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Free trade agreements have been employed, either unilaterally or as a bloc, as an instrument to overcome the inefficiencies in trade brought about by the prevailing barriers and regulatory measures. During the tenth summit the leaders of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed to integrate their priority sectors with a vision to developing an ASEAN economic community whereby there would be a free flow of goods, services, investment and a freer flow of capital, equitable economic development, and reduced poverty and socio‐economic disparities. This market would have no price discrimination for commodities and against foreign goods, services, capital and labor. The purpose of this paper is to assess the current state of the cross‐border trade in logistics services among ASEAN. The extent of the ease of cross‐border trade is measured in terms of trade friendliness. The trade friendliness is a measure of the openness of ASEAN towards conducting free cross‐border trade.

This study uses a series of semi‐structured interviews with 35 logistics and related firms operating in ASEAN.

It was found that the unwieldy customs procedures and inspections, lack of coordination, and arbitrary rulings are some barriers to freer cross‐border trade within ASEAN.

In this paper, the authors have identified several barriers that influence logistics services across ASEAN. ASEAN must address these barriers before any further attempt of freer trade can be made.

Studies have been conducted for the USA and Europe but not for the Asia‐Pacific. The Asia‐Pacific is a growing region for global trade and therefore assessing the trade openness or friendliness in the logistics sector is useful for taking further policy initiatives for developing an ASEAN economic community.

The purpose of this paper is to identify major challenges that Asia-Pacific policy makers face in drawing up international logistics policies, and to seek possible solutions to the problems.

Case study method: the paper includes seven case studies that attempt to address various types of logistics challenges. The paper introduces both intra- and extra-regional examples of the ways in which those challenges have been overcome in particular contexts through concerted action by government and the private sector.

There are a lot of interesting experiences of overcoming logistics challenges, both inside and outside the Asia-Pacific region. Good practice experiences can be replicated by other countries in the region.

While there have been a lot of discussions on logistics policy reforms, this paper is one of the first attempts that clearly link challenges with concrete case experiences where those are overcome. The paper discusses very practical issues in an analytically sound manner, using case method.

As a coastal emerging country, export-led marine economy has been the development model of Vietnam over the past decades since The Renovation 1986. Given the rise of globalization, regional economic integration and logistics enhancement have been identified as key engines for economic sustainability by Vietnamese government. Nevertheless, little sectoral and sub-sectoral evidence has been given for the platform shaped by policies relevant to export, logistics performance and regional economic integration. The paper employs the trade gravity model to study the relationship between seafood export, logistics performance and regional economic integration in the case of Vietnam. Sectoral and sub-sectoral trade gravity models are employed. Logistics performance from the exporter-side and importer-side is included in the estimations. Membership to effective regional trade agreements of Vietnam are proxies for regional economic integration. Zero trade issue is resolved by the Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (POLS), Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) and Heckman Sample Selection estimations, while endogeneity is tackled by the difference and system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) models. Findings vary by estimation methods, data levels, product groups, and whether which side is considered. In addition, theoretical contributions and some seafood export-driving policy recommendations relevant to regional economic integration and logistics performance development are discussed.

This study aims to illuminate the relationship between the logistic performance indexes (LPIs) of trade countries and sharing obligations related to logistics services in delivery among parties in international sales contracts.

A comprehensive one-year database of Serbian international trade flows is used. The LPIs of 148 countries are related to the Incoterms^® rules in international sales contracts that designate the division of obligations between exporters and importers for moving goods. Empirical data were subjected to statistical analysis, where nonparametric correlation and inferential methods were applied. The differences between countries with the highest and lowest LPIs were also examined.

LPIs positively correlate with logistics commitments in exports and imports. Their impact on the choice of Incoterms^® rules differs among the groups of trade terms. Waterway and D-terms are the most sensitive. LPIs of trade countries clearly impact “emission” and “attraction” of the most extended sellers' delivery obligation “packages,” expressed in D rules.

The empirical data are limited to a single country. Further research must explore the relative impact of macrologistic factors on exporters and importers' logistics commitments for building better decision-making support tools.

The results may support suppliers and buyers in sharing their experiences on Incoterms^® practice and encourage more rational than intuitive decisions.

This is the first empirical study to quantitatively evidence the sensitivity of groups of Incoterms^® rules on the macrologistic environment of trade countries.

The Incheon Region has numerous assets that fall within a Pentaport model.' These include the Incheon International Airport, the Port of Incheon, a coastal industrial park, free economic zones, a leisure port, and Songdo new town designed to be the future Silicon Valley of Korea. This paper looks at how Northeast Asia trade flows between China and Korea might be enhanced by application of the Pentaport model in making the Incheon region a North East Asian Hub. It looks also at their trade and logistics systems as well as their water borne commerce. It proposes an integrated transportation system for the Yellow Sea Region being beneficial to the economies of the Northeast Asia. It also stresses that innovative technologies for ships, terminals and cargo handling systems should be introduced to develop a competitive short sea shipping system in the region and cooperation among the regional countries will be essential to achieve the final goal. The potential of methods of container shipping is discussed as it might apply to short sea shipping in the Yellow Sea Region that could greatly facilitate Incheon's situation with respect to the broader region in application of the Pentaport model.

The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze the impact of logistics efficiency on trade volume growth, and to examine the effects of lower tariffs resulting from free trade agreements. In order to measure the impact of logistics efficiency on trade volume growth, the export and import trade volume among 53 countries was introduced as the dependent variable. Macroeconomic indicators including annual average tariff rate, logistics efficiency indicators for port, air, railroad, road and container vessel connectivity, as well as dummy variables such as whether a free trade agreement was signed, were introduced as the explanatory variables. Bilateral panel data between trading nations was used to estimate the gravity panel model, and analysis followed the categorization: 1) separate inputs of the five logistics efficiency variables and 2) one aggregated input of the five variables as a single indicator. The analysis found that logistics efficiency had a statistically significant impact on bilateral trade volume growth, while the impact of lowering tariff rates on increasing trade was insignificant. In addition, logistics efficiency was found to have a greater impact on increasing trade volume than free trade agreements. These results imply that trade can be promoted more effectively by establishing and efficiently operating logistics-related infrastructure rather than traditional methods of reducing trade barriers such as lowering tariffs and signing free trade agreements.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the logistics performance of national trade corridors in Myanmar based on a theoretical portrayal of multimodal transport in logistics chains combined with the real-time operation of such chains. A cost-time-distance model was used as the core theoretical framework for the discussion. Empirical data related to cost, time and distance was obtained to evaluate national trade corridors in Myanmar. The study explored the performance of trade corridor in the pulses and beans sector from the largest sown and harvest areas to the main seaports in Myanmar. The pulses and beans sector was selected because the country is the 2^nd highest exporter in the world and would benefit from improved access to its national seaports. Under the cost-time-distance model used, it was observed that physical infrastructure, institutional environment as well as limited capability of local providers hindered the overall performance of the trade corridors under study.

Asia has been transformed into a well-regulated dynamic platform for trade and is today world’s fastest-developing economic region. However, the increasing cross-border economic activities create new opportunities for corruption. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of corruption on trade facilitation using logistics performance index (LPI). This paper also examines the moderating effect of governance or government effectiveness (GE) on the relationship between corruption and LPI within Asian countries.

A panel of time-series data from year 2007 to 2014 of 26 Asian countries was collected for analysis. Static linear panel models which comprised of pooled ordinary least squares, fixed-effect model and random-effect model were utilised to analyse the panel data.

The findings show that corruption significantly affects LPI and each of the six dimensions in LPI. The results also show that governance or GE has a moderating effect on the relationship between corruption and LPI.

This study benefits Asian governments to gain a better understanding on influences of corruption on trade facilitation and triggering suggestions of a government role in the relationship. Practically, the results could be used as a guideline in improving national LPI. Besides, the findings could be used to support policy decision to modify corruption regulations at the national and regional levels.

This study reveals that the optimistic view of sands in the wheel overcomes the dark side of the grease in the wheel practices. To be corrupt free or less corrupt is a rare and inimitable resource capability that makes nations logistically competitive.

Liner connectivity plays an important role as a determinant in how a country is able to gain access to world markets. Liner shipping as the medium of seaborne transport for import and export of manufactured and semi-manufactured goods plays a significant part in international trade, which in turn potentially contribute towards the prosperity of a country and its surrounding region. Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (LSCI) is one of the most common benchmark to see how well connected a country in global trade, where it consists of five components, namely the number of ships, carrying capacity, ship size, services provided, and the number of companies that deploy container ships calling a country’s ports. This paper aims to tally from the most to the least which LSCI component contributes in improving the shipping connectivity with the most impact, in six Maritime South-East Asian countries, i.e., Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. By descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and panel data, this paper finds that the country port’s capacity to accept larger ship size provides the most significant impact towards the improvement of the connectivity in the region. To attract companies to deploy largest ship, the improvement needs to be complemented with the capacity that can meet the expected volume, offering a variety of service, and good turnaround speed at the country’s port. The paper is expected to present not only indicative recommendations on which logistics connectivity initiative needs to be invested first, but also necessary proposals to develop a programme for building the region’s overall logistics industry.

Paper Code: SLC-206

The purpose of this paper is to investigate key critical factors for developing transit trade corridors (TTCs) in optimizing trade and logistics performance, taking into account economic, geographic and political concerns among countries in the Northeast Asia region, which have been dynamically developing TTCs to optimize trade and logistics performance in association with development of transport infrastructure in the Greater Tumen Region located in the Northeast Asia.

This research explores key factors affecting the TTC through a comprehensive literature review in tandem with expert survey. Factor analysis, both exploratory and confirmatory, is employed to further investigate the underlying factors affecting more efficient development of a TTC.

This research has drawn eight underlying factors affecting the design of a TTC: development and policy implications; safety, security and political concerns; environmental protection; financing and investment; soft infrastructure; hard infrastructure; geography and landscape; and corridor performance.

This paper has a limited geographical scope of the Northeast Asia. Therefore, more primary data collection would be useful in future work. Development of International trade corridor and TTC is critical in northeast Asia for moving goods through designated geographical paths. The key factors drawn in this paper contributes not only to promoting its related services and information (across borders) with the provision of policy support and related facilities for TTC but also to lowering logistics costs and improving trades in the northeast Asian region. As a result, the countries in the region will accelerate their regional economies in collaboration with international bodies and framework, such as UNDP, Greater Tumen Initiative and One Belt One Road Initiative.

The eight underlying factors the authors identified in this research will be valuable for policy-makers to design TTCs and consequently the research will contribute to regional economies in northeast Asia by establishing efficient trade and transport routes among the countries in the region.

Developing TTCs is a kind of platform and infrastructure to accelerate cargo movements and people movements in the northeast Asia. Users of TTCs will benefit their businesses thanks to an efficient logistics system and lower logistics costs, which result in promoting international and regional trade in the region.

There has not been any research done on factors to consider in developing TTCs in the world, whose consequence is no readily available reference that can support a systematic assessment and decision-making in development of TTCs. The findings of this research provide a helpful reference for policy-makers, potential users and developers of TTCs to refer in planning and developing them.