Trade policymaking in a resource-rich landlocked country: The WTO review of Mongolia

The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the Trade Policy Review of Mongolia (TPRM) 2014. The TPRM 2014 demonstrates that the Mongolian economy is relatively open and it has very low formal trade barriers although there remain significant behind-the-borders barriers, including poor governance and infrastructure. Being a landlocked country, any major cross-border-price differences quickly results in informal trade with neighbouring China, limiting Mongolia's ability to pursue independent commercial policy. Mongolia's growth is not broad based and largely driven by the mining boom, making its economy highly vulnerable to external shocks. While this is not unique to Mongolia, and has been seen in many natural resource-abundant countries, experience suggests that countries with sound institutions and macroeconomic policies have overcome the so-called resource curse.