Publications /
Policy Paper

Back
Download PDF
The Belt and Road turns five
Authors
Uri Dadush
Michael Baltensperger
January 13, 2019
Related topics: 
Economy
Trade
International Relations
Geopolitics
Asia

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an international trade and development strategy. Launched in 2013, it is one of the ways China asserts its role in world affairs and captures the opportunities of globalisation. The BRI has the potential to enhance development prospects across the world and in China, but that potential might not be realised because the BRI’s objectives are too broad and ill-defined, and its execution is too often non-transparent, lacking in due diligence and uncoordinated.

Originally published by Bruegel, the Belgium-based think-tank and partner of Policy Center for the New South, this Policy Contribution offers a reflection by Michael Baltensperger and Uri Dadush on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, five years after its launch. 

RELATED CONTENT

  • Le RCEP et le « Quad », deux coups de tonnerre
    Authors
    Dominique Bocquet
    November 25, 2020
    Coup sur coup, deux accords géants sont venus marquer l’actualité internationale. L’un, est économique et sonne comme un coup de tonnerre : c’est le RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), vaste accord commercial asiatique, signé le 15 novembre 2020. Cette date restera dans l’histoire comme ayant associé la Chine à un ensemble de pays asiatiques. Il inclut l’ASEAN (Association des Nations d’Asie du Sud-est, à l’initiative de la démarche) mais, aussi, le Japon et la Corée ...
  • Download PDF
    Brazil, South Korea: Two Tales of Climbing an Income Ladder
    Authors
    Otaviano Canuto
    September 3, 2020
    The “middle income trap” may well characterize the experience of Brazil and most of Latin America since the 1980s. Conversely, South Korea maintained its pace of evolution, reaching a high-income status. Such divergence of economic growth can be related to their distinctive performances of domestic accumulation of technological and organizational capabilities. Their different approaches to global value chains and trade globalization reinforced such discrepancy in domestic accumulati ...
  • The US-China Trade War Is Accelerating China’s Rebalancing
    Authors
    Otaviano Canuto
    November 8, 2019
    The Trump government has been imposing restrictions on access to technologies by Chinese telecommunications firms. Why and what are the consequences? The Federal Communications Commission is about to ban carriers from using government funds to buy equipment from Huawei and ZTE. Other government agencies are expected to take similar measures. This is just the latest episode of a gradual squeeze that the Trump government has been giving over China's telecommunications giant Huawei, ...
  • The Rationale behind India’s Shift to Africa
    Authors
    Samuel Arnaud
    Ihssane Guennoun
    October 28, 2019
    Africa, as a continent of economic opportunities, is attracting foreign players. In this context, India is emerging as an important partner, especially for Eastern and Southern Africa. The complexity of its geopolitical environment combined with internal specificities motivated the revival of interest for the continent. This paper draws on historical developments between India and African countries to provide the state of play of recent linkages. Those trends are better perceived th ...
  • Latin America Is Not Benefiting from the U.S.-China Trade War
    Authors
    Otaviano Canuto
    September 30, 2019
    Despite some short-term benefits, trade deviation to the region shouldn’t be expected to last. Has the U.S. trade war with China been good for Latin America? An increase in Chinese demand for primary products from the region, as well as recent news of production transfers from China to Mexico, might give the impression that it has. But any positive short-term effects of the confrontation should also take into account its negative medium- and long-term impacts on the region and on gl ...
  • Will the Multilateral Trading System Survive?
    Authors
    Uri Dadush
    June 3, 2019
    In a recent brief, titled” The Crisis in World Trade”, my co-authors and I conclude that whether we still have a rules-based system a few years from now depends on the answer to three questions: Can the WTO be revitalized? Is protectionism in the United States a temporary aberration? Will China reform and fit the liberal economic order? If the answer to these three questions is yes, the system will likely endure. If the answer is no, we will return to the power based non system that ...
  • Download PDF
    The escalating China-US trade dispute: economic and geopolitical implications for Sub-Saharan Africa
    Authors
    Uri Dadush
    May 22, 2019
    The trade tensions between the United States and China will cause only minor immediate damage to their giant economies. However, tariffs have important and diverse effects on individual sectors and cause heightened uncertainty. The main adverse effects on Sub-Saharan Africa will therefore be through global investor confidence, economic growth and commodity prices, and these effects could be severe if the dispute escalates further and endangers the rules-based trading system. The tra ...
  • Download PDF
    The Belt and Road turns five
    Authors
    Uri Dadush
    Michael Baltensperger
    January 13, 2019
    China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an international trade and development strategy. Launched in 2013, it is one of the ways China asserts its role in world affairs and captures the opportunities of globalisation. The BRI has the potential to enhance development prospects across the world and in China, but that potential might not be realised because the BRI’s objectives are too broad and ill-defined, and its execution is too often non-transparent, lacking in due diligence and ...
  • Quand les grands se fâchent, le monde panique !
    Authors
    Tayeb Ghazi
    August 13, 2018
    Depuis la fin de l’année 2017, le président Donald Trump mène plusieurs batailles commerciales, contre différents partenaires, sous prétextes de sauver des emplois industriels américains et de réduire le déficit commercial des États-Unis. S’il est difficile de se prononcer sur les effets des combats commerciaux amorcés par le président Trump, l’importance des opposants et des échanges pour l’économie mondiale en fait une source de risque pour la croissance, les emplois et les prix à ...
  • Food Security in Morocco and India: Different Challenges for Joint Answers?
    Authors
    Ihssane Guennoun
    August 1, 2018
    “This article has been originally published in 'Morocco in Focus 2018,' the magazine of the Moroccan Embassy in New Delhi, India on the occasion of the Morocco National Day 2018.” Introduction In an article published last year, the author stressed the role of partnership between Morocco and India for the inclusive growth of small farmers. There is no doubt that agriculture remains a major instrument for human development both in India and in Africa. Several international reports h ...