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Foreign trade plays a very significant role in the economic, social, political and cultural life of nations. Foreign trade is the way of economic development for every country especially for developing countries. Regional cooperation philosophy brought these efforts jointly by a group of countries of particular regions. All countries including India started to walk on the same path for the development of all corners in a cohesive and cooperative manner and India shook its hand for such cooperation with various trade blocs like ASEAN. This paper attempts to portray the picture of such cooperation and relationsof India with ASEAN countries for trade development. RESEARCH TYPE AND METHODOLOGY: The manuscript of the study is empirical in nature. In this paper exploratory research techniques have been used. For the purpose of the study, Secondary Sources of data have been collected through various published literature; Journal Articles, Newspapers, Books and Websites etc. The major sources of secondary data have been the online database of Ministry of Commerce and other publications of Government of India as various issues of Handbook of Indian Statistics, ASEAN Statistical Year Book and Economic Survey. Data have been properly classified and statistically analyzed with the appropriate tools such as Mean, Percentage Change, Correlation, Compound Annual Growth Rate and Time Series Analysis etc. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND INSIGHT: The study reveals that India's trade with ASEAN has prominent place. India's exports and imports have increased smoothly with varying rates of growth and the future estimation about the trade explains that India needs to concentrate more on expansion of exports especially with newly added nations of ASEAN because India's largest trade destinations are few among the founder member states of ASEAN under the period of study. IMPLICATION: The findings of the study suggested that India has to be more attentive and concerned on the trade expansion with ASEAN countries and specifically with newly added ASEAN countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically examines the impact of the financial dependence, specifically during the 2007-2009 financial crisis, on the UK exports using monthly data over the period January 2002 to September 2011. We find that the UK exports are highly sensitive to the fluctuation in the cost of capital. The UK tends to export relatively less in the sectors which depend more on external finance than the sectors which are relatively less dependent on external finance. We find that these effects became stronger during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. We also find that adverse credit conditions affect both the supply and demand sides of exports and play a significant role in determining the supply and demand for UK exports. We find that along with the financial conditions in the trading partners, the volume of GDP and capital labor ratio of the importing countries are the main factors in determining the demand for UK exports, whereas, the supply of UK exports is driven by financial conditions, GDP, and the capital-labor ratio of the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research Papers of the Wroclaw University of Economics / Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wroclawiu is the property of Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wroclawiu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Chinese rare earth export policies currently result in accelerating its depletion. Thus adopting an optimal export trade selection strategy is crucial to determining and ultimately identifying the ideal trading partners. This paper introduces a multi-attribute decision-making methodology which is then used to select the optimal trading partner. In the method, an evaluation criteria system is established to assess the seven top trading partners based on three dimensions: political relationships, economic benefits and industrial security. Specifically, a simple additive weighing model derived from an additive utility function is utilized to calculate, rank and select alternatives. Results show that Japan would be the optimal trading partner for Chinese rare earths. The criteria evaluation method of trading partners for China's rare earth exports provides the Chinese government with a tool to enhance rare earth industrial policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the exports and imports generated by multinational companies operating in Romania in relation to the country's total trade. It is also examined the orientation of FDI towards the main economic sectors. The analysis of Romania's foreign trade and trade balance values reveals that approx. 70% of Romanian exports and about 60% of imports are generated by subsidiaries of multinationals located in Romania. The conclusion is that imports and exports generated by these firms affect directly the trade balance, the main component of the current account of balance of payments. Throughout the analyzed period, the values of imports are superior to the values of exports, resulting in a negative balance of trade. By analyzing the distribution of FDI by main economic sectors it is found the reorientation of foreign investors during the crisis to economic sectors that are more exposed to speculation and financial risks, contributing to Romania's exposure to volatility in foreign markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of economic factors on bilateral trade flows between Malaysia and the GCC through estimations of panel data using a gravity model. In particular, the paper compares the determinants of bilateral trade and trade potentials between Malaysia and two regions, the non-traditional Gulf alliance and the traditional ASEAN counterpart, to provide insights for leveraging opportunities through trade with the former. The gravity estimates imply the importance of size effects, similarities in GDP and differences in factor endowments as drivers of trade flows between Malaysia and the GCC, underlying the fact that inter-industry trade dominates these flows. The opposite holds in the case for the Malaysia–ASEAN trade. Though export potentials for industrial products per se appear exhausted in trade with both regions, the Gulf region provides opportunities for Malaysia to export quantity-based final (end-use) products and to diversify its exporting strategy away from quality-based parts and components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of the data on import, export and total import and export volume of Jiangxi Province and 24 Belt and Road participating countries selected from the IMF database between 2005 and 2015, this paper analyzes the fundamental patterns of trade of Jiangxi Province and Belt and Road countries. By applying the Composite Trade Share Index and the HM Index, this paper also analyzes the trade dependence and symmetry between the two sides. The study shows that: (1) Trade relations between Jiangxi and Belt and Road countries are getting much closer and their trade volume has grown by nearly 20 times from 2005 to 2015. (2) The trade dependence between Jiangxi Province and such areas as Southeast Asia, West Asia and the Middle East is relatively high and has been increasing year by year. The Composite Trade Share Index of Jiangxi Province with Southeast Asia increased from 5.99% in 2005 to 16.06% in 2015 and that with West Asia and the Middle East from 4.48% to 8.19%. (3) Jiangxi Province depends more on countries along the Belt and Road than vice versa regarding export, which demonstrates noticeable asymmetry of dependence between these two sides. Of these countries, Jiangxi Province depends mostly on six countries in Southeast Asia, followed by eight in West Asia and the Middle East, and then by four in South Asia. Last but not the least, this paper also puts forward corresponding measures and suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines Argentine exports at the firm level between 2003 and 2011, a period of exceptional and sustained export growth. While at the product level, the pattern of specialisation barely changed, exporters exhibit new dynamics in international markets: firms not only expanded sales abroad by increasing their exports in existing markets, but also by entering into new destinations and adding new products. That is, new export strategies allowed exporters achieve greater resistance to the variations in the macroeconomic environment. We find that the importance of the different export margins changes overtime: while the currency is depreciated, the intensive margin explains most of export growth, whereas the subextensive and extensive margins become the main source of export growth once the currency appreciates. We also uncover a strong complementarity between import and export growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess asymmetric effects of exchange rate changes on Thailand’s trade balances.Design/methodology/approach The design methodology is based on the nonlinear ARDL approach of Shin et al. (2014).Findings The authors find strong support for the asymmetric effects of exchange rate changes on the Thailand trade balance with most partners, including the three largest partners, China, Japan and the USA.Research limitations/implications The long-run asymmetric effects revealed that while baht depreciation will hurt Thailand’s trade balance with China, it will improve its trade balance with the USA and has no effects with Japan.Practical implications The trade balance of different partners reacts differently to currency depreciation.Social implications A currency depreciation that improves the trade balance by promoting exports also helps to reduce the rate of unemployment.Originality/value No study has assessed the asymmetric effects of exchange rate changes on the Thailand’s trade balance with its major partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ekonomik Yaklaşim is the property of Ekonomik Yaklasim Dernegi (Ekonomik Yaklasim Association) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Beside traditional motives of giving - namely, altruism and donors' self-interest, foreign aid also serves to encourage poor countries to liberalize trade. In this paper, I use recent foreign aid data from 15 European donors to 45 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) to assess the importance of each motive. Although all the motives are important, their relative importance varies from one sub-group of donors to another. In particular, big donors such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom seem toweight more their commercial interests than other European donors; besides, recipient needs appear to be less important. Contrary to other European donors, international cooperation, measured by the correlation in the votes at the United Nations General Assemblies influences their decision to allocate aid to ACP recipients. This last finding probably reflects their relatively high political power in international fora. Finally, I introduce a dummy variable for economic partnership agreement (EPA) and find that donors do not give to support trade liberalization per se. However, large donors give more aid to ACP exporters of raw materials that engage in the EPA. This result implies that foreign aid is a device to secure access to raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The BRICS alliance has been formally set up in order to fulfill both economic and geostrategic functions. Even if the latter are more significant than the former, the actual BRICS cooperation framework adds value to the theoretical concept of partnerships for economic development. The group includes four of the largest emerging economies worldwide therefore an analysis of the BRICS from the perspective of quantitative and qualitative indicators is useful at a time when traditional sources of economic growth are not taken for granted any more. The main objective of the present paper is to capture BRICS' shares in world gross product, trade and investment flows and also the strengths and weaknesses of the five emerging economies from the standpoint of specific indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the gravity model of trade to investigate the effect of foreign aid on exports of aid recipients to donor countries. Most of the theoretical work emphasises the possible negative impact of aid on recipient countries' exports, primarily due to exchange rate appreciation, disregarding possible positive effects of aid in overcoming supply bottlenecks and promoting bilateral trade relations. Using non-stationary panel (cointegration) estimators to control for omitted variable and endogeneity bias, we find that the net effect of aid on recipient countries' exports is insignificant, both for our sample (of 123 countries) as a whole and for important regional sub-samples. This finding is in line with the small or insignificant macroeconomic impact of aid found in earlier studies and also suggests that exporters in recipient countries are not benefiting from improved trade relations with donors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utilization of ASEAN free trade agreements ( FTA) is low by international standards. To clarify the reasons for such low utilization, this paper uses unique affiliate-level data to investigate what kinds of Japanese affiliates in ASEAN are more likely to use an FTA scheme in their exporting. Our findings are as follows. First, the larger the affiliate is, or the more diversified the origins of its procurements, the more likely it is to utilize an FTA scheme in its exporting. Second, affiliates that export actively to countries with higher general tariffs are more likely to use FTA. Third, there are clear differences in FTA utilization depending on affiliates' locations and sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research Papers of the Wroclaw University of Economics / Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wroclawiu is the property of Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wroclawiu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

China's foreign policy has been characterized in the last decade by a heightened interest in reaching out to Latin America, particularly to countries rich in natural resources and with potential markets for Chinese exports, and Chile is one of these countries. The paper shows that even though the Chilean economy has benefitted from the signing of the FTA, it also faces potential risks. To continue to benefit, Chile needs to boost exports in other potential export sectors (value-added products or services) and should attempt to attract more Chinese FDI to Chile's export industry. The export of raw materials (particularly nonrenewable ones) is not always sustainable in the long term. The roles of the Chilean state and the private sector in attracting Chinese investment and enhancing diversification of exports of value-added products are crucial for the future of the economy of Chile and its relationship with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States is capable of becoming an exporting juggernaut if it follows the right policies. This paper discusses what goals the United States should pursue and how it should go about reaching them. The goals should be ambitious-more ambitious than current policy suggests. Gross exports should increase to about 20 percent of GDP, whereas the current account deficit should decline to about 2 percent. The most important instruments to achieve these goals are liberalization of export controls, aggressive pursuit of trade agreements, and exchange rate correction-particularly with China. The paper gives estimates of what can be achieved by these instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the link between financial constraints and firm export behaviour. Our main finding is that firms enjoying better financial health are more likely to become exporters. The result contrasts with the previous empirical literature which found evidence that export participation improves firm financial health, but not that export starters display any ex ante financial advantage. On the contrary, we find that financial constraints act as a barrier to export participation. Better access to external financial resources increases the probability to start exporting and also shortens the time before firms decide to serve foreign customers. This finding has important policy implications as it suggests that, in the presence of financial market imperfections, public intervention can be called for to help efficient but financially constrained firms to overcome the sunk entry costs into export markets and expand their activities abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using unique recently released nationally representative high-quality longitudinal enterprise-level data for Germany, this paper presents the first comprehensive evidence on the relationship between exports and profitability. It documents that the positive profitability differential of exporters compared to non-exporters is statistically significant, though rather small, when observed firm characteristics and unobserved firm-specific effects are controlled for. In contrast to nearly all empirical studies on the relationship between productivity and exports we do not find any evidence for self-selection of more profitable firms into export markets. Due to the sampling frame of the data used we cannot test the hypothesis that firms which start exporting perform better in the years after the start than their counterparts which do not start. Instead, we use a newly developed continuous treatment approach and show that exporting improves the profitability almost over the whole range of the export–sales ratio. Only firms that generate 90 per cent and more of their total sales abroad do not benefit from exporting in terms of an increased rate of profit. This means that the usually observed higher productivity of exporters is not completely absorbed by the extra costs of exporting or by higher wages paid by internationally active firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remittances have been a great support to Pacific island countries (PICs). Aside from providing additions to domestic savings and, hence, real resources, they have been one of the major sources of foreign exchange earnings. In the context of falling exports and limited options to diversify their exports, inward remittances have assumed greater importance. This paper examines the nexus between growth and remittances in Samoa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an exploratory study into social capital and its influence on the development of horizontal export-focused industry clusters for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). The paper contends that higher levels of social capital within firms can be externalized to other firms in industry clusters, and this makes the cluster more effective in international markets. The study assessed the levels of social capital evident within nine individual SMEs based in South East Queensland, Australia, across three different industry clusters. The study evaluated attitudes of the firm towards its other cluster members and found that higher levels of social capital within individual SMEs, was being externalized to their industry cluster, and this helped the firms to develop long-term relationships, develop common objectives and improve levels of trust among members. Higher levels of exposure in international markets, was evident in such firms in the cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides evidence for an aspect of trade often disregarded in international trade research: countries’ sectoral export diversification. The results of our semiparametric empirical analysis show that, on average, countries do not specialize; on the contrary, they diversify. Our results are robust for different statistical indices used to measure trade specialization, for the level of sectoral aggregation, and for the level of smoothing in the nonparametric term associated with per capita income. Using a generalized additive model (GAM) with country-specific fixed effects it can be shown that, controlling for countries’ heterogeneity, sectoral export diversification increases with income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies that investigated the impact of exchange rate volatility on the trade flows employed aggregate trade data and standard estimation techniques. They provided mixed results. In this paper we use disaggregated import and export data for 177 commodities traded between the United States and the United Kingdom to investigate whether volatility of the real bilateral dollar–pound exchange rate has any detrimental effect on trade flows at the commodity level. Additionally, we employ the bounds testing approach to cointegration and error-correction modelling that is suitable for the models used mostly because it does not require pre-unit-root testing and variables in the model could be stationary, non-stationary or a combination of the two. In most trade flow models estimated, we found a negative effect of exchange rate volatility on commodity trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper empirically examines US goods trade with China, focusing on the performance of exports. Throughout the analysis, we explore whether US trade is unusual by contrasting it with trade from Japan and the EU-15. The issue is examined from three perspectives: the commodity composition of exports, the role of multinational firms, and the estimation of a set of 'gravity equations' that explore the role of market size and distance from the United States. We find that the commodity composition of trade with China is not distorted, nor can the low level be related to an unusual role of US multinationals in China. Instead, distance does seem to exert a surprisingly large effect on trade. Finally, while exports to China may be a small share of US GDP, they are relatively substantial compared to US exports to other countries. In other words, the measure of US trade performance in China is distorted by the low level of its exports to all countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A remarkable upgrading of export performance and a major re-orientation of foreign trade in favour of the EU-15 have been among the most outstanding features of the transition and EU integration processes of former socialist countries from Central, Eastern and South East Europe. This paper looks at the importance of (EU) market access for the upgrading of the export performance of these countries. Based on the empirical approach of Redding and Venables (2003, 2004), and Fugazza (2004), it was found that market access growth represents the main determinant of export growth for transition countries. Additionally, the importance of foreign market access growth for the export growth of transition countries is constantly increasing. Market access growth, in the case of both the NMS-8 (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) and most of the CC-3 (Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia) occurred predominantly within the EU-15. Better EU-15 market access can largely explain the better export performance of the NMS-8 in comparison to other transition countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to quantify the potential gains in trade performance from the implementation of trade facilitation reform. The study applies a gravity model augmented with trade facilitation, regulatory quality and infrastructure indicators to assess the impact of trade facilitation and other trade-related constraints on export performance. Quantitatively, our results suggest that a 10 per cent improvement in trade facilitation would yield an increase in exports of about 5 per cent. Identical percentage improvements in the regulatory environment and in the quality of infrastructure provision would result in increases of 9–11 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively. The results confirm that while trade facilitation can contribute to improved export performance, improvements in the quality of the regulatory environment and the basic transport and communications infrastructure are equally or more important, in facilitating export growth. The conclusion is that trade facilitation alone is unlikely to result in a significant improvement in export performance. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a two-country dynamic general equilibrium model with status-seeking agents. We show that the introduction of status-seeking behavior brings about new properties in equilibrium dynamics. While there exists a continuum of steady states in the standard dynamic models, the present framework demonstrates that, under some conditions, there uniquely exists an incompletely specialized steady state, which is locally saddle-point stable. Therefore, catching-up and overtaking phenomena seen in economic development can be explained, and comparative statics analysis also is made possible. Our comparative statics analysis illustrates, for example, that trade pattern is determined in the Heckscher–Ohlin manner; the patient country acts just like a capital abundant one to export the capital-intensive good. Furthermore, as distinct from the existing literature, the present study shows that the existence of an incompletely specialized steady state can be ensured even if the two countries conduct different policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the second half of the nineteenth century, British fire insurance exports grew rapidly to more than half of the revenue accepted by British fire insurance companies. It has been suggested by some, including Michael Porter, that this expansion was based on a comparative advantage created in large part by a highly competitive domestic insurance market. Yet the existence of strong and sophisticated cartels in the British insurance market is well known. The paper argues that in fact the chief motive for the drive to develop business abroad came from the existence of the cartel, whose increasing power prompted the creation of a number of new well-supported companies. The circumstances of the insurance business forced them to develop a large and diversified business and this required them to join the cartel. This membership deprived them of the price weapon to develop their business in the domestic market. They were thus forced to develop innovative strategies to grow. One of these was to deploy innovative marketing policies at home. The other was to expand abroad. By contrast, most of the older companies that had created the cartel developed foreign business later and on a far smaller scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exports from transition countries to market economies have increased considerably since the fall of socialism. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe have generally been more successful in this regard than the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. There are also considerable differences between countries within both the CEEC and the CIS, however. The following paper uses a variety of measures to determine the factors behind these cross-country differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The very rapid economic growth of the People's Republic of China (PRC), its dramatic success in world export markets and its heavy receipts of foreign direct investment (FDI) have generated much thought and debate in policy and business circles in different parts of the world. This paper surveys evidence from research by ADB Institute staff and Visiting Fellows conducted over the last two years that sheds light on these issues. The paper examines differences in trade structure between the PRC and its trading partners, finding that the PRC's current structure is closest to that of Korea and Taipei, China in 1990. It also considers changes in market share and finds that the PRC exports are eroding the market share of its regional neighbours in the USA and Japan, particularly in products in which trading partners are most specialised. There is no evidence of FDI diversion from elsewhere in the region to PRC. The trade diversion effects in the US and Japan are offset however by strong trade creation as the rapid growth in PRC leads to a substantial rise in its imports. The paper surveys the projections of models that demonstrate the gains in greater trade and income for the region from closer trade links with the PRC. The broad conclusion that emerges is that whilst there may be risks to individual sectors in all countries concerned, the pattern of regional trade and investment that is emerging is mutually beneficial, provided enterprises and governments representing the PRC's regional partners respond effectively to the adjustments required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part I of this research examined the pattern of world textile trade in light of theoretical perspectives of the developmental stages of the global textile industry and trade and the empirical evidence from CMS analysis of textile exports of the EC, the Far East and Emerging Textile Exporting countries in the 1980s. This paper is Part II of this research and attempts to obtain empirical evidence from the pattern of U.S. textile exports in the 1980s. U.S. textile exports in the 1980s showed the lowest growth among world competitors, a negative trade balance and decreased market shares in developed and developing markets. CMS results reveal that the growth of the world economy and textile trade was the main source of the growth of U.S. textile exports during the decade. The industry structure was not a significant source mainly because U.S. textile exports were more focused on low-growth export markets and textile commodities. Prices of U.S. textile exports were competitive in 1979-81 but became not competitive in 1982-84 and 1985-87 due to the appreciation of the U.S. dollar in the early 1980s. The recovery of competitiveness of U.S. export prices in 1988-90 demonstrates the positive effects of the weakening U.S. dollar by the mid-1980s and the U.S. textile industry's restructuring, improved productivity and decreased production costs. U.S. textile exports in the 1980s showed a shift in specialization away from the commodities of mass-standardization and inter-industry trade, where the U.S. comparative advantage was declining, to increasing specialization in commodities of high product differentiation and intra-industry trade based on its high skill levels and capital and evolving domestic consumer demand. This paper concludes that the identified pattern of U.S. textile exports in the 1980s was consistent with the trade pattern of the textile industry and trade at developmental Stage Three. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies’ trade integration with European markets on CEE trade structures has been studied extensively. These studies frequently observe a quality upgrading of CEE exports. In this paper we consider three dimensions of quality upgrading: upgrading across industries, upgrading across different quality segments within industries and, finally, product upgrading within quality segments inside industries. For the analysis we partition industries into quality segments based on EU-15 import unit values. The results for ten CEE countries (comprising the CEE-5, the Baltics and South East Europe) and thirteen industries suggest fundamental differences, both across country groups and across the three different notions of quality upgrading. The CEE-5 show no evidence of entering a‘low-quality trap’ in all three dimensions. By contrast, while there is a general catching-up process across industries and inside quality segments, the second notion of low-quality specialization may be applicable within the high-tech industries to the performance for the Baltics and South East Europe as a group.JEL classifications: F14, F15, L60, P52. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the potential for growth in trade between the European Union and the Western Balkans. A clear-cut picture emerges from the application of a gravity model. EU trade with the Western Balkans shows considerable room for growth in both imports and exports; on the contrary, EU trade with two Balkan countries, Bulgaria and Romania, is close to, or in some cases exceeds, the values predicted by the model. From this analysis, it follows that trade policy, alongside geographical proximity, plays an important role in shaping trade patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To the extent that trade policy affects trade flows between countries, the ramifications can be far-reaching from an economic growth perspective. This paper examines one aspect of these ramifications, namely the impact of changes in the extent of trade between countries on changes in the rate of reduction in the size of the income gap that exists between them. Export and import data are used as the criteria for determining bilateral trade between major trade partners, resulting in the creation of 127 pairs of countries on the basis of export data and 134 pairs on the basis of import data. An increase in trade between major trade partners - and, in particular, increased exports by poorer countries to their wealthier partners - is shown to be related to an increase in the rate of convergence between the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global garment and textile industries face changing international trade regimes, concerns with labour standards, new competitors and forms of competition. These challenges have a differentiated impact on developing-country producers and workers. One potential 'winner' is Vietnam. This paper uses a global value-chain framework to analyse the Vietnamese experience. It maps Vietnam's changing position in the global industry, and probes ties between Vietnamese firms and global buyers. It explores links within the Vietnamese garment and textiles sectors, and considers the impact of global challenges on Vietnamese firms and workers. This helps distinguish who are the potential 'winners' and 'losers'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exports have an important role in a country's economy as it influences the level of economic growth, employment and balance of payments. On the other hand, no country in the world can produce all the goods and services, which is why each country has to import in order to satisfy its own demand. In the present paper, we have analyzed the international trade of Romania from 2005 until September 2017. In this regard, indicators such as the value of imports and exports, the analysis of international trade by product groups and the situation of the trading partners are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a legal–economic assessment of the WTO Panel Report in US–Animals, one of a growing list of WTO disputes arising due to problematic conditions under which an importing country closes and reopens its market after an infectious disease outbreak in an exporting country. The United States banned imports of beef from Argentina following a 2000 Argentine outbreak of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), a disease not found in the United States since 1929. The United States refused to relax its import ban, and Argentina filed a WTO dispute in 2012, more than six years after its last FMD outbreak. Our analysis starts with Argentina's claim that the gap between its first requests, in 2002, to restore its trading rights and no action by the United States as of 2012 constituted ‘undue delay’. We rely on simple insights from economic research on asymmetric information problems – moral hazard and adverse selection – to describe the difficulties facing the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the WTO's Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement in dealing with problems like FMD. Such an environment creates disincentives for socially efficient behavior that were clearly realized in this episode. The exporting country has an incentive to hide information on outbreaks and report being disease-free too quickly, and the importing country has no incentive to quickly undertake the costly effort of conducting the necessary inspections to restore the exporter's market access. Finally, we address the Panel Report's treatment of alleged discrimination both across different FMD-impacted countries and across FMD-impacted and non-impacted geographic zones within Argentina, and we touch on the Report's shift in approach regarding the obligation of the United States to take into account the special needs of developing countries such as Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we study the impact of integration effects on the export potential of the Republic of Kazakhstan by assessing the pros and cons of membership, in order to form a reasoned conclusion. Membership of the WTO required a large reduction of import tariffs, as well as the elimination of numerous non-tariff barriers. Empirical findings on the impact of the tariff reduction and the effect on the export potential of Kazakhstan will be discussed at the industry level. The research focuses on two aspects. Firstly, we analyze the export situation within the WTO system and forecast possible changes. Using information collected on import tariffs and non-tariff barriers, we explore the relative importance of alternative mechanisms through which policy changes may have been affected. Secondly, we explore the possible measures for making managerial solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios Económicos is the property of El Colegio de Mexico AC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates the determinants of trends in Spain's industrial exports to the other European Union countries by using a sectoral panel data approach. The results show that price elasticities of export demand differ widely among sectors. They also provide support to the idea that non-price factors have a significant influence on international competitiveness. In particular they show that technological and advertising effort have a significant effect not only on the evolution of exports but also on price elasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of papers on economic relations. Some of them are "The Structuring of International Economic Relations," by T. Baumgartner and T.R. Burns; "New International Economic Order," by R.C.A. White; "World Trade Patterns and Prospects," by E.F. Limburg; "Energy and World Politics"; "International Administration and Global Problems," by Thomas G. Weiss and Robert S. Jordan; "Europe on Regional Policy"; The Technology Factor and the Export Performance of U. S. Manufacturing Industries," by Thomas C. Lowinger; "New Dimension to International Co-Operation," by J. C. Woodliffe; "Petrochemical Plant Construction and the Oil-Exporting States," by Lawrence C. Mcquade; and "World Food Problems: A Selective Bibliography of Review Articles," by Miloslav Rechcigl.

The growth trajectory of the economic development of a country depends to a large extent upon the success of its foreign trade policy. Having a favorable or minimize the unfavorable trade balance is a daunting task for the Indian economy which at present is suffering from negative trade balance. However, this objective of a country's foreign trade policy can be achieved only by undertaking suitable efforts to accelerate the volume of exports while shrinking the unnecessary imports to the maximum possible extent. This study is of immense use for policy planners to get a trade snapshot of India for identifying the role of export and import growth in generating the favorable status of India's trade balance. The common financial theory of portfolio diversification for reducing risk also holds true in context of foreign trade portfolio and this study will prove extremely valuable for economists to examine whether or not the structure of India's foreign trade portfolio is diversified enough to minimize the associated risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Boletim Goiano de Geografia is the property of Boletim Goiano de Geografia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The field of the proposed article has been the author's major point of interest for the last 15 years. The paper reviews the different aspects of the Georgian Export Potential utilization on the EU market. To determine quantative measures are used the Trade Intensification Index, Kinker-Freinin Index, as well as Grubel-Lloyd Index to measure Intra industry Trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the role of the Argentine diplomats in promoting exports during First World War in order to contrast it with their behavior along the previous period. We start with a summary of Argentine export performance, both in products and destinations. Then, we divide the study over diplomacy in three aspects: communication, action and prediction. The empirical evidence on which we based our study is particularly the unpublished documentation of Diplomatic and Consular Series, found in Argentine Foreign Affairs Ministry Archive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]