Agricultural Policy Reform and the WTO provides insights into the effects of the Uruguay Round WTO agreement on agricultural policy and global markets, and considers what is at stake in the Doha Development Agenda Round. The contributors to the book deal with a broad range of topics, including the evolution of domestic and trade policies in the last ten years across developed and developing countries and proposals made in the agricultural negotiation regarding market access, export subsidies and domestic support; new issues emergent in agricultural trade negotiations are also explored, including: * interaction between national regulatory systems and the deepening integration of the international trade regime * intellectual property rights protection * food safety * quality regulations * antidumping trade protection. Finally, the future of international trade relations is discussed, in particular the implications of enforcing domestic regulations to comply with international rules. This rich collection of research and analysis will be invaluable to researchers, academics and policymakers with an interest in agricultural policy analysis and international economics.

The book explores the evolving economics of gold as a global commodity as well as the production and trade of gold in and from the African continent. The growth of gold as an increasingly important and diverse source of African wealth is examined, alongside the impact that the rise of China in the 21st century has had on the demand for gold. The volatility of the gold price has increased as a result of the dramatic decline of gold demand for manufacturing purposes. Gold is Africa's second largest export after oil and is a perfect metaphor for a continent rich in resources while so much of its population lives in such dire poverty. The artisanal and small scale gold mining (ASGM) sector, is surprisingly widely perceived as being beneficial to the development of Africa despite its exploitation and dreadful health and environmental consequences. African Gold: Production, Trade and Economic Development considers policy issues regarding the gold mining sector, the economics of beneficiation, the retreat of jewelry manufacturing across the continent as well as 'Africa's golden future'. It is a relevant book for both academics and policymakers interested in Africa, natural resource, and development economics.

The legal, political and economic rationales that underpin trade policy are reflected in the establishment and implementation of EU trade relations with the rest of the world. This comprehensive Handbook provides readers with a multidisciplinary overview of the major perspectives, actors and challenges in contemporary EU trade relations. Changes in institutional dynamics, Brexit, the politicisation of trade, competing foreign policy agendas, and adaptation to trade patterns of value chains and the digital and knowledge economy are reshaping the European Union's trade policy. The authors tackle how these challenges frame the aims, processes and effectiveness of trade policy making in the context of the EU trade relations with developed, developing and emerging states in the global economy. This Handbook presents students and practitioners with an accessible introduction to the policy processes in the EU?'s trade policy. Policy-makers, especially those outside of the EU, will also gain key knowledge regarding the trade policies of the EU by reading this. Contributors include: J. Adriaensen, L. Choukrounel, P. De Lombaerde, F. De Ville, M. Eagleton-Pierce, J. Eckhardt, M. Filadoro Alikhanoff, C. Gammage, M.J. Garcia, T. Heron, W.A. Kerr, S. Khorana, L. Kuhnhardt, D. Martens, P. Murray-Evans, L. Nilsson, J. Orbie, L. Perdikis, N. Perdikis, G. Rosen, G. Siles-Brugge, A. Smith, M. Smith, N.R. Smith, M. Shu, L. van der Putte, S. Velluti, W.G. Voss

The Polar North is known to be home to large gas and oil reserves and its position holds significant trading and military advantages, yet the maritime boundaries of the region remain ill-defined. In the twenty-first century the Arctic is undergoing profound change. As the sea ice melts, a result of accelerating climate change, global governance has become vital. In this first of three volumes, the latest research and analysis from the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, the world's leading Arctic research body, is brought together. Arctic Governance: Law and Politics investigates the legal and political order of the Polar North, focusing on governance structures and the Law of the Sea. Are the current mechanisms at work effective? Are the Arctic states' interests really clashing, or is the atmosphere of a more cooperative nature? Skilfully delineating policy in the region and analysing the consequences of treaty agreements, Arctic Governance's uncovering of a rather orderly 'Arctic race' will become an indispensable contribution to contemporary International Relations concerning the Polar North.

This book reprints 18 essays selected from almost 30 years of work by the author as a high level official at the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the US Treasury Department and the World Bank. These essays report some of the core analytical thinking behind positions taken by these agencies on major issues in international trade policy: e.g., the shift of view on 'trade and development' from the presumption that developing countries should receive 'special and differential treatment' to today's view that they should aggressively exploit opportunities that international trade offers. Other essays report analytical work at the US Treasury Department on proposals in the 1970s for a 'New International Economic Order' - findings that supported the more conservative line that the US government eventually took, even though the Kissinger State Department urged a more accommodating line. Some essays are highly critical, e.g., of antidumping and its use by developing countries as well as by the United States, and of the GATT/WTO system itself as a template for economic policy. Scholars and students interested in how the GATT/WTO works as a policy making system will find this collection revealing as will readers interested in a way to evaluate the impact of antidumping (and other 'trade remedies') on the national economic system and on how to construct policy mechanisms that more effectively bring the interests of all US citizens into the making of US trade policy. In addition, many of these essays are useful for courses in international economics, international relations and policy science.

In the age of globalisation, goods, services, labour and capital are crossing international borders on a scale never before known. They are creating a nationless market. Governed by both the invisible hand of business and interest and the visible hand of authority and direction, a world market can be a free-for-all, but it can also be constrained by the national interest of countries that differ greatly in their social institutions and material circumstances. This book provides a lucid and comprehensive account of contemporary international political economy. Beginning with the ideological underpinnings, it examines the globalisation of trade in goods and services and labour and capital. It relates the free economic market to social consensus and political regulation, both within sovereign countries and at the supra-national level. The book is comprehensive and interdisciplinary, incorporating philosophical, political, social and economic insights on an international scale and applying them directly to the ongoing phenomenon of globalisation. Topical and non-nation specific, it covers the WTO, EU, the transfer of technology, the multinational corporation, the exchange rate, free versus regulated trade, the status of agreements and blocs, as well as contemporary issues such as populism, xenophobia and rapid economic growth in both rich and poor nations. Accessible to specialists, students and the informed reader alike, State and Trade offers wide-ranging analysis of the politics of trade in goods and services, international investment and the migration of labour across the globe.

Economics of International Business sets out a new agenda for international business research. Mark Casson asserts that it is time to move the subject on from sterile debates about transaction cost economies and resource-based theories of the firm. Instead of focusing on the individual firm, the new agenda focuses on the global systems view of international business. A static view of the firm's environment is replaced by a dynamic view which highlights the volatility of the international business environment. Coping with volatility requires entrepreneurial skills, flexibility and the need to synthesize information on a global basis. To co-ordinate the global system properly, entrepreneurs must co-operate through social networks of trust, as well as competing. Constructing a network of joint ventures, it is argued, is simply not enough. Building on his previous book, The Organization of International Business, Mark Casson shows that with suitable modifications, the methods of economics can be used to analyse all of these issues in a rigorous way. The tools of 'business strategy' are too clumsy to address the more subtle issues, whilst descriptive approaches fail to bring key issues into sharp relief. This book is indispensable reading for all researchers and practitioners in the international business field as well as economists and academics alike.

The contributors to this book, from the US and Japan, explore the main issues involved in the international trade, foreign direct investment, and macro/financial relations of the United States and Japan and provide guidance to policymakers for measures to help overcome Japan's economic stagnation since the early 1990s.The book is divided into three parts. Part I contains an empirical analysis of trade diversion under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a theoretical analysis of time in determining the structure and effects of trade with an application to Japan, and an empirical analysis of Japan's changing import behavior. Part II is focused on foreign direct investment (FDI), trade, and the behavior and structure of Japanese firms. Part III deals with macro/financial issues of current interest and importance in Japan. The analytical focus of the chapters is intended to enhance the understanding of the issues addressed and to provide some guidance to policymakers in the design of measures that will improve economic efficiency and welfare and help to overcome the economic stagnation that Japan has experienced in the past decade or more. Economists, political scientists and policymakers will find the analysis provided in this volume invaluable in understanding the Japanese economy and economic relations between Japan and the United States.

The Economics and Ideology of Free Trade makes an important contribution to the debate on globalization by providing much needed intellectual and historical perspective on the issue of Free Trade versus Protection. The book does so by reviewing and integrating doctrinal history and past policy debates. Firstly the book deals with the doctrinal evolution of the economics of free trade from the mercantilists onwards (including the reaction against classical economics by Friedrich List and the American national economists). It then goes on to critically examine the debates, policies and events that mark over two centuries of fierce but intellectually stimulating controversy over free trade and protection (including the debate on the Corn Laws, the British Tariff Reform Controversy 1903, and Keynes on Protection). In this stimulating and highly informative volume, the author summarizes and encapsulates a vast amount of material in a singularly economical and succinct manner that will appeal to academics and students interested in the history of economic thought, international economics, economic history and also international relations.

The events in Seattle and other cities around the world demonstrate that globalisation and trade liberalisation are currently under severe pressure. There are also reasons to believe that these pressures are being translated into measures to increase the protection of domestic markets. This book addresses what are arguably the four most important origins of these pressures: macroeconomic conditions, labour policy, trade and the environment, and market imperfections.The authors first address the role of macroeconomic conditions and policies, and demonstrate how these can have a crucial role in explaining 'slippages' of trade policy. The second origin of instability is labour policy, in particular the pressures to introduce universal labour standards. The third economic origin the book considers is the relationship between trade and the environment and the attempts to link trade policies to environmental standards. The fourth origin of protectionist pressure comes from the presence of various market imperfections and the extent to which they affect competition. The authors conclude that multilateral agreements can be extremely helpful in creating the right environment for equitable trade policies, but warn that complete success can only be achieved once major hurdles are overcome in the highly controversial and politically sensitive areas of labour, environment and competition. Offering a unique perspective on the threat to globalisation, this book should be widely read by students, practitioners and policymakers in the spheres of international trade, transition and development studies, and competition, labour and environmental economics.

Over the last few decades there has been growing recognition of the importance of a peaceful and stable South China Sea for Indo-Pacific security and development, a recognition that has been underlain, paradoxically, by the increasingly precarious situation in this body of water that straddles critical shipping lanes from the Indian to the Pacific Ocean. This book informs its readership of the most recent developments in the South China Sea with insightful and prescient analyses from both legal and international relations perspectives. It delves into the policy perspectives and deliberations of the various relevant regional and extra-regional actors in the South China Sea dispute, the exercise of international law in the context of the changing regional political landscape, and the promise and pitfalls of past, current, and potential initiatives to manage and settle the dispute. Written by some of the most well-known scholars and knowledgeable insiders in the fields South China Sea studies, the collection offers a wide array of diverse views that should help enrich the ongoing global discussion on conflict management and resolution in the South China Sea.

To understand trade policy, one needs to understand the basics of international economics. This book provides nonspecialists with accessible explanations of international trade, enabling readers to appreciate the importance of current events in international trade policy. Due to the ever-increasing globalization of the U.S. economy, articles that involve international trade policy—both here and abroad—are increasingly common in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. In many cases, it is apparent that the authors of such articles lack a sound understanding of the basics of international trade policy. Similarly, many nonspecialist readers do not have the necessary background to grasp the meaning of current events in international economics. This book serves both writers and readers, providing concise, easy-to-understand overviews of the key topics necessary for journalists to write understandable articles on trade policy and for readers to understand what they are reading. The book begins with coverage of the basic framework of international economics that readers need to grasp in order to understand trade policy. The next two sections cover the tools of trade policy and the political factors that drive their use. The author discusses the history of trade policy, describes how it has evolved over time, and explains where it is headed in the future. Readers will come away with a working understanding of topics such as balance of payments, the current account, comparative advantage, government export subsidies, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Doha Round, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the European Union (EU), and the U.S. Trade Representative.

In this unique work, Jennifer Considine and William Kerr contend that while OPEC currently dominates the international oil market, Russia will be a key player in the future international energy market. Indeed, Russia's petroleum resources rival those of Saudi Arabia. More than almost any other industry, future performance is often determined by the influence of decisions made in the past. This book provides a detailed history of the development of the Russian oil economy in order to build up a comprehensive and discerning picture of its future role and significance in the global energy market of the 21st century. The authors of this path-breaking treatment of the Russian oil economy present: * an assessment of the effects of the political and macroeconomic development of the Russian Federation and former Soviet Union on the resources, reserves and infrastructure of the current oil industry * an economic evaluation of the contemporary policies and institutions in the Russian Federation, including policy recommendations and forecasts * detailed statistics on all aspects of the Russian oil industry, including reserves, production, five-year planning targets, government policy, and tax rates, from 1860-2001. The Russian Oil Economy will be of enormous interest to a wide-ranging audience, encompassing oil industry executives and analysts, investment bankers, energy consultants, energy policymakers, and those involved in the study, teaching and research of energy, Russian history and transition.

The spatial dimension of international trade theory has been neglected during most of its history. Trade barriers such as tariffs have been deemed more important. However, in an increasingly integrated world economy seeking to abolish tariffs, spatial considerations have gained in stature. On the way to fostering a spatial trade theory this book supplies a comprehensive analysis of all the different impacts of the inclusion of space and transport costs, covering orthodox trade theory, new trade theories, and economic geography. Karl Steininger also expands spatial analysis to cover spatial preferences and spatial discounting and catalogues the result of spatial production structure and environmental quality in a global economy. Finally, an empirical account is given of the trade and macro-implications of full cost pricing in transport.

Do environmental regulations harm international competitiveness? In answer to this question, this book focuses on the impact of regulatory policies on competitiveness and employment at the firm level. It investigates the trade-off between environmental regulations and competitiveness across countries and regions throughout Europe, using the food processing industry as a case study.The authors compare and contrast the experiences of similar firms across Europe to examine the different costs firms face in applying environmental regulations and the different levels of competitiveness they achieve as a result. The investigation includes a detailed and thorough comparison of the European food processing industries using 67 company case studies. The results show that firms can achieve national or international levels of competitiveness even when they face a relatively unfavourable level of regulatory costs. These important findings will almost certainly have general application to small and medium sized firms in other industries. This book will be welcomed by policymakers, practitioners, researchers and academics interested in industrial economics, environmental management and environmental economics.

This highly accessible book explains the theoretical, historical and political background of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), its impact and the debates surrounding its existence. In addition the authors provide a brief introduction to the theory of economic integration as well as a succinct overview of the evolution of the global economy, and the institutions that manage it, in the post World War II period. Key issues examined include: * how and why NAFTA emerged in the early 1990s and its performance since implementation * the economic development and commercial policy of each member country in the context of the rapidly changing global economy * NAFTA's technical strengths and limitations * the debates which still rage between its proponents and critics The team of US, Canadian and Mexican authors argue that while NAFTA has introduced novel social and environmental innovations in trade agreements, given Mexico's macroeconomic volatility, it provides a less than perfect approach for managing North America's rapidly expanding economic integration. North American Economic Integration can be used by a wide audience from students to professionals and academics from any discipline with an understanding of the basic principles of economics. Specifically, the book will be welcomed by students of international economics, political economy and international relations.

The book analyzes the evolution of the concept of comparative advantage from the eighteenth century to the present day. It examines the origins of the concept of comparative advantage, its current status within economic thought and its validity in today's global economy.This comprehensive book outlines the theories of trade and the interpretations of comparative advantage associated with, among others, the Mercantilists, Smith, Ricardo, Torrens, Longfield, Mill, Marshall, Pareto, Haberler, Heckscher, Ohlin and Samuelson, as well as present day trade theorists. A chapter is devoted to Hamilton, Rae and List, who interpreted comparative advantage dynamically by advocating its creation. The book breaks new ground by reinterpreting the theories of trade associated with prominent economists such as Ricardo, and drawing attention to valuable but lesser known contributions. It considers the new trade theory from the past two decades as a legitimate successor to the dynamic views of comparative advantage of the classical economists. This book will be required reading for students and academics with an interest in the history of economic thought and the economics (or theory) of international trade.

Power inequalities and mistrust have characterized many interstate relationships. Yet most international relations theories do not take into account power and mistrust when explaining cooperation. While some scholars argue that power relations inhibit cooperation between states, other scholars expect interstate cooperation regardless of the power relations and level of trust. Strategic Cooperation: Overcoming the Barriers of Global Anarchy argues that although states benefit from cooperation, they are also wary of the power relations between states, making cooperation difficult. Successful and cooperative bilateral relationships are formed between strong and weak states that are power asymmetric and have mistrust of one another, but they are built in such as way as to overcome the problem of power asymmetry and mistrust. This book answers how and why states that are in power asymmetry and have mistrust of one another are able to build a cooperative bilateral relationship. It argues that states forge a relationship due to strategic needs such as economic or security needs. Slobodchikoff has developed a database composed of the whole population of bilateral treaties between Russia and each of the former Soviet republics, and examines all of these bilateral relationships. He finds that Russia indeed forged relationships with the former republics based on its strategic interests. However, despite Russia's strategic interests, it had to build a bilateral relationship that would address the issues of mistrust and power asymmetry between the states. To achieve this, Russia and the former Soviet republics created treaty networks, which served to legitimize as well as legalize the independent status of each of the former republics while also increasing the cost to Russia of violating any of the treaties. This book argues that strong treaty networks account for a more cooperative relationship between states, allowing both states to cooperate by alleviating the problems of mistrust and power asymmetry.

Author Bo Kong reveals how China's international petroleum policy is shaped by the cogovernance of the country's petroleum sector by its government and national oil companies, whose interests are at cross purposes with each other. This exhaustive treatment of China's international petroleum policy examines the cogovernance of China's petroleum sector by its government and national oil companies, as they work at loggerheads with each other to shape such key policies as overseas investment, domestic price caps, and import controls in the face their country's exploding demand for foreign oil. Imported oil already accounts half of China's total consumption and is forecast to increase to 80 percent by 2030. China's International Petroleum Policy focuses on six major issues: the evolution of China's petroleum governance regime, the making of China's international petroleum policy, the international expansion of China's national oil companies, the challenges confronting Chinese oil companies on the international petroleum chessboard, Beijing's petroleum diplomacy, and the implications of China's international petroleum policy. Each chapter describes the historical and institutional context of a particular issue, the key players, and the structures and processes through which policy is developed and implemented. Draws on original documents published by the Chinese government and Chinese national oil companies, together with interviews with government officials, industry analysts, and experts in China, the United States, and Africa Includes data-rich appendices, a chronology, and a bilingual bibliography

"Wine has held its place for centuries at the heart of social and cultural life in western Europe. This book will explain how and why this came about, providing a thematic history of wine and the wine trade in Europe in the middle ages from c.1000 to c.1500. Wine was one of the earliest commodities to be traded across the whole of western Europe. Because of its commercial importance, more is probably known about the way viticulture was undertaken and wine itself was made, than the farming methods used with most other agricultural products at the time. Susan Rose addresses questions such as: Where were vines grown at this time?How was wine made and stored?Were there acknowledged distinctions in quality?How did traders operate?What were the social customs associated with wine drinking? What view was taken by moralists? How important was its association with Christian ritual? Did Islamic prohibitions on alcohol affect the wine trade? What other functions did wine have?"

Throughout history the British Atlantic has often been depicted as a series of well-ordered colonial ports that functioned as nodes of Atlantic shipping, where orderliness reflected the effectiveness of the regulatory apparatus constructed to contain Atlantic commerce. Colonial ports were governable places where British vessels, and only British vessels, were to deliver English goods in exchange for colonial produce. Yet behind these sanitized depictions lay another story, one about the porousness of commercial regulation, the informality and persistent illegality of exchanges in the British Empire, and the endurance of a culture of cross-national cooperation in the Atlantic that had been forged in the first decades of European settlement and still resonated a century later.

In "Empire at the Periphery," Christian J. Koot examines the networks that connected British settlers in New York and the Caribbean and Dutch traders in the Netherlands and in the Dutch colonies in North America and the Caribbean, demonstrating that these interimperial relationships formed a core part of commercial activity in the early Atlantic World, operating alongside British trade. Koot provides unique consideration of how local circumstances shaped imperial development, reminding us that empires consisted not only of elites dictating imperial growth from world capitals, but also of ordinary settlers in far-flung colonial outposts, who often had more in common with--and a greater reliance on--people from foreign empires who shared their experiences of living at the edge of a fragile, transitional world.

Part of the series "Early American Places"

Global Regulatory Issues for the Cosmetics Industry, Volume 1, emerged from the first annual Cosmetic Regulatory Forum organized by Health and Beauty America (HBA) in September 2006. It is the first of an annual book mini-series surveying issues in this critical and rapidly changing area. These changes affect the health, safety, and well-being of literally billions of consumers, their governments, and the corporations involved in the prodigious task of not only creating novel, effective and safe products, but also complying with regulations, that vary from country to country. This book begins with a discussion of the risks assessment of cosmetic products. This is followed by separate chapters on the regulatory system in some of the major export markets of Canada and Australasia; the evolution and purpose of the EU's REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization of Chemicals); the issue of cosmetic toxicity; and regulatory requirements and warnings for cosmetic products. Subsequent chapters cover the challenges of global chemical compliance; the development of nanotechnology-based products and their potential impact on human health and the environment; and the various packaging regulations relating to colors and additives for products marketed in North America, the EU, and Asia.

This textbook offers a comprehensive analysis of traditional and newly emerging challenges affecting international logistics management from practical, theoretical and policy perspectives. Principles of International Logistics provides an in-depth exploration of the role of intermodal transportation, and the policy-oriented issues of market liberalization, regulatory policies, quality of institutions and supply chain orientation. Key Features: Detailed discussion of the role of the different modes of transport including air, land and maritime transportation Evaluation of international logistics and its economic significance, giving students a strong understanding of the basic principles of logistics Practically-oriented examples and cases drawn from developed and developing countries in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa to allow students to apply their knowledge in practice Coverage of new and emerging international issues such as new technologies and their application to logistics, placing traditional logistics concepts into modern context Principles of International Logistics will be an essential text for undergraduate students of international logistics, logistics management and global supply chains, and an excellent supplementary text for those studying operations and supply chain management more broadly.

The 2021 International Trade Statistics Yearbook, Volume I -Trade by Country - provides a condensed and integrated analytical view of the international merchandise trade, and trade in services up to the year 2021 by means of brief descriptive text, concise data tables and charts. The information presented in the publication give an insight into the latest trends of trade in goods and services of around 175 countries (and areas) in the world. The yearbook is also made available online at https://comtrade.un.org/pb/. For more detailed data, users are requested to go to UN Comtrade (http://comtrade.un.org) which is the source of the information presented in the Yearbook, and is continuously updated. The publication is aimed at both specialist trade data users and common audience at large. The presented data, charts and analyses will benefit policy makers, government agencies, non-government organizations, civil society organizations, journalists, academics, researchers, students, businesses and anyone who is interested in trade issues. The information and analyses are presented in a way which can be comprehended by non-expert users of statistics.