Does international trade enable a country to achieve Sustainable Development Goals? Empirical findings from two research methodologies

Does international trade enable a country to achieve sustainable development? This study presents two empirical analyses. First, the relationship between international trade and some selected indicators of Sustainable Development Goals is investigated by using data from over 100 countries during the period 1990-2014. The empirical findings reveal a significant relationship in which international trade plays a key role in helping to attain some of the Sustainable Development Goals. The second analysis evaluates the impact of trade liberalization policies under the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program by linking the results from the Computable General Equilibrium model with the data from Thailand's household socioeconomic survey. The findings show that trade liberalization policy can help Thailand move towards at least three Sustainable Development Goals.