Features

This paper examines the effect of COVID-19 mobility measures on the time required for cargo to clear the borders, using monthly bilateral time measures at the border crossing points (BCPs) of Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation countries. An estimation of impulse response functions reveals that the time for inbound cargo to clear the border increased by up to 40% when the most stringent mobility restrictions were implemented. However, the results indicate that the time for outbound cargo was not significantly affected.

The failure of newly independent Central Asian countries to diversify exports after the Soviet Union’s collapse is attributed to high trade costs, either because these countries are landlocked or due to border delays and regulatory obstacles. This paper estimates the impact of the high costs of exporting in Central Asia using a structural gravity model with trade cost variables from the trade facilitation indicators of the Corridor Performance Measurement and Monitoring dataset. The results demonstrate that uncertainty in the time to export has a strong negative impact on exports of goods in five Central Asian countries.

This study examines the effects of at-the-border and behind-the-border measures on the intraregional perishable goods trade in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation region by combining trade facilitation indicators at the bilateral product level with an extensive dataset of nontariff measures. By utilizing a Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimation technique in a gravity model, this study shows no empirical evidence that the time and cost associated with clearing perishable products at border crossing points harm intraregional trade.

This paper explores the impact of at-the-border and behind-the-border measures on intraregional trade in perishable goods within the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation region.

This paper analyzes how trade costs affect exports from five Central Asian countries. It highlights how improving logistics and procedures and boosting digitalization can streamline regional trade.

This study explores to what extent reducing delays and costs at border crossing points can facilitate bilateral trade flows among Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program countries.

This working paper analyzes the impact of infrastructure and trade facilitation on imports and exports in five Central Asian countries and outlines how improving hard and soft infrastructure would help boost regional trade and integration.

This paper investigates the impact of COVID-19 mobility restrictions on the time taken for cargo to clear borders in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) area.

The paper takes advantage of detailed micro shipping data to capture historical changes in transport connectivity over the past 10 years. While the average travel speed has slightly increased, transport costs have been nearly halved. The estimated translog cost functions indicate that local market accessibility is the most important factor to boost firm productivity. The elasticity was 0.24 in absolute terms. Inventory is found to be a major cost factor for firms. It is found that a 10-percent improvement in accessibility to large cities, such as Astana and Almaty, could allow firms to reduce their inventory by 8.7 percent. The market accessibility is found to foster firm agglomerations, but agglomeration economies do not seem to translate into higher firm productivity.

Trade facilitation, by reducing trade costs and raising the efficiency of moving goods across borders, is integral to international trade.