2 November 2015: The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) launched its annual report on trade and investment in the region, recommending trade facilitation measures to boost trade and investment for financing sustainable development.

The 2015 Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report shows that, if China’s growth is excluded, trade and investment in the region declined by 0.4% in 2014. Nevertheless, the Asia-Pacific region still receives 43% of foreign direct investment (FDI), and developing countries in the region are becoming major outward investors, the report finds. Strong growth in travel and other commercial services is reported, with demand from China being a key factor.

The report, sub-titled ‘Supporting Participation in Value Chains,’ calls for enhancing export-led growth, and proposes ways that smaller and low-income economies in the region can participate in global value chains. The proposed measures include: reducing trade costs by liberalizing trade in goods, services and investment; facilitating trade by developing ICT infrastructure, improving logistics performance and enhancing regulatory transparency; and harmonizing domestic rules and regulations with international standards.

The authors’ analysis indicates that, in the past year, Asia-Pacific countries introduced more measures to restrict rather than liberalize trade. They report that economies in the region accounted for 40% of all trade-restrictive measures introduced globally, but only 27% of liberalizing measures, with India and Indonesia being responsible for the largest number of new trade-restrictive measures, especially tariff increases.

The authors note that while some bilateral agreements have been signed, the pace of concluding new agreements has slowed as the region awaits the “mega-regional” deals – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which involve several countries in the region.

Launching the report in Bangkok, ESCAP Executive Secretary Shamshad Akhtar highlighted that trade and investment are critical means of implementation (MOI) for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and called on policy makers to enhance competitiveness.

In addition to the report, detailed trade briefs are available on five sub-regional economies and 22 countries. [Publication: Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2015] [Report Webpage] [ESCAP Press Release]