CHAPTER 1
Trade Reforms for Export Competitiveness: What Are the Issues for the Middle East and North Africa? Ndiamé Diop, José R. López-Cálix, and Peter Walkenhorst
International trade was deeply affected by the global financial and economic crisis. Mimicking worldwide trends, imports from and exports to the Middle East and North Africa dropped significantly in 2009. This sudden decline in global trade should not divert attention away from four major developments in global economic integration that have shaped the region’s trade policies and performance over the past decade: the emergence of global supply chains, the growth of trade in services, the rise of China and India as major international trading powers, and regional integration. Each of these issues is discussed in detail in this book. The first development is the rise of global production networks in which different stages of the production of a single good occur at different locations. As a result of this development, consumer products often contain parts, components, and inputs from a large number of countries. This development, driven by reductions in trade barriers and advances in transport and telecommunications, has significantly changed the meaning 1