This text provides an original contribution to the maritime literature focusing on developments in this field in the Baltic Region. This part of the world has seen dramatic changes in recent years, particularly with the collapse of the Communist led regimes in Poland and the Soviet Union, and the emergence of the new states of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia and neighbouring Ukraine and Belarus, the reunification of Germany and the disappearance of the old DDR and the entry of Finland and Sweden to the European Union. This book looks at some of these changes and how they are impacting on the shipping sector. Its topicality reflects on growing research and teaching interests in these fields. Edited by the leading expert in East European maritime affairs and containing original material from the team of researchers at the highly prestigious University of Gdansk, it provides a welcome source of discussion and information and forms part of the new series of texts originating from the Institute of Marine Studies at the University of Plymouth, concentrating on maritime policy, law, economics and marketing.

This title, first published in 1984, is a contribution to applied international trade theory. The author explores the specification and estimation of a multisector general equilibrium model of the open economy. The model is formulated with the aim of assessing empirically the effects of three key policy variables on trade flows, domestic prices, and the trade balance. The policy variables with which the author is concerned are the rate of growth of the stock of domestic credit, commercial policy, as represented by tariffs, and, finally, the exchange rate. This title will be of interest to students of economics.

The Levant Company in England was first established in 1592 to help regulate trade with Turkey and the Levant area. Originally published in 1908, this study details the early origins of the company as well as providing information on surrounding issues such as the regulation of shipping, piracy and the officials of the company. This title will be of interest to students of history and business.

Writing Global Trade Governance operationalises a key post-structuralist methodology in order to expand understanding on the institution at the heart of the global political economy. Despite the WTO's centrality and the growing popularity of methods utilizing discourse theory, no other text has yet demonstrated how these two fields of learning can be productively combined. The book seeks to move beyond existing literatures that assume the WTO to be a structure, institution or normative framework, in order to enquire into the discursive processes of identity formation that make the WTO both possible and contested. The book criticises conventional approaches that treat critical civil society as distinct to the WTO, arguing instead that it is only through including such social practices within the field of relations making the WTO that we can properly understand what makes the WTO work. The book presents an empirical analysis of the discursive character of the present-day WTO (including its formation and operation) and then moves on to evaluate how it is subject to change within a broader social context. The final stage of the book seeks to discuss the impact of the findings on future research, both on the WTO and other institutions. This work is a significant intervention in the literature on the World Trade Organization and the politics of global trade and social movements, and will be of great interest to students and scholars of global governance, discourse theory and international organizations

The doctrine of "free trade" is second only to that of "free markets" in undergirding ideological support for our current global economic structures and rules. From David Ricardo's "comparative advantage principle" to James Meade's Neoclassical or mainstream economics proof of self-adjusting free trade equilibrium, the free trade doctrine has had a lasting and destructive hold on Neoclassical economic thinking since its inception. The Global Free Trade Error provides a detailed analysis of these foundational models and counter-poses these to alternative Neo-Marxist "unequal exchange" models of global trade and finance. In the first part of the book the three core free trade models alluded to above are respectively demonstrated to be: overdetermined, inapplicable, and infeasible. In particular, Ricardo's parable is shown to support managed trade rather than free trade as Ricardo and two centuries of economic texts have claimed. In the second part of the book, unequal exchange analyses of global trade are shown to provide logically coherent and useful insights into global trade and finance. In the third and final part of the book, this unequal exchange perspective is used, within a general "demand and cost" setting, to develop a set of global managed trade principles for a more equitable and sustainable world trade regime. This book will be of great interest to those who study political economy, history of economic thought, and international trade, including trade agreements and tariffs.

Trade impacts on the lives of all global citizens, influencing the range of commodities available for consumption and where those commodities are produced. Driven increasingly by market exchange, trade shapes the nature of work and how the costs and benefits of that work are distributed around the world. Economic growth and development are closely associated with the flows of goods and services between countries. International Trade: The Basics offers an accessible and engaging introduction to contemporary debates on international trade, inviting readers to explore the connections between national political economies within a globally integrated world. Topics covered include: Why nations trade Globalization and transnational production networks Transnational governance The emergence of Asia as a major trade region Ethical trade and environmental sustainability Trade in solar energy, services and ideas. Featuring case studies and social media links that help to illustrate key concepts, this book is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand how trade varies between regions, affects relationships between countries and influences a country's social, political and economic life.

With the accession of Afghanistan in 2016, the World Trade Organization (WTO) numbered 164 members with nineteen other states in line to join. The WTO is certainly not alone in its growth though; the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the European Union (EU) are all expanding with dozens of states continuing to negotiate their potential membership. What impact does membership in international organizations really have? Why do some states have a seemingly easy path to joining international organizations while others find the process nearly impossible? What implications do these difficult accession processes have on the domestic and international politics of the acceding states? The author presents the two-level theory of accession, which highlights factors at the domestic level and international organization level, to explain how accession processes in the WTO and EU vary from state to state and the impact of these variations. In so doing, this book provides a unique perspective on the topic of membership in international organizations.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This volume by acclaimed war reporter Clare Hollingworth , first published in 1952, surveys the politics of an area which has produced, and is likely to produce, more wars that it can consume locally. After a historical opening, about the general situation during and after the war, the author devotes chapters to the different States, and writes in some detail of the main problems affecting the area, such as oil, military power, communism and industrialization.

The benefits and costs of trade liberalization and financial integration is currently one of the most intensely debated topics in world economics, as the future of the emerging nations of Asia and the fate of more developed countries heavily depends on whether everyone can reap the benefits of this integrated and globalized world. Some believe that increased openness to capital flows has, in general, proved essential for countries seeking to rise from lower- to middle-income status and that removing restrictions on trade and capital flows may usher huge benefits by easing various constraints. Others argue that deregulation of financial markets would have devastating effect on emerging market economies in the long run and that unfettered capital flows may disrupt global financial stability. In The Gains and Pains of Financial Integration and Trade Liberalization: Lessons from Emerging Economies, Rajib Bhattacharyya offers expert insight into these complex debates as he investigates emerging market economies and their recent experiences with these outward-orientation policies. A unique blend of wide-ranging issues and theoretical and empirical depth, this exciting new book includes chapters on dynamic panel models, the measurement of financial integration, the impact of trade openness and financial integration on growth output volatility, and other vital topics. With its focus on real-world issues in emerging markets and its comprehensive coverage of issues such as risk, fiscal policy, and economic effects on income inequality and poverty reduction, Bhattacharyya offers a much-needed contribution to the often all-too-polarised literature. Geared towards policy makers, researchers, academics, and business and management professionals, The Gains and Pains of Financial Integration and Trade Liberalization helps readers develop new theories and models for analysing the future trends in finance and trade-related issues.

There is growing consensus in the literature that trade and trade policy matter for a pro-poor growth and development strategy. Therefore, policies that are consistent with this strategy feature increasingly in many African countries where poverty is endemic and rapid and where sustainable economic growth is viewed as the major vehicle for poverty reduction. Key elements of these polices include measures that promote the expansion and diversification of production and trade in Africa. This book is aimed at articulating appropriate structural and policy measures for eliminating the constraints that African countries face and thus ensuring that they can derive maximum benefits from all available market access opportunities. There is evidence that most African countries face external market access barriers in their major export destinations which are generally less constraining than those confronting countries in other developing country regions. Yet, they have generally not been able to take full advantage of the special (preferential) market access opportunities available to them. This suggests that improved external market access, whether reciprocal or preferential, would not, by itself, be sufficient for strengthening African export performance. In this collection, export supply response capacity takes external (beyond-the-border) factors as given and concentrates primarily on the internal (behind-the-border) factors that influence production and distribution costs and, thus, competitiveness. The central working hypothesis of this book is that the inability of domestic producers and exporters in Africa to respond quickly, effectively and efficiently to external market access opportunities is caused by various limitations of their internal supply capacity and that this, in turn, is largely responsible for the lacklustre export performance of many African countries. This comprehensive study should be of interest to students and researchers of international trade and development economics as well as African studies.

The fisheries sector is in crisis. Inappropriate subsidies to the fishing industry are a key factor responsible for worldwide fisheries depletion, overcapitalization and ecosystem degradation. There is an urgent need for an international mechanism to promote the appropriate restructuring of fisheries subsidies in order to create a more sustainable industry. In recent years the leading international forum charged with providing such a mechanism has been the World Trade Organization (WTO).This book explains why and how the reform of fisheries subsidies has become one of the most concrete and potentially successful international efforts to achieve global environmental, economic and developmental policy coherence. It describes the history and current status of the discussions at the WTO, drawing on UNEP's key documents and reflecting on the major issues. Accompanying the book are downloadable resources containing full-text versions of the most important source material used in the publication. The book is aimed at a broad stakeholder audience, including policymakers in the fields of trade, fisheries, environmental economics and international environmental governance, as well as academics and others looking for an overview of the fisheries subsidies issue and an introduction to its technical components.Published with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

As trade and production have increasingly crossed international boundaries, private bodies and governments alike have sought new ways to regulate labour standards and advance goals of fairness and social justice. Governments are harnessing social and market forces to advance corporate accountability, while private bodies are employing techniques drawn from command and control regulation to shape the behaviour of business. This collection brings together the research and reflections of a diverse international mix of academics, activists and practitioners in the fields of fair trade and corporate accountability, representing perspectives from both the industrialized and developing worlds. Contributors provide detailed case studies of a range of social justice governance initiatives, documenting the evolution of established strategies of advocacy and social mobilization, and evaluating the strengths and limitations of voluntary initiatives compared with legally enforceable instruments.

In the early 1990s, borders within Europe and between the United States and Mexico began to open. The increasing flow of goods, capital, ideas and people across boundaries promised to reduce physical and cognitive distances. Simultaneously, challenges to identity have arisen within and between the European nation-states, driven not only by internal cultural and political dynamics, but also by processes of globalization. Concurrently, the US-Mexican border emerged in public consciousness as a location of new opportunities, largely due to public perception of the benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This book explores some of the contradictory, yet simultaneous, processes affecting border regions. A team of leading scientists offers a wide range of perspectives on global, national, regional and local processes, and provides a useful matrix for understanding their complex, multilayered implications. Key concepts such as globalization, borders and identities are illustrated through local and regional case studies.

This book examines the evolution and application of participatory trade politics in West Africa and discusses the theoretical implications for political economy and global governance approaches to trade policy-making. The author traces the involvement of a network of West African global justice Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), local NGO and movement platforms, and trade unions in the negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union. Building on this empirical analysis, she develops a theoretical framework of trade policy formation that is not limited to conceptualizing trade as a policy field aimed exclusively at regulating exporting and importing activities in the global economy. Instead, she analyzes how material and ideational spheres interact in the way in which communities set the rules that enable them to trade across long distances. Attempting to reconcile demands for inclusivity with current economic policy-making, the author reframes the way in which we theoretically pose questions of who makes trade policy decisions, through which mechanisms and why trade policy-making practices change, or resist change. Transformations in Trade Politics will be of interest to students and scholars of International Political Economy, Global Governance, Social Movement Studies, International Economic Relations, International Trade Relations, African Politics, The Politics of African/International Development, EU politics and EU-African Relations.

The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive is the most important directive in the field of trade practices to have emerged from the EC but it builds upon European activity which has sought to regulate trade practices on both a sectoral and horizontal level. It is an umbrella provision, which uses general clauses to protect consumers. How effective this approach is and how it relates the existing acquis are fundamental issues for debate. This work provides a critical appraisal of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive linking discussion of it to general debates about how fair trading should be regulated. It explains how the Directive fits into the existing acquis. It also examines national traditions where these are necessary to explain the European approach, as in the case of general clauses. The book will be a valuable tool for any student of consumer law seeking to understand the thinking behind the directive and how it will affect national laws. It will also influence policy makers by suggesting how the directive should be interpreted and what policy lies behind its formulation. Businesses and their advisers will use the book as a means of understanding the new regulatory climate post-the directive.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of Russia's difficult economic transition from a command economy since the early 1990s. It covers the financial crisis of August 1998 and the global financial crisis a decade later. Key subjects covered include economic transition, privatization and liberalization; changes in land ownership and agriculture; energy; foreign direct investment; economic stabilization; and economic performance. Russia is well endowed with raw materials, especially oil and natural gas; this book argues that in some ways this has not helped Russia's attempts to become a more diversified and high-tech economy. Overall, the book demonstrates how much the Russian economy has changed in the period. It continues - and adds to - the overview of developments in the author's The New Russia (2002), and is the companion volume to Political Developments in Contemporary Russia (2011) - both published by Routledge.

The book provides an understanding of how international trade and capital flows have engineered the development process in East Asia, and examines the real and potential challenges that the region is expect to encounter in the twenty-first century. It integrates four topics (i.e. capital flows, East Asia, globalization and economic development) that are at the centre of the social, political and economic debate. The text highlights the region's growing strategic importance in the twenty-first century globalizing world, where transnational corporations are playing an increasingly decisive role in the global distribution of production and trade. It blends generalised regional analyses with country-specific case studies in the world's most dynamic region. It is so well designed that each of the seventeen countries that comprise the region gets some space for discussion. Thus, the text is a valuable contribution to the social science and business literature, with a special focus on the now strategic region of East Asia.

First published in 1986. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Political risk was first introduced as a component for assessing risk not directly linked to economic factors following the flow of capital from the US to Europe after the Second World War. However, the concept has rapidly gained relevance since, with both public and private institutions developing complex methodologies designed to evaluate political risk factors and keep pace with the internationalization of trade and investment. Continued global and regional economic and political instability means a plethora of different actors today conduct a diverse range of political risk analyses and assessments. Starting from the epistemological foundations of political risk, this books bridges the gap between theory and practice, exploring operationalization and measurement issues with the support of an empirical case study on the Arab uprisings, discussing the role of expert judgment in political forecasting, and highlighting the main challenges and opportunities political risk analysts face in the wake of the digital revolution.

This general introduction to the theory of money and of balance of payments adjustment was originally published in 1969. It was the first book to pay full attention to the theory of assets: the relation of the supply of assets to the demand for holding them and the significance of asset movements for balance of payments adjustment. Written in simple language and with brevity, the book is intended for the student with a general knowledge of economics and economic institutions, but with no specialised knowledge of these topics.

In this book, originally published in 1937, Jacob Viner traces, in a series of studies of contemporary source-material, the evolution of the modern orthodox theory of international trade from its beginnings in the revolt against English mercantilism in the 17th and 18th centuries, through the English currency and tariff controversies of the 19th century, to the late 20th century. The author offers a detailed examination of controversies in the technical literature centering on important propositions of the classical and neo-classical economists relating to the theory of the mechanism of international trade and the theory of gain from trade.

Domestic violence against women is a problem that cries out for informed discussion and effective treatments. Intervening With Assaulted Women is a definitive response to those cries. The authors of each of the chapters included in this collection were selected for their ability to address a different issue related to the abuse of women. As a result, a wide range of concerns are confronted and discussed in this book, among them, the socio-political underpinnings of violence against women, the early childhood learning of assaultive men, and the traumatic impact of abuse on women and children. As for possible treatments, a current and uniquely comprehensive range of responses is described and evaluated, making this an excellent text for both front-line and classroom settings.

If you feel you have a disjointed, or unbalanced, view of the global system of demand and supply, you are probably correct. Most studies leave out a very important part of the system--the marketing channel. That is why Laurens van der Laan developed and wrote this book, The Trans-Oceanic Marketing Channel. To help you understand what happens to export crops, such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, groundnuts, tea, and tobacco, between their country of origin and consumer markets, this book analyzes the roles of different actors in trans-oceanic trade, inherent differences between world markets, export diversification policies, and the commercial and institutional forces at play.The Trans-Oceanic Marketing Channel will give you a strong background in marketing channel concepts, and because of its focus on the exporter rather than on the government, it will provide you with an excellent model for microanalysis. As you read about the special features of trans-oceanic trade, you will also learn about: trade associations and their role in shaping world markets for trans-oceanic crops the uneasy relationship between exporters and shipping companies the selling conduct of agricultural exporters in Africa the tendency of actors in Africa to accelerate the trans-oceanic product flow the effectiveness of export marketing boards as channel leaders private enterprise, the chief agent of development the theory of "exporter preference"The Trans-Oceanic Marketing Channel invites policymakers, international businessmen, professors, and students to examine the opportunities, problems, and policies that confront the various players in trans-oceanic trade, especially the exporters. As the book discusses the divergent institutional arrangements in the world markets for agricultural products and their differential effect on African exports, you will become keenly aware of how vertical marketing systems differ from conventional marketing channels. No other book brings together the three fundamental sections of export agriculture, the country of production, the channel through which the products flow, and the country of destination, to provide you with a complete understanding of trans-oceanic marketing.

First published in 1929, this book was written to express the belief that nations' commercial policy and doctrines could best be explained by reference to their history. The author argues that this applies equally to legislation and theory, for example both the McKinley Act of 1890 and contemporaneous protectionism are examined as the culmination of a century's worth of legislative and theoretical progress. This edition is also updated from the original 1891 publication to take account of the effect of the First World War on the European and American tariff systems, and also how the preferential system of trade within the British Empire recast relations between Britain and its dominions.