Contrary to the claims made by neoliberal governments and mainstream academics, this book argues that the huge increase in trade in recent decades has not made the world a fairer place: instead, the age of globalization has become a time of mass migration caused by increasing global inequality. The theory of unequal exchange challenges the free trade doctrine, claiming that transfers of value from poorer to richer countries are hidden behind apparently equivalent market transactions. Following a critical review of the existing approaches, the book proposes a general theory of unequal exchange in the light of an innovative reconstruction of Marx's international law of value, in which money and exchange rates play a crucial role in decoupling value captured from value produced by different countries, even in perfectly competitive world markets. On this theoretical basis, the book provides an empirical analysis of the international transfers of value in both traditional trade and Global Value Chains. The resulting world mapping of unequal exchange shows the geographical hierarchy of capital global exploitation by revealing a world divided into two quite separate camps of donor and receiving countries, the former being the poorer countries and the latter the richer countries. This book is addressed to scholars and students of economics and social sciences, as well as activists of the North and the South, interested in a better understanding of the asymmetric power relations implied in global trade. It makes a significant contribution to the literature on political economy, trade, Marxism, international relations, and economic geography.

Linking traditional and local products to a specific area is increasingly felt as a necessity in a globalised market, and Geographical Indications (GIs) are emerging as a multifunctional tool capable of performing this and many other functions. This book analyses the evolving nature of EU sui generis GIs by focusing on their key element, the origin link, and concludes that the history of the product in the broad sense has become a major factor to prove the link between a good and a specific place. For the first time, this area of Intellectual Property Law is investigated from three different, although interrelated, perspectives: the history and comparative assessment of the systems of protection of Indications of Geographical Origin adopted in the European jurisdictions from the beginning of the 20th century; the empirical analysis of the trends emerging from the practice of EUGIs; and the policy debates surrounding them and their importance for the fulfilment of the general goals of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The result is an innovative and rounded analysis of the very nature of the EU Law of GIs that, starting from its past, investigates the present and the likely future of this Intellectual Property Right. This book provides an interesting and innovative contribution to the field and will be of interest to GI scholars and Intellectual Property students, as well as anyone willing to gain a better understanding of this compelling area of law.

Is it really true that the trade agreements pursued in the World Trade Organisation and through regional negotiations are vital for eliminating world poverty and achieving a sustainable future? Or is trade liberalization the villain of the piece? Clive George's provocative book examines the evidence, exposes the myths, and presents challenging new proposals for comprehensive reform of the global trading system. Based on ten years of in-depth research into the impacts of trade agreements on sustainable development, it reveals that few of the claims made by the major players stand up to scrutiny, while many of the counter-claims lack rigour in their analysis of key issues. It cuts through the rhetoric with illuminating anecdotes from the author's experience of working with trade negotiators, to present a more realistic view of their motives and the outcomes they achieve. Each of the components of the negotiation agenda is examined in turn, to identify the most likely economic, social and environmental impacts of liberalising trade in manufactured goods, agriculture, services, investment, intellectual property rights and the other rules by which trade is governed. In some cases the rhetoric approximates to reality while in many others the negotiated outcomes do more harm than good to both development and its environmental sustainability. From its analysis of the relationships between trade, social transformation, economic growth and environmental integrity, the book concludes with proposals for how the world trade regime might be reformed to help tackle the world's most pressing problems instead of making them worse.

The growth of world trade has been stagnant in recent times; trade liberalisation now has been challenged. The recent rise of anti-globalisation calls for a better integration in East Asia. How should East Asia manage its openness? This book provides profound analyses on rules of origins, non-tariff measures, restrictiveness in services and investment. It gives insight into how East Asian countries should shape its trade, investment and industrial policies. This book helps to answer what kind of a better integration it should be, and how East Asia can realise it.

This book advances the international debate on the development of e-commerce with focus on emerging ASEAN economies. It provides readers insights on Asia's needs and efforts to improve the regional legal and economic conditions to support e-commerce. This book looks at the rules and regulations on e-commerce, and e-commerce for inclusiveness growth. It provides insights from several ASEAN member states and discovers the requirements for Asian countries to better grasp the new juncture of growth associated with economic digitalization, which also have deep implications on continuous regional integration and community-building.

Providing the first book-length analysis of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), this volume asks how can it be ensured that the AfCFTA is effectively implemented to deliver inclusive trade in Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will cover an African market of 1.2 billion people and GDP of over $2.5 trillion, across all 55 member States of the African Union. Yet, trade policy increasingly appreciates that free trade is not enough; trade must also be inclusive to deliver developmental benefits. With contributions from leading trade policy authors across Africa and beyond, this book offers insights into the development and implementation of the AfCFTA and serves as a reference for stakeholders interested in trade in Africa more broadly. The contributors assess what important lessons can be drawn from the experiences of regional integration in and beyond Africa, including from success stories like ASEAN as well as from failures like the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. An important new work for researchers and policymakers focusing on African trade and economic policy, and trade policy more generally.

The economic upturn and performance of Mauritius is a far cry from predictions made in the 1960s. The island's remarkable economic performance since the 1980s can been attributed to a multitude of factors instrumental to the success of the economy, including structural reforms, outward looking export orientated strategies, diversification in the manufacturing, tourism and financial services sectors amongst others, sound economic governance and institutions, and significant investment in human capital. This book attempts to provide a detailed analysis of the various key ingredients which have helped to propel Mauritius to its current status. The various chapters provide important readings for both academics and policymakers, with the final chapter providing key policy strategies which the government needs to implement to help Mauritius graduate to the next level of development: namely to that of a high-income economy and, in moving out of the middle-income trap, laying the foundations for future growth and shared prosperity in the light of both domestic challenges and global constraints.

Once Europe's supreme maritime power, Spain by the mid-eighteenth century was facing fierce competition from England and France. England, in particular, had successfully mustered the financial resources necessary to confront its Atlantic rivals by mobilizing both aristocracy and merchant bourgeoisie in support of its imperial ambitions. Spain, meanwhile, remained overly dependent on the profits of its New World silver mines to finance both metropolitan and colonial imperatives, and England's naval superiority constantly threatened the vital flow of specie.

When Charles III ascended the Spanish throne in 1759, then, after a quarter-century as ruler of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Spain and its colonial empire were seriously imperiled. Two hundred years of Hapsburg rule, followed by a half-century of ineffectual Bourbon "reforms," had done little to modernize Spain's increasingly antiquated political, social, economic, and intellectual institutions. Charles III, recognizing the pressing need to renovate these institutions, set his Italian staff--notably the Marques de Esquilache, who became Secretary of the Consejo de Hacienda (the Exchequer)--to this formidable task.

In "Apogee of Empire," Stanley J. Stein and Barbara H. Stein trace the attempt, initially under Esquilache's direction, to reform the Spanish establishment and, later, to modify and modernize the relationship between the metropole and its colonies. Within Spain, Charles and his architects of reform had to be mindful of determining what adjustments could be made that would help Spain confront its enemies without also radically altering the Hapsburg inheritance. As described in impressive detail by the authors, the bitter, seven-year conflict that ensued between reformers and traditionalists ended in a coup in 1766 that forced Charles to send Esquilache back to Italy. After this setback at home, Charles still hoped to effect constructive change in Spain's imperial system, primarily through the incremental implementation of a policy of "comercio libre" (free-trade). These reforms, made half-heartedly at best, failed as well, and by 1789 Spain would find itself ill prepared for the coming decades of upheaval in Europe and America.

An in-depth study of incremental response by an old imperial order to challenges at home and abroad, "Apogee of Empire" is also a sweeping account of the personalities, places, and policies that helped to shape the modern Atlantic world.

Transnational tendencies have led to a pluralistic legal environment in which emerging and established legal actors, regulatory levels and types of legal norms co-exist, compete and interact in complex ways. This challenges and changes not only how legal norms are created, applied and enforced but also when these actors, norms and processes are considered legitimate. The book investigates how states and non-state actors interact in transnational settings and pays attention to the understudied question of what effect transnational tendencies have on the legitimacy of legal actors, norms and processes. It seeks to confront three fundamental questions: Has legitimacy significantly changed? Who creates norms and with which consequences for legal procedures and norms? The book considers the question of legitimacy from a broad range of legal perspectives, including environmental law, human rights law and commercial law. It maps out the contours of legitimacy today with an emphasis on the reactions of central actors like states and courts to transnational tendencies. The book thereby provides a conceptually powerful structure within which to further debate the complexity of transnational tendencies in law and proposes innovative approaches to problem solving while designing pathways for further reflection on the development of law in a transnational context.

This book examines the subtle ways in which rhetorics of sacrifice have been re-appropriated into the workings of the global political economy in the 21st century. It presents an in-depth analysis of the ways in which ritual practices are deployed, under a diverse set of political and legal contexts, as legitimation devices in rendering exploitative structures of the prevailing political-economic system to appear inescapable, or even palatable. To this end, this work explores the deeper rhetorical and legal basis of late-capitalist governmentality by critically interrogating its mythical and ritual dimensions. The analysis gives due consideration to the contemporary incarnations of ritual sacrifice in the transnational neoliberal discourse: from those exploitative yet inescapable contractual obligations, to calendrical multi-billion dollar 'offerings' to the insatiable needs of 'too-big-to-fail' corporations. The first part of the book provides a working interpretative framework for understanding the politics of ritual sacrifice - one that not only accommodates multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary knowledge of ritual practices, but that can also be employed in the integrated analysis of sacrificial rituals as political rhetoric under divergent historical and societal contexts. The second conducts a series of case studies that cut across the wide variability of ritual public takings in late-capitalism. The book concludes by highlighting several key common doctrines of public ritual sacrifice which have been broadly observed in its case studies. These common doctrines tend to reflect the rhetorical and legal foundations for public takings under hegemonic market-driven governance. They define 'appropriate and proper' occasions for suspending pre-existing legal protections to regularize otherwise transgressive transfers of rights and possessions for the 'greater good' of the economic order.

This textbook explains the politics of free trade agreements in Japan and South Korea. Examining free trade agreements in Japan and South Korea since the late 1990s, Choi and Oh analyze the role of institutions, political leaders, sectoral interests, and civil society in placing the two countries on alternate paths of free trade agreements at different points in time. Systematically approaching the politics of free trade agreements from each perspective, they expose the domestic political underpinnings of free trade agreements in a global trade order that is increasingly fraught with conflict. A valuable textbook for students of international political economy and international trade in East Asia, particularly those focusing on Japan and South Korea. It's also a useful resource for scholars and policymakers looking to better understand trade politics in East Asia.

In less than three decades, China has emerged as the world's largest exporting nation with more than $2 trillion exports annually. China's quick rise as a leading exporter in the world is an unprecedented miracle. There are many theories explaining this miracle. This book adopts the global value chain (GVC) approach to analyze the Chinese export miracle over the last four decades. It focuses on the tasks rather than the gross export value and emphasizes the organizations of modern trade rather than the national comparative advantage. The GVC approach systematically explains how, in less than four decades China has evolved from a closed economy to the world's No. 1 exporting nation; why China, a developing country, has exported more high-technology products than labor-intensive products to the US; and why almost half of the US trade deficit has originated from China.The book identifies three spillover effects of GVCs that originated from brands, technology and product innovation, and distribution and retail networks of GVCs lead firms. It argues that China's deep integration with GVCs has been a decisive factor for China's emergence as the world's No.1 exporting nation and the champion of high-technology exports. In addition, this book uses iPhone trade and the operation of Apple, the largest factory-less American manufacturer, to explain how current trade statistics exaggerate China's exports to and its trade surplus with the US on the one hand, and underestimate US exports on the other hand.By using the experience of the Chinese mobile phone industry, the book argues that the GVC strategy can be a short-cut for developing countries to achieve industrialization and enable firms of developing countries to enter high-technology sectors despite their intrinsic disadvantages. At this end, the book also discusses the future trajectory of China-centered GVCs under the shadow of the US-China trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through further technological development and increased globalization, conducting busines abroad has become easier, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). However, the legal issues associated with international commerce have not lessened in complexity, including the role of non-state rules. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of non-state rules in international commercial contracts. Non-state rules have legal authority in the national and international sphere, but the key question is how this legal authority can be understood and established. To answer this question this book examines first what non-state rules are and how their legal authority can be measured, it then analyses how non-state rules are applied in different scenarios, including as the applicable law, as a source of law, or to interpret either the law or the contract. Throughout this analysis three other important questions are also answered: when can non-state rules be applied? when are they applied? and how are they applied? The book concludes with a framework and classification that leads to a deeper understanding of the legal authority of non-state rules. Providing a transnational perspective on this important topic, this book will appeal to anyone researching international commercial law. It will also be a valuable resource for arbitrators and anyone working in international commercial litigation.

The book expresses the views of the contributors about the present and future of Central America. Only by becoming more efficient in productivity, or by exporting non-traditional products, can this region meet the challenge ahead. Central American countries are accepting the challenge by diversifying their economies and accepting the advice of the world in terms of privatization, freedom of trade, capital, and free movement of labor. Central America needs a market for all of its products, and understanding for its new economic structure.

This book critically analyses the World Trade Organization's approach to "special and differential treatment" (SDT) to argue that it is founded on seeking exemptions from WTO obligations, instead of creating an enabling environment for developing countries to integrate fully into the multilateral trading system. Through six key sections: United States Proposal on Special and Differential Treatment Responses to United States Proposal The Evolution of Differential Treatment Failure of the Current Approach to Differential Treatment Complications Created by China's Emergence in the Global Economy An Alternative Approach to Differential Treatment this book explores how, by adopting a new evidence-based, case-by-case approach to SDT, the development of the poorest countries can best be advanced, while at the same time ensuring that advanced developing countries carry their weight in the organization. It will be of interest to scholars and students of international trade law and political science, as well as trade practitioners such as lawyers, diplomats, and analysts.

Ideas are the fuel of industry and the entertainment business. Likewise, manufacturers receive suggestions for new products or improvements to existing products, and retailers frequently receive ideas for new marketing campaigns. Many ideas are not new and may be used by anyone without the risk of incurring any legal liability, but some ideas are novel and valuable. If the originator of a potentially useful idea does not have the financial resources to exploit the idea, he or she may submit it to another, with the expectation of receiving compensation if the idea is used. Although an extensive body of intellectual property law exists to protect the rights of inventors, authors, and businesses that own valuable brands or confidential proprietary information, raw ideas receive no protection. Nevertheless, the originator of a potentially useful and marketable idea is not without legal recourse. The courts have developed, through a long line of common law precedents, legal protection for novel and concrete ideas under certain circumstances. The originator of an idea can rely on contract law, whereby the recipient may expressly or impliedly agree to pay for the idea. Alternatively, if the idea is disclosed in confidence, its unauthorized use by the recipient allows the originator of the idea to recover compensation. Finally, some courts have treated the ownership of ideas as quasi-property rights.

After the collapse of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization talks, agricultural subsidies and market liberalization went high on the political agenda. This work features historical documents that address the thorny relationship between trade and politics, the appropriate role of international regulation, and domestic concerns.

After the collapse of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization talks, agricultural subsidies and market liberalization went high on the political agenda. This work features historical documents that address the thorny relationship between trade and politics, the appropriate role of international regulation, and domestic concerns.

**Winner of the UALE Book Award 2021** Amazon is the most powerful corporation on the planet and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, has become the richest person in history, and one of the few people to profit from a global pandemic. Its dominance has reshaped the global economy itself: we live in the age of 'Amazon Capitalism'. 'One-click' instant consumerism and its immense variety of products has made Amazon a worldwide household name, with over 60% of US households subscribing to Amazon Prime. In turn, these subscribers are surveilled by the corporation. Amazon is also one of the world's largest logistics companies, resulting in weakened unions and lowered labor standards. The company has also become the largest provider of cloud-computing services and home surveillance systems, not to mention the ubiquitous Alexa. With cutting-edge analyses, this book looks at the many dark facets of the corporation, including automation, surveillance, tech work, workers' struggles, algorithmic challenges, the disruption of local democracy and much more. The Cost of Free Shipping shows how Amazon represents a fundamental shift in global capitalism that we should name, interrogate and be primed to resist.

Emerging Pathogens at the Poles: Disease and International Trade Law explores the applicability and possible complicating issues of the SPS Protocol to the Polar Regions in light of emerging pathogeneses and unknown host and environmental susceptibility and resilience. It examines the current literature on emerging pathogeneses in the Arctic and Antarctic and the relationship pathogeneses has with human development and movement of goods and people in spreading pathogens in the Polar Regions. Given the endemic nature of the Polar environment and the increasing interest in these regions for tourism and industry, this topic is important to address. The major component of the work is on the relevance of the SPS Protocol and the GATT 1994 Article XX(b) exception on human, animal and plant health as a barrier to trade which is examined in the context of its application to the Arctic and Antarctic. This book is an introduction to the interdisciplinary thinking required, across both science and law, in order to appreciate the significance of global trade barriers in reducing disease transmission and spread. The spread of pathogens across boundaries has become an important geopolitical issue and the provisions of international trade law may prove decisive in limiting or exacerbating the spread of disease. Academics and students with initial knowledge of the international trade regime, or those with initial studies in health or Polar medicine, will find this cross-over a useful introduction to the complications of food, trade and disease.

After the collapse of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization talks, agricultural subsidies and market liberalization went high on the political agenda. This work features historical documents that address the thorny relationship between trade and politics, the appropriate role of international regulation, and domestic concerns.

After the collapse of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization talks, agricultural subsidies and market liberalization went high on the political agenda. This work features historical documents that address the thorny relationship between trade and politics, the appropriate role of international regulation, and domestic concerns.

This study explores the relationship between China's foreign trade reforms and the domestic economic reforms that undergird China's policy of openness in the 1980s and 1990s. It provides the first comprehensive analysis of how China has emerged since reform began in 1978 as one of the most dynamic trading nations in the world. It examines both the external policy changes, such as the decentralization of trading authority and the devaluation of the domestic currency, and internal economic reforms such as the increased use of markets and prices. The volume concludes with an analysis of the sources of China's export growth and outlines further domestic economic reforms that the author believes will be required to sustain China's increasing integration into the world economy.

Originally published in 1990. This book argues that a better understanding of the social impact of decommissioning - in areas such as jobs, waste, economics, opinion, law, public policy, land-use and legacies - is vital to the successful application of any technical solution. The issues raised are divided into three areas which deal with those problems that have already been recognized, the questions that decommissioning itself will raise and those that may result from likely future developments. The book aims to initiate a process of appraisal by examining several of the more obvious social ties to decommissioning.

The Political Economy of International Commodity Cartels examines how international commodity cartels in the 1930s were impacted not only by commercial rivalry, but also by international trade political and diplomatic concerns. This work presents the rise and decline of the European Timber Exporters' Convention (ETEC) and analyses how firms navigated through the cartel game under increasing international competition, pressures from the national governments, and the interventionist endeavours of the League of Nations. Cartels are often associated with, in the standard economic interpretation, business collusion. However, in using vast archive sources and historical methodology, the chapters in this book shed light onto how international relations shaped cartels. The rise of British protectionism, the emergence of the Soviet Union as an industrial power, and the economic rapprochement of the League of Nations in the early 1930s created a wave of political and diplomatic challenges in the timber trading countries and affected cartelisation. Timber firms in the biggest producer countries-Finland and Sweden-were uninterested in international cartel collaboration, but under pressure joined the ETEC nevertheless. This book makes a strong contribution to the fields of business history and cartel studies. It is an essential read for economic historians interested in how political pressure shaped international cartels and how cartels became avenues of diplomacy.