Improving the Availability of Trade Finance during Financial Crises Marc Auboin* Counsellor, Trade and Finance Division, WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION and Moritz Meier-Ewert* PRINCETON UNIVERSITY * We are grateful to representatives of the ADB and EBRD, in particular Martin Endelman. Gratitude is also expressed to Richard Eglin and Patrick Low, Directors at the WTO, and Jesse Kreier, Counsellor, for their very useful comments. This paper is only available in English – Price CHF 20.- To order, please contact: WTO Publications Centre William Rappard 154 rue de Lausanne CH-1211 Geneva Switzerland Tel: (41 22) 739 5208/5308 Fax (41 22) 739 57 92 Website: www.wto.org E-mail:
[email protected] ISSN 1726-9466 ISBN 92-870- 1238-5 Printed by the WTO Secretariat XI- 2003, 1 ,000 © World Trade Organization, 2003. Reproduction of material contained in this document may be made only with written permission of the WTO Publications Manager. With written permission of the WTO Publications Manager, reproduction and use of the material contained in this document for non-commercial educational and training purposes is encouraged. WTO Discussion Papers are presented by the authors in a personal capacity and should not in any way be interpreted as reflecting the views of the World Trade Organization or its Members. ABSTRACT An analysis of the implications of recent financial crises affecting emerging economies in the 1990's points to the failure by private markets and other relevant institutions to meet the demand for cross-border and domestic short-term trade-finance in such periods, thereby affecting, in some countries and for certain periods, imports and exports to a point of stoppage.