In Fiji, imports as a share of GDP has been rising strongly, particularly over the past three decades. Over these years imports have fluctuated considerably, generally in line with fluctuations in aggregate demand. Fiji is a small island state, heavily dependent on external trade for many of our essential goods. It is vital, therefore to always ensure that we have adequate foreign reserves to p...

Policy-makers and analysts are often concerned with the effect of tariff reductions, as part of trade liberalisation, on the volume of imports, and in particular adverse effects on domestic import-competing sectors. While there is limited evidence at an aggregate country level that imports increase following trade liberalisation, there is very little empirical evidence at a sector level. In the...

Does Japanese trade in manufactured goods differ from the rest-of-the world average and from the U.S.? We use a simple industry-level gravity model and 1981-1998 data to answer this question. We construct a measure of normalized imports by dividing bilateral industry-level imports by the importer's aggregate absorption and the exporter's industry output. We find that Japan imports less than oth...

one of the main principles of resistance economy, is to support domestic production and limiting imports, especially in sectors where there is the possibility of import-substituting production .this requires adjustment of exact trade policies,and to achieve this, identifying the structure of imports demand function and also price and income elasticity of import demand is necessary.this necessit...

Imports are increasingly becoming a significant source of Japan’s pork supply. Japan’s share of imports to total consumption increased from 9 percent in 1980 to 24 percent in 1990, reaching a maximum of 44 percent in 1996. Under the World Trade Organization (WTO) safeguard provisions for pork, Japan can raise its gate price by 24 percent when imports in a given quarter are 119 percent higher th...

One of the most striking aspects of the recent recession is the collapse in international trade. This paper uses disaggregated data on U.S. imports and exports to shed light on the anatomy of this collapse. We find that the recent reduction in trade relative to overall economic activity is far larger than in previous downturns. Information on quantities and prices of both domestic absorption an...

What is the effect of imports on productivity? To answer this question, we estimate a structural model of producers using product-level import data for a panel of Hungarian manufacturing firms from 1992 to 2001. In our model with heterogenous firms, producers choose to import or purchase domestically varieties of intermediate inputs. Imports affect firm productivity through expanding variety as...

I. TRIPS A. Patentability B. Patent Rights 1. Exclusive Rights—Article 28 2. Exceptions to Patent Rights a. Article 30—A “Limited Exception” to Patent Rights b. Article 31—“Other Use” C. Patent “Plus” Protection: Test Data II. TRIPS-PLUS A. Patentability B. Patent Rights 1. Limited Compulsory Licensing During Patent Term 2. Limits on Parallel Imports C. Tension within TRIPS-Plus Agreements and ...

This paper studies the impact of the re-importation of imitated pharmaceuticals as a by-product of an open policy toward parallel import (PI) on process innovation. Foreign investment by a firm to exploit a new unregulated market with weak intellectual property rights can give rise to imitation. These products can potentially re-enter the original country when PI is allowed influencing research...