During the ERF 24th Annual Conference, Ahmed Ghoneim (Cairo University) participated as discussant in a parallel session on trade policy and the MENA region. After the session, we recorded a short interview with Prof Ghomein, in which he introduces the papers discussed in the session.
The first paper - Assessing the Intra-Arab Trade Integration and Potential: Evidence from Stochastic Frontier Gravity Model - looked at the obstacles, both on the demand and supply side, that are hindering trade integration in the Arab regions.
The second paper - A New Dawn for MENA Firms: Service Trade Liberalization for More Competitive Exports - focused on the role of services in enhancing exports, in terms of manufacturing as well as services exports.
According to Prof Ghoneim, the two papers were extremely interesting and they present important policy findings that can help policy makers to adjust and adapt to the problems that the MENA region is facing in terms of trade policy and integration.
The Economic Research Forum’s 24th Annual Conference is held in Cairo, Egypt, on 8-10 July, 2018. The main theme of the plenary sessions is “The New Normal in the Global Economy: Challenges and Prospects for MENA”. The conference aims to draw on the lessons learned from the restructuring of the economic order across the region, particularly in light of the wide-ranging consequences of the decline in oil prices. With social turbulence and conflict persist in several MENA countries, the main goal is adequately reconciling short-term social and economic concerns with long-term growth and reform efforts. Visit the conference website to find out more about the event and access papers, videos and blogs.
