IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/wtowps/ersd201107.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

"Expect the unexpected"? LDC GATS commitments as internationally credible policy indicators? The example of Mali

Author

Listed:
  • Honeck, Dale

Abstract

There is a stark contrast between the ambitious investment promotion efforts of many least developed countries (LDCs) and their often minimal commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Service (GATS). At a time of urgent need to address domestic infrastructure and investment gaps, this situation cannot be a positive signal for investors (either domestic or foreign), and may be a missed opportunity to address services aspects of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). LDCs often lack internationally credible mechanisms for making commitments, which contributes to their evident difficulty in attracting the more employment-generating types of investment that could bring greater opportunities for poverty alleviation. Considering that most LDCs, under domestic laws, have already opened a wide range of services sectors to foreign direct investment (FDI), there may be an opportunity to enhance the international consistency and credibility of LDC investment promotion efforts by making GATS commitments, while preserving substantial policy space with regard to the actual status quo. While reforms to domestic regulations are undoubtedly of greater importance to attracting FDI, GATS commitments, including partial commitments, can be used to publicize LDC investment priorities in services (such as attracting new businesses, encouraging joint ventures and technology transfer, etc.), and make them legally binding internationally. Offers to make new GATS commitments can further be used as bargaining chips in the current Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations. Mali has been selected as a case study, due to the fact that trade and investment policies are clearly and consistently documented.

Suggested Citation

  • Honeck, Dale, 2011. ""Expect the unexpected"? LDC GATS commitments as internationally credible policy indicators? The example of Mali," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2011-07, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wtowps:ersd201107
    DOI: 10.30875/3b833310-en
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/57576/1/66017927X.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.30875/3b833310-en?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Honeck, Dale, 2008. "LDC Poverty Alleviation and the Doha Development Agenda: is tourism being neglected?," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2008-03, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    2. Elizabeth Asiedu, 2006. "Foreign Direct Investment in Africa: The Role of Natural Resources, Market Size, Government Policy, Institutions and Political Instability," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 63-77, January.
    3. Adlung, Rudolf, 2009. "Services liberalization from a WTO/GATS perspective: In search of volunteers," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2009-05, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    4. Gootiiz, Batshur & Mattoo, Aaditya, 2009. "Services in Doha : what's on the table ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4903, The World Bank.
    5. Paul Collier, 0. "International Political Economy: Some African Applications," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 17(suppl_1), pages -139.
    6. Panagiotis Delimatsis, 2007. "Due Process and 'Good' Regulation Embedded in the GATS -- Disciplining Regulatory Behaviour in Services Through Article VI of the GATS," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(1), pages 13-50, March.
    7. Jean-Jacques Hallaert, 2010. "Increasing the Impact of Trade Expansion on Growth: Lessons from Trade Reforms for the Design of Aid for Trade," OECD Trade Policy Papers 100, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Honeck, Dale & Akhtar, Md. Shoaib, 2014. "Achieving Bangladesh's tourism potential: Linkages to export diversification, employment generation and the "green economy"," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2014-15, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    2. Honeck, Dale, 2012. "LDC export diversification, employment generation and the "green economy": What roles for tourism linkages?," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2012-24, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Honeck, Dale, 2012. "LDC export diversification, employment generation and the "green economy": What roles for tourism linkages?," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2012-24, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    2. Adlung, Rudolf, 2009. "Trade in healthcare and health insurance services: The GATS as a supporting actor (?)," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2009-15, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    3. Akhtaruzzaman, Muhammad & Berg, Nathan & Lien, Donald, 2017. "Confucius Institutes and FDI flows from China to Africa," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 241-252.
    4. Muhammad Akhtaruzzaman & Shaohua Yang & Azizah Omar, 2018. "Are Resource-Rich Countries More Attractive than Countries with Good Institutions to Foreign Direct Investors in Sub-Saharan Africa?," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(6), pages 65-74, June.
    5. Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2010. "Services Trade and Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 642-692, September.
    6. Godwin Okafor & Jenifer Piesse & Allan Webster, 2017. "FDI Determinants in Least Recipient Regions: The Case of Sub†Saharan Africa and MENA," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 29(4), pages 589-600, December.
    7. Blessing Chiripanhura & Miguel Niño‐Zarazúa, 2015. "Aid, Political Business Cycles and Growth in Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(8), pages 1387-1421, November.
    8. Simplice A. Asongu & Uchenna R. Efobi & Ibukun Beecroft, 2021. "Aid in Modulating the Impact of Terrorism on FDI: No Positive Thresholds, No Policy," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(4), pages 432-456, October.
    9. Liu, Haiyun & Islam, Mollah Aminul & Khan, Muhammad Asif & Hossain, Md Ismail & Pervaiz, Khansa, 2020. "Does financial deepening attract foreign direct investment? Fresh evidence from panel threshold analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    10. Birgitte Grøgaard & Asmund Rygh & Gabriel R. G. Benito, 2019. "Bringing corporate governance into internalization theory: State ownership and foreign entry strategies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(8), pages 1310-1337, October.
    11. Cantner, Uwe & Günther, Jutta & Hassan, Sohaib Shahzad & Jindra, Björn, 2013. "Outward FDI from the Central and Eastern European Transition Economies – A Discrete Choice Analysis of Location Choice within the European Union," MPRA Paper 51817, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 Jun 2013.
    12. Alexander Klemm & Stefan Parys, 2012. "Empirical evidence on the effects of tax incentives," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(3), pages 393-423, June.
    13. Tidiane KINDA, 2010. "Increasing Private Capital Flows To Developing Countries: The Role Of Physical And Financial Infrastructure In 58 Countries, 1970-2003," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 10(2).
    14. Uchenna Efobi & Simplice Asongu & Ibukun Beecroft, 2018. "Aid, Terrorism, and Foreign Direct Investment: Empirical Insight Conditioned on Corruption Control," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 610-630, October.
    15. Songfeng, Cai & Yaxiong, Zhang & Bo, Meng, 2014. "The Impact Analysis of TTIP on BRICs—based on dynamic GTAP model considering GVC," Conference papers 332528, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    16. Federico Carril-Caccia & Juliette Milgram-Baleix & Jordi Paniagua, 2019. "Foreign Direct Investment in oil-abundant countries: The role of institutions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-23, April.
    17. Shah, Mumtaz Hussain & Azam, Ayesha, 2018. "Financial Development and Investors Location Choice in The Arab World," MPRA Paper 107245, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Michael Kofi Hanson (M.Phil), 2024. "Effect of Foreign Direct Investment on Economic Growth: The Role of Natural Resources and Trade Openness in Ghana," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(3), pages 1347-1361, March.
    19. Patrick Ssekitoleko & Ifeanyi Mbukanma, 2022. "Advancing the Growth of Foreign Direct Investment Equity Inflow Amid Covid-19 Pandemic: An Exploratory Study of South Africa Context," Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Richtmann Publishing Ltd, vol. 11, November.
    20. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2020. "Trade Openness and Diversification of External Financial Flows for Development: An Empirical Analysis," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 9(1), pages 22-57, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    LDCs; GATS; FDI; policy credibility; MDGs; policy space; Mali; Africa; investment promotion; poverty alleviation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General
    • L90 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - General
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations
    • O24 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Trade Policy; Factor Movement; Foreign Exchange Policy
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa
    • P45 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - International Linkages

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:wtowps:ersd201107. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wtoerch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.