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The purpose of the study is to develop a macroeconometric model for evaluation of trade policies and forecasting of trade performance of Pakistan with different regions or group of countries.

These regions or group of countries are Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the rest of the world. A macroeconometric model containing 15 behavioral equations and eight identities.

Cointegration results suggest that there exist long-run relationships among variables of all behavioral equations. Additionally, results of different policy shocks based on unit value of export (export price), unit value of import (import price), exchange rate, foreign direct investment, interest rate and foreign exchange reserve suggest that the model is useful for economic planning to sustain growth performance of Pakistan.

In this study, the authors develop for the first time ever a macroeconometric model for the evaluation and forecasting of regional trade policy and performance for Pakistan.

True protection concepts seek to measure the net or relative price effects of commercial policy interventions within a general equilibrium framework. True protection depends on substitutional relationships between sectors within an economy, which are influenced by factor endowments, and the resulting arrangement of factor intensities between the importables, non‐tradables and exportables sectors. Articles by Sjaastad and Clements (1981, 1984) have explored true protection and the incidence of protection for the case where importables are not substitutes for exportables. This case can be applied to “capital‐poor” developing countries. It establishes that the export sector is likely to bear the principal burden of import protection. This article compares and contrasts the results of the “capital‐poor” model with those for a “capital‐rich” model, in which it is the non‐tradable sector on which the principal burden of import protection is likely to fall, i.e. it tends to promote exportables, but not exports.

Economic theory suggests that the best commercial policy for a country is free trade, regardless of the measures taken by its competitors. This policy, however, has certain drawbacks and consequences. Commitment to free trade subjects the economy to the dictates of events beyond its control, which at times can be detrimental. To maximize the benefits from free trade, therefore, a country must be willing and able to make internal adjustments, as changes in external circumstances require. It must be quick to capitalize on opportunities and yet flexible enough to alter direction in the face of adversity. Both Australia and India had similar trade and industry polices in the 1950s and 1960s.

There has been a period of slow but a steady increase in wage inequality in the Indian manufacturing sector since the mid‐1980s, which has gone hand‐in‐hand with an increase in the relative employment of skilled workers across all industries in the same period. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the co‐movement of relative employment and wages of skilled workers can be attributed to the changes in trade policy that has occurred in the Indian economy since the mid‐1980s.

The two dominant theoretical perspectives on why trade reforms lay lead to wage inequality are Heckscher–Ohlin theory and trade‐induced skill‐biased technological change (SBTC). The paper evaluates the applicability of these theoretical perspectives to the Indian case using disaggregated industry data from Annual Survey of Industries from 1973 to 1997.

Evidence was found of the validity of both the two dominant theoretical perspectives on wage inequality to explain the co‐movement in wage inequality and relative skill intensity in Indian manufacturing, with both variables increasing in the 1990s. Trade‐induced technological progress has led to an increase in relative skill intensity and wage inequality within industries. At the same time, the decline in protection that seems to have occurred more in unskilled labour‐intensive industries has led to a relative fall in the economy‐wide return to unskilled labour relative to skilled labour. Therefore, trade reforms have led to a widening of wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers, and an increase in relative skill intensity in Indian manufacturing.

The paper contributes to support of the trade‐induced SBTC hypothesis which may provide a consistent explanation of why many countries in the south experienced increases in wage inequality with the onset of trade liberalisation.

This chapter discusses Malaysia's foreign economic policy and trade performance. Since independence, Malaysia has been active in regulating its foreign economic policy. The policy is aimed at making the country a nation that welcomes friendly and fair policy through diplomacy and simultaneously maintaining its honorable sovereignty and local interests. In 2018, the Malaysian government outlined its foreign policy framework that emphasises four (4) major components, namely, (1) the direction of foreign policy, (2) empowering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – MOFA (Wisma Putra), (3) enhancing interagency collaboration and lastly, (4) increasing public and civil society participation. Through the framework, Malaysia has been strengthening its international relations, particularly among Islamic nations and the European Union countries. In terms of trade, Malaysia has been increasing its trade and this can be seen in its trade surplus performance. For more than 20 consecutive years, Malaysia has experienced trade surpluses. However, the recent COVID-19 outbreak has dampened the country's economic growth. Despite the detrimental impacts of the outbreak, Malaysia remained positive about strengthening the economy in the future. In terms of trade partners, Malaysia has built close relations with China, Singapore, the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, and South Korea. In terms of export products, Malaysia mainly exports electrical and electronic products, petroleum products, chemicals and chemical products, LNG, manufactures of metal, machinery, equipment and parts, optical and scientific equipment, palm oil, crude petroleum, and rubber products. Even though trade has caused several issues such as overdependence on import product, Malaysia has maintained a positive outlook on trade. Trade helps fulfill the domestic demand in which local producers are not able to satisfy. Other than that, Malaysia also consistently produced goods that are demanded by other countries. In conclusion, Malaysia will always forge ahead to improve its international economic relations and to gain benefits from the international economy and world trade.

The present study deals with the growth performance of export (X), ­import (M), and economic growth (Y) in India over the period 1970–1971 to 2016–2017 as well as tariff (TR) for the period 1990–2017 by employing the methodology of one-time endogenous structural break suggested by Zivot and Andrews (1992). Also, an attempt has been taken to examine the direction of causality between the above-mentioned trade-related variables and economic growth using Granger Causality Test. Results of estimation reveal that all the variables converge toward a stationarity process having constant variability overtime. There exists structural break in the year 1996, 2006, 2008, and 2010, respectively, for economic growth, tariff, imports, and exports. Bidirectional causality is found running from economic growth to tariff and from tariff to economic growth. But there is unidirectional causality from imports to tariff, imports to exports and from exports to tariff.

Drawing on the resource dependence theory (RDT), this paper investigates ownership composition, export intensity, and industry class as moderating factors to investigate the role of imported raw materials in performance of inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) in Ethiopia.

The hypotheses were tested using secondary data obtained from the 2016 Central Statistical Agency (CSA) on Large- and Medium-Scale Manufacturing and Electricity Industries Survey. The data included basic quantitative information on the country's manufacturing industry. The data items for the 2016 manufacturing and electricity industries surveyed are the numbers of proprietors or establishments involved in various sectors. The report did not record small firms that employed fewer than 10 people and did not use power-driven machinery. Two-Stage least squares (2SLS) regression analysis was performed to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results of this study indicate that three moderators (ownership composition, export intensity, and industry classification) interact with the hypothetical relationships between imported raw materials and performance. These findings enrich the knowledge of IFDI firms' operations in Ethiopia and in other least-developed countries (LDCs). The findings could provide information for IFDI firms that are looking to invest in LDCs.

Like all social science research, this study has some limitations. First, the research was conducted with the data found in the Report on Large- and Medium-Scale Manufacturing and Electricity Industries Survey In 2016. This was the first year of the second five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II), a national development plan for the 2016–2020 period. Continual research on IFDI in Ethiopia in the following years will be needed to get a full picture of the effects of the determinants on IFDIs.

To IFDI investors, the result of this thesis demonstrates several alternatives to overcoming hurdles in manufacturing operation. The results find that J.V. firms make better use of imported raw materials than W.O. subsidiaries in order to achieve better performance. Concerning the choice between focusing on export or domestic markets, the study suggests that domestic market—oriented companies require less imported raw materials to achieve better performance. Concerning the comparative advantage on different industries, this study found the performance of firms in Industry 12 depended on imported raw materials. These findings highlight the challenges and opportunities for potential foreign investors. Ownership composition, market factors, and industry factors should be well considered in making investment decisions.

This is one of few studies on IFDI in Ethiopia, the most populous LDC. Ownership composition, export intensity, and industry class are used as moderating variables to investigate the difference between imported raw materials and the level of expatriate deployment to IFDI performance. For IFDI investors, the results of this study demonstrate several alternatives to overcoming hurdles in manufacturing operation.

This paper aims to survey India's experience with exporting services. The authors seek to show that the country's experience is unique in that modern tradable services are a significantly larger share of GDP than in other countries at comparable levels of economic development. This has not always been the case, however; India's out‐performance is limited to recent years. Policy initiatives, from trade reform to liberalization of domestic industrial and service sectors, were important for jump‐starting the process.

This paper reviews the literature and evidence. It takes a close look at the Indian service sector and specifically information‐technology‐related (IT) services, seeking to situate the growth in service exports from India in its comparative context. The authors document the role that exports of services have played in the performance of the Indian economy in recent years. They seek to pinpoint the “take‐off” in Indian services output and establish the extent to which the country's success in exporting services is exceptional from an international point of view. And they discuss the extent to which India's performance as an exporter of services has been shaped by policies liberalizing the service sector itself and by liberalization of the manufacturing sector.

Panel and country‐specific regressions for a cross section of countries point to the importance of a range of additional factors: overall economic development, communications infrastructure, access to foreign technology, and spillovers between the merchandise and service exports. Importantly, however, these factors, jointly or individually, do not wipe out the significance of a dummy variable for India. India, evidently, is a significant outlier as an exporter of services, and even more so as the period proceeds.

The paper discusses the country's major policy initiatives, such as trade reforms and liberalization of domestic industrial and service sectors, and their importance for jump‐starting the process of services growth and its exports. Regression results show that, in addition to these policies, other factors such as overall economic development, communications infrastructure, access to foreign technology, and spillovers between the merchandise and service exports were important as well.

Recent studies on the welfare implications of internationally mobile capital for a country employing commercial policy have been restricted to constant‐returns‐to‐scale (CRS) production models. It is generally concluded that the pursuit of such policies is welfare‐decreasing under CRS conditions. The analysis to encompass variable‐returns‐to‐scale (VRS) is generalised and it is shown that there is an optimal (second best) combination of import tariff and foreign capital subsidy that will not be “immiserising” for an increasing‐returns‐to‐scale (IRS) industry.

Economic integration is an agreement among countries in a geographical region or unification of economic policies between different states aiming to reduce and ultimately remove tariff and non-tariff barriers on trade. The fruit of globalization is the tremendous rise of economic integration as globalization loosens barriers among the nations through reduction in cross-border duties and eases trade policies. Trumponomics is defined as the economic policies of US President Donald Trump that prefers high import tariff to bring “America First.” There is a debate among the researchers about the choice between free trade and protection or imposition of tariff. Some of them prefer free trade because during the start of the great depression, the world economy experienced a huge shift toward protectionism. Choice between no-tariff and tariff represents a prisoner’s dilemma situation whereby each player’s best response is to employ tariffs. This results in a sub-optimal outcome for all where the total volume of world trade falls, which is a Nash solution. The present chapter deals with theoretical discussions on trade war and throws light on the developing country’s choice between non-protectionism supported by globalization and Trump’s protectionism.