP does not include India. The first and necessary step toward greater Indian participation in Asian trade and investment flows is membership in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. It is a step whose time has come, for India, for APEC, and for the international economy.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
India

292. India and APEC: Charting a Path to Membership

Author:
Anubhav Gupta
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
India’s membership in APEC would mitigate two significant problems: 1) India’s relatively poor integration into the global economy; and 2) the emergence of a divisive trade agenda in the Asia-Pacific. This issue brief outlines these challenges and highlights the obstacles and opportunities related to India’s inclusion in APEC. It concludes that this is the right time to start considering India’s membership in the forum and that a strategy is needed to chart a pathway for the country’s eventual accession to APEC.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
India

293. Feasibility study on the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) between Azerbaijan and the European Union

Author:
Cristina Juan Carrion and Leman Orujova
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for Economic and Social Development (CESD)
Abstract:
The trade relations between Azerbaijan and the European Union are a substantial part of enhancing economic and political relations among both parties. Recent years have been characterized by an expansion of the trade volume between two parties; the EU turned out to be Azerbaijan’s biggest trade partner, in terms of both imports and exports. Moreover, trade in services and foreign direct investment relations were also on rise. On the other hand, Azerbaijan is one of the main energy suppliers of the European Union among European Neighborhood countries and is a key partner to guarantee energy security.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Azerbaijan

294. Aligning to 2020: How the FP2020 Core Partners Can Work Better, Together

Author:
Rachel Silverman and Amanda Glassman
Publication Date:
11-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
In July 2012, world leaders gathered in London to support the right of women and girls to make informed and autonomous choices about whether, when, and how many children they want to have. There, low income-country governments and donors committed to a new partnership—Family Planning 2020 (FP2020). FP2020 set an aspirational goal—120 million additional users of voluntary, high-quality family planning services by 2020—and received commitments totaling $4.6 billion in additional funding. Since then, the focus countries involved in the FP2020 partnership have made significant progress. Yet as FP2020 reaches its halfway point, and new, even more ambitious goals are set as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, gains fall short of aspirations. The midpoint of the FP2020 initiative is thus an important inflection point, offering an opportunity for family planning funders and the FP2020 partnership more broadly to take stock of progress, to reflect on the lessons of the past four years, to refine funding and accountability mechanisms, and to reallocate existing resources for greater impact. Of course, the primary responsibility for expanding contraceptive access falls squarely on country governments. Nonetheless, donor contributions play an important role. With the goal of reaching as many women and girls as possible by 2020 and an eye toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the Center for Global Development (CGD) convened a working group on donor alignment in family planning in fall 2015 to see how scarce donor resources could go farther to accelerate family planning gains. As the final product of the working group, the report analyzes the successes and limitations of family planning alignment to date, with a focus on procurement, cross-country and in-country resource allocation, incentives, and accountability mechanisms, and makes recommendations for next steps.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Population, and International Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

295. Multilateral Development Banking for this Century's Development Challenges: Five Recommendations to Shareholders of the Old and New Multilateral Development Banks

Author:
Nancy Birdsall and Scott Morris
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The multilateral development banks (MDBs) emerged as one of the international community’s great success stories of the post–World War II era. Set up to address a market failure in long-term capital flows to post-conflict Europe and developing countries, they combined financial heft and technical knowledge for more than five decades to support their borrowing members’ investments in post-conflict reconstruction, growth stimulation, and poverty reduction. However, the geo-economic landscape has changed dramatically in this century, and with it the demands and needs of the developing world. Developing countries now make up half of the global economy. The capital market failure that originally motivated the MDBs is less acute. Almost all developing countries now rely primarily on domestic resources to manage public investment, and some of the poorest countries can borrow abroad on their own. Similarly, growth and the globalization of professional expertise on development practice have eroded whatever near-monopoly of advisory services the MDBs once had. At the same time, new challenges call for global collective action and financing of the sort the MDBs are well suited to provide but have been handicapped in doing so effectively. The list goes beyond major financial shocks, where the IMF’s role is clear—ranging from climate change, pandemic risk, increasing resistance to antibiotics, and poor management of international migration flows and of displaced and refugee populations. Other areas include the cross-border security and spillovers associated with growing competition for water and other renewable natural resources, and, with climate change, an increase in the frequency and human costs of weather and other shocks in low-income countries that are poorly equipped to respond.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance and International Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

296. Financial Regulations for Improving Financial Inclusion

Author:
Stijn Claessens and Liliana Rojas-Suarez
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
As recently as 2011, only 42 percent of adult Kenyans had a financial account of any kind; by 2014, according to the Global Findex, database that number had risen to 75 percent. [1] In sub­Saharan Africa, the share of adults with financial accounts rose by nearly half over the same period. Many other developing countries have also recorded gains in access to basic financial services. Much of this progress is being facilitated by the digital revolution of recent decades, which has led to the emergence of new financial services and new delivery channels. Whereas payment services often are the entry point into using formal financial services, they are not the only low­cost and widely accessible financial services being delivered in recent years. Driven by advances in new digital payment services, small­scale credit and new modes for delivering insurance services are being offered in several developing countries. Digital (payment) records are being used to make decisions about provision of credit to small businesses or individuals who do not have traditional collateral or credit history to secure loans. Additionally, affordable mobile systems have led to the provision of new and innovative financial services that would not be economically sustainable under the traditional brick­and­mortar model such as mobile­based crop microinsurance in sub­Saharan Africa and pay­as­you­go energy delivery models for off­grid customers in India, Peru, and Tanzania. [2] Increased access to basic financial services, especially payments services, by larger segments of the population reflects the growing use of digital technologies in developing countries. Simultaneously, the adoption of proper regulation based on country­specific opportunities, needs and conditions has been critical.
Topic:
International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Financial Markets
Political Geography:
Global Focus

297. Capital Flows to Emerging Market Economies: Feast or Famine Forever?

Author:
Malcolm D. Knight
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The past 20 years have witnessed a profound change in the types of non-resident investors who provide funding to emerging market economies (EMEs) and the nancial instruments through which emerging market (EM) corporations borrow from abroad. Until the beginning of the new millennium, private capital ows to EMEs were mainly intermediated by large global banks, and EMEs were subjected to massive volatility in their external payments balances, exchange rates and domestic nancial systems. But since the early 2000s the role of bank- intermediated credit has declined, as the base of investors willing to take on exposure to EM corporate debt has become much larger and more diverse. These structural changes have encouraged a vast growth in ows of funds, not only from the mature economies to EMEs as a group, but also among EMEs themselves.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

298. The European Union and Investor-State Dispute Settlement: From Investor-State Arbitration to a Permanent Investment Court

Author:
August Reinisch
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Since the transfer of foreign direct investment powers from the European Union member states to the European Union itself in the 2009 Treaty of Lisbon, the European Commission, the main external trade actor for the European Union, has started to negotiate international investment agreements as well as investment chapters in enlarged free trade agreements (FTAs). Both contain substantive protection standards and enforcement mechanisms in case of disputes, usually both state–state and investor–state arbitration (ISA). With regard to the latter, it was unclear whether the European Commission, the European Union’s experienced World Trade Organization (WTO) litigator, would continue to use the interstate template of trade disputes or venture into ISA. After an initial orientation period, the European Commission rmly endorsed ISA, as demonstrated by the negotiations with Canada on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and with the United States on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Meanwhile, however, public opposition to the TTIP, and to ISA in particular, has formed in unexpected dimensions. It even led the European Commission to partially interrupt its trade negotiations with the United States in order to conduct a public consultation on the investment aspects of the TTIP. Ever since, ISA has remained one of the most controversial parts of the planned trade agreements. Most recently, the European Commission tabled a TTIP proposal to set up a permanent investment court that would replace the system of ad hoc ISA. This paper analyzes in detail the development of the European Union’s position toward the use of ISA as a means for settling investor-state disputes.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
European Union

299. Risks of a Selective Approach to Investor-State Arbitration

Author:
Hugo Perezcano
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Investor-state arbitration (ISA) has been a controversial topic and a source of criticism and debate for quite some time. Yet, it continues to be a standard feature of modern international investment agreements (IIAs). While opposition to ISA has traditionally come from certain sectors of civil society, there appears to be a growing discomfort now among states as well. Some critics suggest that ISA is unnecessary and should be left out of IIAs altogether. Others argue that it may be needed in IIAs between developed nations that are mostly capital exporters, on the one hand, and developing countries that require foreign capital to promote development, on the other, but that it is unwarranted in IIAs that developed countries enter into among themselves. They reason that developed countries have robust legal frameworks and institutions, including responsive judiciaries, that adequately protect private investment and, therefore, ISA can safely be omitted from such IIAs without any detriment to foreign investors or their investments. This paper addresses some of the aws in the arguments that have been advanced in support of this position, as well as some of its implications, especially the reaction that might be expected from developing countries if developed countries were to back away from ISA in their dealings with other developed nations but continue to demand its inclusion in their agreements with developing countries.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

300. The New Investment Tribunal under Chapter 8 of CETA

Author:
Marc Lalonde
Publication Date:
05-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
I have rarely seen, in my long life, a change as unjustified as the one represented by the new investment tribunal structure now found in the agreed text of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union. First of all, it is a poor solution based on a faulty premise. It is the result of an ill-informed but obviously effective campaign by mainly European lobbies[1] and some groups in the European Parliament, which have argued, without proper quantitative or qualitative support, that the present system is biased in favour of foreign investors. If this were the case, how can they explain that, according to the latest statistics from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), only 46 percent of all ICSID awards upheld (in part or in full) investors’ claims, while 53 percent of the claims were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction or on the merits, and another one percent were rejected as manifestly without legal merit.[2] Similarly, in its 2014 World Investment Report, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) came to the conclusion that, out of 274 concluded investment treaty cases in 2013, 43 percent were decided in favour of the state, 31 percent in favour of the investor and 26 percent were settled.[3]
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus