Singapore and Hong Kong occupy the top two positions in the enabling trade index ranking, followed by Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden, according to The Global Enabling Trade Report 2009 released by the World Economic Forum.
Canada, Norway, Finland, Austria and the Netherlands complete the top-10 list. According to John Manners-Bell of Transport Intelligence (TI), the results reflect the openness of Singapore and Hong Kong to international trade and investment as part of their successful economic development strategy.
According to the report, both economies have put into place highly efficient border administrations and supportive business environments. They are endowed with well-developed transport and telecommunications infrastructures ensuring rapid transit to final destination. These attributes are further supported by business environments that are conducive to trade.
The report noted that while the United States (16th) benefits from a conducive business environment, as well as excellent infrastructure its position is weakened by restricted access to markets and concerns about costs to business resulting from crime, violence, and terrorism.
China (49th) performs well with respect to transport services and has swift import-export procedures, but trade development is held back by highly restricted access to its markets.
The world's biggest exporter, Germany ranks 12th overall. The country is the world leader on the quality of transport infrastructure, in particular thanks to high levels of maritime connectivity.
"There exists some room for improvement in terms of customs administration, particularly an upgrading of customs services. As for the regulatory environment (12th), Germany ranks reasonably well on all the indicators, with the exception of the openness to foreign participation where it places 25th because of the difficulty of hiring foreign labour (76th)."
"Market access is Germany's Achilles' heel, where it ranks lower than most EU countries because of the pervasiveness of non-tariff measures. France and the UK were 17th and 20th respectively."
Canada, Norway, Finland, Austria and the Netherlands complete the top-10 list. According to John Manners-Bell of Transport Intelligence (TI), the results reflect the openness of Singapore and Hong Kong to international trade and investment as part of their successful economic development strategy.
According to the report, both economies have put into place highly efficient border administrations and supportive business environments. They are endowed with well-developed transport and telecommunications infrastructures ensuring rapid transit to final destination. These attributes are further supported by business environments that are conducive to trade.
The report noted that while the United States (16th) benefits from a conducive business environment, as well as excellent infrastructure its position is weakened by restricted access to markets and concerns about costs to business resulting from crime, violence, and terrorism.
China (49th) performs well with respect to transport services and has swift import-export procedures, but trade development is held back by highly restricted access to its markets.
The world's biggest exporter, Germany ranks 12th overall. The country is the world leader on the quality of transport infrastructure, in particular thanks to high levels of maritime connectivity.
"There exists some room for improvement in terms of customs administration, particularly an upgrading of customs services. As for the regulatory environment (12th), Germany ranks reasonably well on all the indicators, with the exception of the openness to foreign participation where it places 25th because of the difficulty of hiring foreign labour (76th)."
"Market access is Germany's Achilles' heel, where it ranks lower than most EU countries because of the pervasiveness of non-tariff measures. France and the UK were 17th and 20th respectively."