Americans have contradictory beliefs about how international trade affects the country as whole and specific communities. Yet notwithstanding the heat of political rhetoric, these beliefs are rarely mobilized into political action. Alexandra Guisinger examines this apparent disconnect by examining the bases of Americans' trade preferences in today's post-industrial economy and why do so few politicians attempt to take advantage of these preferences. The changing American economy has made the direct effects of trade less obvious, making the benefits and costs more difficult to determine. In addition, information sources, including the media, have changed in content and influence over time, their influence varies across different groups of individuals, and partly as a result individuals hold countervailing beliefs about the effect of trade on their own and others' economic outcomes. American Opinion on Trade provides a multi-method examination of the sources of attitudes, drawing on survey data and experimental surveys; it also traces how trade issues become intertwined with attitudes toward redistribution as well as gender and race.

Northern Laos has become a prominent spot in large-scale, top-down mappings and studies of neoliberal globalisation and infrastructural development linking Thailand and China, and markets further beyond. Yet in the common narrative, in which Laos appears as a weak victim helplessly exposed to its larger neighbours, attention is seldom paid to local voices. This book fills this gap. Building on long-term multi-sited fieldwork, it accompanies northern Lao cross-border traders closely in their transnational worlds of mobilities, social relations, economic experimentation and aspiration. Cross-Border Traders in Northern Laos: Mastering Smallness demonstrates that these traders' indispensable but often invisible role in the everyday workings of the China-Laos-Thailand borderland economy relies on their rhetoric and practices of 'smallness'-of framing their transnational trade activities in a self-deprecating manner and stressing their economic inferiority. Decoding their discursive surface of insignificance, this ethnography of 'smallness' foregrounds remarkable transnational social and economic skills that are mostly invisible in Sino-Southeast Asian borderland scholarship.

Introduction to International Trade Finance covers the complete cycle of international trade and explains the roles of the specialist operators.

Introduction to International Trade Finance aims to:
*Guide the reader through every phase of typical trade transactions, examining in detail the relationships between the various parties involved and explaining the facilities employed.
*Demonstrate the range of banking instruments and techniques available to exporters and importers which enable them to enter into contracts, confident that whichever method of settlement they agree upon can be provided with the minimum of risk.
*Provide a firm understanding of when to apply a particular form of finance, what risks are involved and how they can be counteracted
Now updated to include the UCP600.
*Inspired from the basic entry level training courses that have been developed by major international banks worldwide.
*Will enable MSc Finance students, MBA students and those already in the finance profession to gain an understanding of the basic information and principles underlying the topic under discussion
*Questions with answers, study topics, practical "real world" examples and text with an extensive bibliography and references ensure learning outcomes can be immediately applied
Now updated to include the UCP600.

Principles of International Economic Law provides a comprehensive overview of the central topics in international economic law, with an emphasis on the interplay between the different economic and political interests on both the international and domestic levels. Following recent tendencies, the book sets the classic topics of international economic law, like WTO law, investment protection, commercial law and monetary law in context with aspects of human rights, environmental protection and the legitimate claims of developing countries. The book draws a concise picture of the architecture of international economic law with all its complexities, without getting lost in fragmented details. Providing a perfect introductory text to the field of international economic law, the book thoroughly analyses legal developments within their wider political, economic, or social context. Topics covered range from codes of conduct for multinational enterprises, to the human rights implications of the exploitation of natural resources. The book demonstrates the economic foundations and economic implications of legal frameworks. It puts into profile the often complex relationship between, on the one hand, international standards on liberalization and economic rationality and, on the other, state sovereignty and national preferences. It describes the new forms of economic cooperation which have developed in recent decades, such as the growing number of transnational companies in the private sector, and forms of cooperation between states such as the G8 or G20. This fully updated second edition covers new aspects and developments including the growing importance of corporate social responsibility, mega-regional-agreements like CETA, TTIP, and TPP, trade and investment related aspects of human rights law.

Trading in oil futures and options is an introduction to price risk management in the worldwide oil industry. With numerous practical examples, it requires no prior knowledge and should be read by everyone involved in the industry.
Although aimed primarily at those new to risk management it will also provide a useful theoretical background to more experienced managers and it will show those in other markets how the oil industry uses futures and other derivatives.
This book concentrates on all the risk management tools available to everyone from crude oil producer to refined product consumer and explains the theory of futures, exchange options and over the counter trading.

This book provides a basic guide to the iron and steel industry in a single convenient reference source. The origins of steel and its manufacture are explained first, with a basic outline of the principal steel grades. The author then goes on to look at production and consumption and its commercial significance. He also analyses the global trade in steel and shows its importance to the metals industry as alloying elements and coatings. The final section considers the future for steel, the changing trade patterns, environmental issues and the threat of substitutes to the industry.

This two-volume collection, supported by an in-depth introduction that addresses origins, actuality, endgame and afterlife, brings together for the first time contemporary documentation and more recent scholarship to give a broad picture of Japan's Treaty Ports and their inhabitants at work and play in the second half of the nineteenth century. The material selected, shows how the ports' existence and the Japanese struggle to end their special status, impacted on many aspects of modern Japan beyond their primary role as trading stations. Compared with their counterparts in China, the Japanese treaty ports cast a small shadow. They were far fewer - only four really mattered - and lasted for just under fifty years, while the Chinese ports made their centenary. Yet the Japanese ports were important. The thriving modern cities of Yokohama and Kobe had their origins as treaty ports. Nagasaki, a major centre of foreign trade since at least the sixteenth century, may not have owed so much to its treaty-port status, but it was a factor in its modern development.

In its first seven years, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) tripled trade and quintupled foreign investment among the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, increasing its share of the world economy. In 2001, however, North America peaked. Trade slowed among the three, manufacturing jobs shrunk, and illegal migration and drug-related violence soared. Europe caught up, and China leaped ahead. In The North American Idea , eminent scholar and policy-maker Robert A. Pastor explains that NAFTA's mandate was too limited to address the new North American agenda. Instead of offering bold initiatives like a customs union to expand trade, the three leaders thought small. Interest groups stalemated the small ideas as they inhibited the bolder proposals, and the governments accomplished almost nothing. To overcome this resistance and re-invigorate the continent, the leaders need to start with an idea based on a principle of interdependence. If one country fails, all three are harmed, and if one grows, they all benefit. Drawing on first-hand experience as a policy-maker and analyst, Pastor shows how this idea-once woven into the national consciousness of the three countries-could mobilize public support for continental solutions to problems that have confounded each nation working on its own. To stimulate trade and reduce illegal migration, for example, the three countries could set up a fund to invest in the continent's infrastructure. Such a fund would be impossible without leadership and an idea of the continent's current importance and its future promise. Providing essential historical context and challenging readers to view the continent in a new way, Robert Pastor offers an expansive vision and a detailed blueprint for a more integrated, dynamic, and equitable North America.

The Research Handbook on Trade Wars presents an informative and in-depth account of the origins, dynamics, and implications of trade wars, which are growing both in scale and scope in today's increasingly interdependent global economy. Timely and comprehensive, it provides a holistic understanding of trade wars, including not only the domestic and international factors that influence the pattern of trade war onset and escalation, but also the stakeholders and processes that shape the outcomes of such highly intense trade conflicts. Leading scholars in the field present original and thought-provoking research material, critically engage with academic and policy debates, and make theoretical contributions as well as valuable policy recommendations. In addition to its in-depth analysis of the global, domestic, political, and economic origins of trade wars, this Research Handbook also examines the variation in the scope of trade wars, the forum for dispute settlement, the factors that influence the pattern of dispute escalation, and the linkages between national security considerations and commercial conflicts. Providing the frameworks necessary for understanding the political and economic logics of trade wars, this Handbook will be a valuable source of reference for researchers, government officials, businesses, and post-graduate students interested in international political economy, international economics, economic statecraft, public policy, and international relations.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a modified and modernized version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), will continue to govern most economic relationships in North America, including the more than $1.3 trillion in annual regional trade in goods and services, for the foreseeable future. USMCA preserves the bulk of the NAFTA structures that permit North American manufacturers to compete effectively with their European and Asian counterparts in North American and foreign markets. Once in effect, USMCA should largely resolve the chilling effect on investment and new hiring generated by three years of uncertainty over NAFTA's future. This book provides a detailed analysis and critique of the provisions of the USMCA and the USMCA's relation to NAFTA. It is designed to assist lawyers and non-lawyers alike, including law, economics and public policy scholars, business professionals and governmental officials who require an understanding of one of the worlds' most economically and politically significant regional trade agreements.

This insightful Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the most recent developments in the academic debate on the numerous and complex linkages between international trade and climate change. Adopting a broad interdisciplinary approach, it brings together perspectives from scholars in economics, political science and legal studies to confront the critical environmental challenges posed by globalization. Initial chapters provide an overview of the key debates related to international trade and climate policy, engaging with empirical data from the US and China to assess the impact of new trade initiatives and policy on greenhouse gas emissions, carbon leakage and the increase of trade in carbon-intensive products. Contributors propose policy options that align international trade with climate change mitigation and address crucial legal and practical implications, including the implementation of Border Carbon Adjustments and international trade disputes. Offering critical and empirically-based perspectives on the future of international trade policy, this timely Handbook is crucial reading for scholars, researchers and graduate students in political science, public policy and climate research. Policymakers will also benefit from its unique and insightful policy recommendations.

The third edition of EU Customs Law provides a fully updated treatment of legislation, new treaties and cases in the two courts of the EU especially but also in Member States. This volume also includes commentary on the Union Customs Code and secondary legislation, and increased coverage of areas such as the wider role of customs authorities apart from the collection of customs duty, such as security of goods and post 9/11 developments generally, the history of customs unions and their implications for governments, non-EU customs unions to which EU law is relevant, and the inter-relation between customs duty and direct tax.

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected global trade. While factories have stopped production worldwide due to COVID-19, global trade has also been adversely affected by the pandemic. The international trade of the world's top exporting countries has begun to decline. Although it is too early to judge the impact of the pandemic on world trade, as the virus has not yet been eradicated, research into the cause-effect relationship between these two phenomena is necessary to understand the magnitude of its impact as well as possible solutions to the problem. The Transformation of Global Trade in a New World provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest findings in the field of international business and internationalization. It addresses the asymmetric impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international trade and the methods of entry into foreign markets together with the future prospects of global trade in an era of globalization. Covering topics such as economic crisis, green finance, and labor force sustainability, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for business leaders and executives, economists, logistics professionals, sociologists, students and faculty of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

In Power and Regionalism in Latin America: The Politics of MERCOSUR, Laura Gomez-Mera examines the erratic patterns of regional economic cooperation in the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), a political-economic agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and, recently, Venezuela that comprises the world's fourth-largest regional trade bloc. Despite a promising start in the early 1990s, MERCOSUR has had a tumultuous and conflict-ridden history. Yet it has survived, expanding in membership and institutional scope. What explains its survival, given a seemingly contradictory mix of conflict and cooperation? Through detailed empirical analyses of several key trade disputes between the bloc's two main partners, Argentina and Brazil, Gomez-Mera proposes an explanation that emphasizes the tension between and interplay of two sets of factors: power asymmetries within and beyond the region, and domestic-level politics. Member states share a common interest in preserving MERCOSUR as a vehicle for increasing the region's leverage in external negotiations. Gomez-Mera argues that while external vulnerability and overlapping power asymmetries have provided strong and consistent incentives for regional cooperation in the Southern Cone, the impact of these systemic forces on regional outcomes also has been crucially mediated by domestic political dynamics in the bloc's two main partners, Argentina and Brazil. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, the unequal distribution of power within the bloc has had a positive effect on the sustainability of cooperation. Despite Brazil's reluctance to adopt a more active leadership role in the process of integration, its offensive strategic interests in the region have contributed to the durability of institutionalized collaboration. However, as Gomez-Mera demonstrates, the tension between Brazil's global and regional power aspirations has also added significantly to the bloc's ineffectiveness.

The main objective of this book is to offer an overview and a critical assessment of current connectivity issues in Asia and Europe, seen from an industrial perspective. Critical insights into the contemporary debate on connectivity during times of crisis, which has led to significant economic and social disruptions, are offered throughout the book. European and Asian countries seek to "bounce forward" and not "bounce back" as they navigate the complex economic recovery process. Innovation and investment emerge as critical players to help an economic recovery that shifts towards a more resilient and environmentally friendly approach, to ensure that the world economies stay connected. The global health crisis has revealed that, more than ever before, ubiquitous connectivity, underpinned by pioneering innovation, is a must. As such, governments worldwide need to ensure that businesses and societies emerge stronger and more resilient from existing and emerging crises by laying solid foundations that help to circumnavigate future disruptions of a global magnitude.

Worldwide supplies of sugar and cotton were impacted dramatically as the U.S. Civil War dragged on. New areas of production entered these lucrative markets, particularly in the South Pacific, and plantation agriculture grew substantially in disparate areas such as Australia, Fiji, and Hawaii. The increase in production required an increase in labor; in the rush to fill the vacuum, freebooters and other unsavory characters began a slave trade in Melanesians and Polynesians that continued into the twentieth century. ""The White Pacific"" ranges over the broad expanse of Oceania to reconstruct the history of ""blackbirding"" (slave trading) in the region. It examines the role of U.S. citizens (many of them ex-slaveholders and ex-confederates) in the trade and its roots in Civil War dislocations. What unfolds is a dramatic tale of unfree labor, conflicts between formal and informal empire, white supremacy, threats to sovereignty in Hawaii, the origins of a White Australian policy, and the rise of Japan as a Pacific power and putative protector. It also pieces together a wonderfully suggestive history of the African American presence in the Pacific. Based on deft archival research in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, the United States, and Great Britain, ""The White Pacific"" uncovers a heretofore hidden story of race, labor, war, and intrigue that contributes significantly to the emerging intersectional histories of race and ethnicity.

Due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, Australia and South Asian Countries have experienced significant disruption in international trade, investment, travel for business and higher education, tourism, and supply chains. It is important to reflect and address some of the key issues and challenges faced by Australia in this sector and analyze potential recovery strategies for the future. Inevitably, in the coming decade, Australia will need to pursue its interests in a more competitive and contested world. This pandemic has witnessed an intensified trade war of Australia with its strongest bilateral trade partner China, threatening an increasing number of industries in Australia such as agribusiness, forestry, and mining. A nearsighted solution to this problem does not seem feasible, given the recent diplomatic fallout between the two nations. Australia thereby needs an alternative strategic bilateral coalition to combat this situation and progress towards a sustainable economic goal. Based on the above scenario, the core objective of this book is to suggest and explore that South-Asian nations could be the prominent focal point for Australia to move forward, as it is a large market with population nearing two billion. This book will provide an overview of the Australian trade and investment relationship with South Asian Countries, identify trends and developments of the bilateral trade relationship of Australia with South Asian countries (in strategic areas of trade, travel, investment, and education), and will shed light on the future opportunities for development and partnerships for economic growth, trade in goods and services and tourism between Australia and South Asia. It will also display how Australia can play a leading role amongst the SAARC countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) to cooperate for their individual national economic development and growth objectives and be best prepared to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the future.

The 1970s are of particular relevance for understanding the socio-economic changes still shaping Western societies today. The collapse of traditional manufacturing industries like coal and steel, shipbuilding, and printing, as well as the rise of the service sector, contributed to a notable sense of decline and radical transformation. Building on the seminal work of Lutz Raphael and Anselm Doering-Manteuffel, Nach dem Boom, which identified a "social transformation of revolutionary quality" that ushered in "digital financial capitalism," this volume features a series of essays that reconsider the idea of a structural break in the 1970s. Contributors draw on case studies from France, the Netherlands, the UK, the US, and Germany to examine the validity of the "after the boom" hypothesis. Since the Boom attempts to bridge the gap between the English and highly productive German debates on the 1970s.

As the ice around the Arctic landmass recedes, the territory is becoming a flashpoint in world affairs. New trade routes, cutting thousands of miles off journeys, are available, and the Arctic is thought to be home to enormous gas and oil reserves. The territorial lines are new and hazy. This book looks at how Russia deals with the outside world vis a vis the Arctic. Given Russia's recent bold foreign policy interventions, these are crucial issues and the realpolitik practiced by the Russian state is essential for understanding the Arctic's future.Here, Geir Honneland brings together decades of cutting-edge research - investigating the political contexts and international tensions surrounding Russia's actions. Honneland looks specifically at 'region-building' and environmental politics of fishing and climate change, on nuclear safety and nature preservation, and also analyses the diplomatic relations surrounding clashes with Norway and Canada, as well as at the governance of the Barents Sea. The Politics of the Arctic is a crucial addition to our understanding of contemporary International Relations concerning the Polar North.