A report on Brazilian Trade and Performance
This Report examines in detail Brazil’s export performance over the past 15 years, focusing not only on growth and composition, but also on different performance dimensions, including diversification, sophistication, and firm dynamics. The analysis uses international comparisons to better situate the Brazilian performance, and explores different databases, including firm-level data recently published by the World Bank
The Report uses a recent diagnostic toolkit developed by the World Bank in order to suggest some hypotheses about the factors that have been inhibiting exports and industrial production expansion. Among the latter, it is noted how service sectors, as the largest beneficiaries from favorable terms of trade, accommodated larger wage increases and “exported” cost pressures to other sectors of the economy. Furthermore, although a stronger currency can be appointed as one of the elements behind the lower competitiveness in Brazilian exports, sluggish productivity performance and a real wage uptrend explain a significant part of the overall loss of competitiveness.
The diagnostic reinforces the importance of resuming the agenda of microeconomic reforms, increasing the investment-to-gross product ratio, and advancing toward better-skilled human capital.
Related UN Resources:
- The World Bank’s Poverty Reduction & Economic Management Network
- World Development Indicators: Brazil
- International Merchandise and Trade Statistics
- International Trade in Services Statistics
- Global Monitoring Report 2012
Trade and Biodiversity
BioTrade refers to activities related to the collection, production, transformation, and commercialization of goods and services derived from native biodiversity (species and ecosystems) under the criteria of environmental, social and economic sustainability.
In 1996, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) launched the BioTrade Initiative has been promoting sustainable BioTrade in support of the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Bio Trade initiative recently released two publications:
Trade and Biodiversity: The Bio Trade Experience in Latin America
This reports highlights Sustainable Environment Management practices such as BioTrade in Latin America. In 2008, these practices have already generated over $230 million in exports of sustainably-produced products and services derived for Latin American’s biodiversity. This report is available in English.
Improving International Systems for Trade in Reptile Skins based on Sustainable Use
The aim of the report is to examine the changing context within which the reptile skin trade has existed, the extent of the current industry and its regulatory strengths and weaknesses, and what the future can or should bring. The report is available in English.
Resources
- Bio Trade Initiative Publications
- Convention on Biological Diversity
- United Nations Environment Programme: Publication on Biodiversity
Commodities and Development
The commodity problematique continues to be of major concern in the twenty-first century, as the commodity sector constitutes the key economic activity in most Commodity-Dependent Developing Countries in terms of foreign exchange earning, fiscal revenues, income growth, employment creation and livelihood sustenance for over 2 billion people dependent on the agricultural sector.Commodities and Development Report, 2012
The Special Unit on Commodities of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), works as an autonomous unit on commodities. The Unit recently released several studies, including:
Commodities and Development Report 2012
Each edition of this flagship report contains a comprehensive, yet accessible, discussion of a selected topic of major relevance to policy-makers on commodity trade and development in Commodity Dependent Developing Countries.
The 2012 issue of the UCDR is analytical, topical and provides many interesting insights resulting from an in-depth analysis of how different commodities or commodity groups have been affected over the last decade by the commodity price boom, the ensuing crisis, and the emerging recovery; and what the implications are in terms of commodity-based development.
The first part of the 2012 report - Overview - is downloadable in English.
The State of Commodity Dependence 2012
This publication aims to provide an individual country overview of the commodity-related situation of 154 developing countries.It also contains graphs which present a regional and global perspective of commodity dependence in the developing world over the period 2009–2010. It is available in English.
Resources
- UNCTAD - Special Unit on Commodities
- Comtrad - United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database
- Various UN reports on commodities
Trade and Development Report 1981-2011 : Three Decades of Thinking Development
An abiding theme across 30 years of the TDR has been its advocating of the need to strike the appropriate balance between multilateral rules and actions and national policy autonomy for addressing specific local needs and challenges. It has argued that many of the changes to multilateral governance since the collapse of the bretton Woods systems, in trade as well as finance, have failed to create the right balance.
Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) launched Trade and Development Report 1981-2011 : Three Decades of Thinking Development. This 30th Anniversary report aims to highlight the intellectual contribution of the Report.
The first part reviews and references the key issues that have been addressed by the Trade and Development Report since its first edition in 1981. The second part is a collection of contributions of experts to the recent panel discussion “Thinking Development: Three Decades of the Trade and Development Report”.
The report is available in English (PDF).
Resources
