Preferential trading arrangements involving developing and developed countries are proliferating.... more Preferential trading arrangements involving developing and developed countries are proliferating. These are both difficult to assess and call on scarce analytical and negotiating resources particularly but not only in developing countries. The Sussex Framework, developed with DFID support, is designed to cut through these difficulties. It is a logical framework which allows the user to set out the elements of any particular proposed agreement in a clear, rigorous and consistent way, derive a set of diagnostic statistics from readily available trade and trade barriers databases and use them to assess a set of policy ‘rules of thumb’ which will allow an over all judgement on the likely balance of economic welfare effects to be drawn. The framework deals with both shallow integration (removing border barriers) and deep integration (facilitating trade by dealing with trade-impeding factors operating behind the frontier); all in a way designed to make parsimonious use of scarce analytica...
In the aftermath of the debate on trade and “collective preferences” launched by Pascal Lamy in 2... more In the aftermath of the debate on trade and “collective preferences” launched by Pascal Lamy in 2004, this paper considers a proposal for non-product related production process measures developed within the European Parliament, which involved surcharges on the imports of products produced in ways which do not satisfy the EU’s rules mainly but not exclusively for agricultural commodities and in particular on animal welfare. The proposal called “Qualified Market Access” would also have made the revenues from surcharges available to exporting countries to finance compliance. This paper discusses the philosophy behind this specific proposal to qualify market access and address consumer preferences and competitiveness concerns, as identified in a number of other actual and proposed measures, including the ban on seal fur imports into the EU and the ensuing challenge to this measure in the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. The paper contends that it cannot be ruled out that such a measure woul...
We examine the impact of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA... more We examine the impact of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) on government procurement practices in the European Union (EU). We analyse empirically whether the WTO GPA is effective in promoting non-discriminatory, open, transparent, competitive, and cost-effective government procurement. To study this question, we use a unique data set recently released by the EU, covering more than three million tenders conducted in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and Macedonia during the years 2006–2016. We find that the WTO GPA promotes competition by increasing the probability of awarding a contract to a foreign firm. In addition, the WTO GPA significantly lowers corruption risk by decreasing the number of contracts with single bidders, and by decreasing total number of wins by a single firm. Finally, the WTO GPA fosters cost-effective public procurement by lowering the probability that the procurement price is higher than estimated cost.
1. A streamlined business registration system pilot in Entebbe Uganda reduced compliance costs fo... more 1. A streamlined business registration system pilot in Entebbe Uganda reduced compliance costs for enterprises by 75 percent, raised registration numbers and fee revenues by some 40 percent while reducing the cost of administering the system. 2. The pilot reduced opportunities for corruption and resulted in improved relations between business and the local authority. 3. The implementation of the policy changes required evidence-based advocacy and the establishment of close working relationships between the project team and the local authorities.
Preferential trading arrangements involving developing and developed countries are proliferating.... more Preferential trading arrangements involving developing and developed countries are proliferating. These are both difficult to assess and call on scarce analytical and negotiating resources particularly but not only in developing countries. The Sussex Framework, developed with DFID support, is designed to cut through these difficulties. It is a logical framework which allows the user to set out the elements of any particular proposed agreement in a clear, rigorous and consistent way, derive a set of diagnostic statistics from readily available trade and trade barriers databases and use them to assess a set of policy ‘rules of thumb’ which will allow an over all judgement on the likely balance of economic welfare effects to be drawn. The framework deals with both shallow integration (removing border barriers) and deep integration (facilitating trade by dealing with trade-impeding factors operating behind the frontier); all in a way designed to make parsimonious use of scarce analytica...
In the aftermath of the debate on trade and “collective preferences” launched by Pascal Lamy in 2... more In the aftermath of the debate on trade and “collective preferences” launched by Pascal Lamy in 2004, this paper considers a proposal for non-product related production process measures developed within the European Parliament, which involved surcharges on the imports of products produced in ways which do not satisfy the EU’s rules mainly but not exclusively for agricultural commodities and in particular on animal welfare. The proposal called “Qualified Market Access” would also have made the revenues from surcharges available to exporting countries to finance compliance. This paper discusses the philosophy behind this specific proposal to qualify market access and address consumer preferences and competitiveness concerns, as identified in a number of other actual and proposed measures, including the ban on seal fur imports into the EU and the ensuing challenge to this measure in the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. The paper contends that it cannot be ruled out that such a measure woul...
We examine the impact of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA... more We examine the impact of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) on government procurement practices in the European Union (EU). We analyse empirically whether the WTO GPA is effective in promoting non-discriminatory, open, transparent, competitive, and cost-effective government procurement. To study this question, we use a unique data set recently released by the EU, covering more than three million tenders conducted in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and Macedonia during the years 2006–2016. We find that the WTO GPA promotes competition by increasing the probability of awarding a contract to a foreign firm. In addition, the WTO GPA significantly lowers corruption risk by decreasing the number of contracts with single bidders, and by decreasing total number of wins by a single firm. Finally, the WTO GPA fosters cost-effective public procurement by lowering the probability that the procurement price is higher than estimated cost.
1. A streamlined business registration system pilot in Entebbe Uganda reduced compliance costs fo... more 1. A streamlined business registration system pilot in Entebbe Uganda reduced compliance costs for enterprises by 75 percent, raised registration numbers and fee revenues by some 40 percent while reducing the cost of administering the system. 2. The pilot reduced opportunities for corruption and resulted in improved relations between business and the local authority. 3. The implementation of the policy changes required evidence-based advocacy and the establishment of close working relationships between the project team and the local authorities.
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Papers by Peter Holmes