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Australia is a member of many multilateral trade bodies and engages in trade agreements of a multilateral and bilateral kind across most regions. In June 2018, it launched negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) which are still ongoing and since then Australia and the EU have conducted fifteen rounds of negotiations (last one on 28 May 2023 in Brussels). This paper aims to explore the business awareness of the EU amongst Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to analyse the factors that influence their internationalisation. To ascertain this, we reviewed the results of two surveys1 that were conducted pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic (also coinciding with the Brexit transition period). This paper argues that SMEs in Australia are essentially unaware of the EU as a market and that no significant change in the business perception of the EU and potential international trade opportunities occurred between the pre- and post-COVID-19 political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Note explores the debate about public access to information—specifically, documents—related to the ongoing negotiation of international trade agreements. As regional and multilateral trade agreements such as NAFTA and the WTO proliferate, various interests that are not party to the negotiations but are concerned about the orientation and breadth of these agreements have looked for ways to open up and influence the negotiating process. Essential to this campaign are the efforts of public advocacy groups in the United States to gain access to documents exchanged among government negotiators while trade negotiations are ongoing. In 2002, several such groups filed suit in federal court under the Freedom of Information Act, requesting that the United States Trade Representative be directed to hand over documents related to ongoing trade negotiations with Chile. This Note takes account of the legal issues discussed in that case and of the policy issues more generally at stake in this debate, and offers a legal solution that departs from current case law and executive branch practice in an effort to better balance competing concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the differential effect of trade agreements on income per capita of subnational regions with international borders. We construct an extensive panel dataset covering 1350 regions in 86 countries worldwide between 1950 and 2017. Our results show that trade agreements are positively associated with income per capita of regions sharing contiguous borders with trading partners, relative to regions sharing borders with countries with whom no trade agreements exist. For border regions, the positive relationship of trade agreements and regional income roughly compensates potential income disadvantages of having international borders. These insights help in explaining and mitigating regional inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, Convolution Neural Network (CNN) based deep learning methods are widely used in detecting and classifying fruits from faults, color and size characteristics. In this study, two different neural network model estimators are employed to detect apples using the Single-Shot Multibox Detection (SSD) Mobilenet and Faster Region-CNN (Faster R-CNN) model architectures, with the custom dataset generated from the red apple species. Each neural network model is trained with created dataset using 4000 apple images. With the trained model, apples are detected and counted autonomously using the developed Flying Robotic System (FRS) in a commercially produced apple orchard. In this way, it is aimed that producers make accurate yield forecasts before commercial agreements. In this paper, SSD-Mobilenet and Faster R-CNN architecture models trained with COCO datasets referenced in many studies, and SSD-Mobilenet and Faster R-CNN models trained with a learning rate ranging from 0.015–0.04 using the custom dataset are compared experimentally in terms of performance. In the experiments implemented, it is observed that the accuracy rates of the proposed models increased to the level of 93%. Consequently, it has been observed that the Faster R-CNN model, which is developed, makes extremely successful determinations by lowering the loss value below 0.1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada is well known as an export-based economy, particularly with respect to its agricultural and agri-food industries. Since the signing of the Canada-U.S. Trade Agreement (CUSTA) in 1989, the federal government has negotiated trade agreements with more than 40 international partners, providing Canadian firms with access to a multitude of foreign markets while also giving consumers at home a greater set of choices in the market for a great number of goods and services. Progress on more liberalized internal trade within the federation has not, however, kept pace with accomplishments on the international trade front. Despite the implementation of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) in 1995 and the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) in 2017 (along with several smaller but significant interprovincial agreements), a number of significant barriers remain to internal trade in goods and services in Canada. The focus of this paper is upon barriers that prevent the movement of goods and services among provinces, referred to as interprovincial trade barriers. There are a number of different types of these barriers; one such type is tariffs (which function similar to a sales tax) upon goods and services themselves. While tariffs are a major topic of study in international trade, they do not form a focus of this paper, which will instead focus on non-tariff barriers or NTBs. One such category of barriers to internal trade includes natural barriers such as lakes, rivers, mountain ranges and the simple distance between potential trading partners. A second type is called prohibitive barriers, which make illegal the movement of certain types of goods or services among provinces; perhaps the most wellknown of these pertains to the prohibition of the movement of alcohol or tobacco between provinces. Technical and regulatory/administrative barriers also exist, and pertain to provincial differences in requirements within specific sectors, licensing requirements, etc. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) has noted that differences in trucking regulations as well as inconsistent regulation of provincially and federally inspected meat-processing facilities are of particular concern in the agricultural and agri-food industries (CFA 2021). These barriers are costly to the Canadian economy, limiting its growth, output, efficiency and productivity. Estimates by Alvarez et al. (2019) suggest that Canadian GDP would increase by between one and four per cent if trade in goods alone were completely liberalized. This is approximately $92 billion per year, an amount that, if realized, could lead to significant job creation, increased streams of taxation revenue for government, enhanced economic growth and improved productivity. Economists have long cited the efficient and welfare-maximizing outcomes associated with unfettered markets, and removal of interprovincial trade barriers would provide significant gains for the Canadian economy. Several important drivers have led to the current situation where barriers to interprovincial trade constrict the freer flow of goods and services in Canada. One of them is federalism itself, where the duty of provincial governments is to act in the best interest of constituents, even if it means overall gains to Canada as a whole are not being realized. Related to this is a second driver, which is the balancing act that courts must strike in Canada when interpreting both federal and provincial legislation in areas where both levels of government can be argued to have jurisdiction. A third driver is the potential for stakeholders to act to prevent liberalization of trade if it is in their best interest to do so. Regulators and gatekeepers, industry associations and even governments can have vested financial or personal interest in the status quo, and be hesitant to change it even if they recognize that change would have the potential to provide greater economic benefits to others. A final driver that has led to the current system is the sheer amount of time, effort and expertise that would be required to update the current system. There are at least three plausible options for reducing interprovincial barriers to trade in Canada. The first would be to encourage courts to interpret relevant legislation in a way that would aid the freer flow of products and services internally. For example, section 121 of the Constitution Act seems to clearly require the free movement of goods among provinces, but the Supreme Court of Canada has, out of respect for provinces' rights, deferred to the notion of federalism and consistently interpreted legislation in a way that permits provinces to put limits on trade. Should the Court interpret 121 in a more constructionist way, interprovincial trade would increase. A second option is for provinces to independently negotiate more open markets in Canada. The New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA) among the four Western provinces has been successful, as have other regional agreements, at opening markets and generating economic benefits. A third option is to use the CFTA's mechanisms and resources at the federal and provincial levels to remove barriers on an industry-by-industry basis. Given the sheer number of firms and industries, it is more cumbersome to negotiate large-scale, national or multi-provincial agreements than smaller scale, industry-specific ones. There are costs and benefits associated with each of these options. Requiring courts to revise how they interpret law is beyond the power of the federal and provincial governments. Striking new trade partnerships is a time-consuming process, with no assurance of success. Negotiating improvements in specific subsectors and industries is achievable, but provides only incremental gains. From a benefits perspective, there is much to be gained: the estimated economic benefits from the freer flow of goods and services are considerable, although it is likely that those with a vested interest will see some of their current benefits transferred to others as a result of removing trade barriers. Overall, it seems obvious that previous work to liberalize trade has been fruitful, and a combination of the options proposed is likely to be worth the effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A large body of literature exists on trade liberalisation and the ways in which trade agreements can affect food systems. However, the systematic and objective monitoring of these and their impact on national food environments has been limited. Using a case study, this paper undertakes a systematic analysis of how Vanuatu's obligations under WTO agreements has impacted its food environment.Results: Data collection was guided by the INFORMAS trade monitoring framework's minimal approach and seven selected indicators outlined in three domains: trade in goods, trade in services and FDI, and policy space. Strong associations between trade liberalisation and imported foods, especially ultra-processed foods were evident in measured indicators as follows: (i) food trade with 32 WTO countries showing high levels of import volumes; (ii) a marked increase in 'less healthy' focus food imports namely fatty and other selected meat products, sugar, savoury snacks, ice-cream and edible ices and energy-dense beverages; (iii) actual and bound tariff rates impacting import trends of ice-cream and edible ices, bakery products and confectionary; and in other instances, a sharp increase in import of crisps, snacks and noodles despite tariff rates remaining unchanged from 2008 to 2019; (iv) policies regulating food marketing, composition, labelling and trade in the domestic space with relatively limited safeguard measures; (v) 49 foreign-owned food-related companies involved in food manufacturing and processing and the production of coffee, bakery products, confectionary, food preservatives, fish, local food products and meat, and the manufacturing, processing and packaging of palm oil, coconut oil, cooking oil, water, cordial juice, flavoured juices, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. These were largely produced for local consumption; (vi) 32 domestic industries engaged in food and beverage production; and (vii) an assessment of WTO provisions relating to domestic policy space and governance showing that the current legal and regulatory environment for food in Vanuatu remains fragmented.Conclusions: The analysis presented in this paper suggest that Vanuatu's commitments to WTO agreements do play an important role in shaping their food environment and the availability, nutritional quality, and accessibility of foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Regional Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) is a mega regional trade agreement signed by fifteen countries on 15 November 2020 after 8 years of negotiation. Signatories include the ten members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Australia. India was a negotiating party until it withdrew from the negotiations in November 2019. The RCEP negotiations were initially framed as focused on the needs of low income countries. Public health concerns emerged however when draft negotiating chapters were leaked online, revealing pressures on countries to agree to intellectual property and investment measures that could exacerbate issues of access to medicines and seeds, and protecting regulatory space for public health. A concerted Asia Pacific civil society campaign emerged in response to these concerns, and in 2019, media and government reporting suggested that several of these measures had been taken off the table, which was subsequently confirmed in the release of the signed text in November 2020.Results: This paper examines civil society and health actors' views of the conditions that successfully contributed to the removal of these measures in RCEP, with a focus on intellectual property and access to medicines. Drawing on twenty semi-structured qualitative interviews with civil society, government and legal and health experts from nine countries participating in the RCEP negotiations, the paper reports a matrix of ten conditions related to actor power, ideas, political context and specific health issues that appeared to support prioritisation of some public health concerns in the RCEP negotiations.Conclusions: Conditions identified included strong low and middle income country leadership; strong civil society mobilisation, increased technical capacity of civil society and low and middle income negotiators; supportive public health norms; processes that somewhat opened up the negotiations to hear public health views; the use of evidence; domestic support for health issues; and supportive international public health legislation. Lessons from the RCEP can inform prioritisation of public health in future trade agreement negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the legal framework for cross-border transfers of personal data outside the EU and assesses its impact on a selection of Asia-Pacific data protection laws. It studies the position defended by the EU in the debates for a new general framework on e-commerce in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the sections regarding data flows of some free trade agreements recently concluded by Asia-Pacific countries such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. This paper shows how the regulation of data flows has surpassed national data protection laws to be increasingly present in free trade agreements with the tensions this may entail, paying special attention to the EU and Asia- Pacific. A holistic view is necessary because the consequences for human rights in trade negotiations should not be overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) increasingly include environmental provisions. While the existing literature documents these provisions' environmental impacts, this paper sheds light on their relation with aid flows. Using an event-specification and data on bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitments for a sample of 147 developing country recipients in the period from 2002 to 2017, we find evidence that the number of environmental provisions in PTAs is positively associated with aid during negotiation phases. With high-income countries typically pre-determining the extent of environmental provisions in their upcoming PTAs, this suggests that aid serves as a side-payment for recipients to sweeten the pot and agree upon already formulated PTA content. While both aggregate ODA and its subcomponent environmental aid a priori qualify as candidates for pre-signature side-payments, we find that only the former fulfills this expectation, presumably reflecting more leeway to exploit aid fungibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to analyse the effects in the trade performance of Georgia and Moldova in light of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) agreements with the EU. Hence, data for the period 2010-2019 is analysed to reveal the latest developments in the trade performance of these countries. The conducted analysis points to some positive developments in the trade of Georgia and Moldova with the EU for 2015-2019, however, compared to 2010-2014 or pre-DCFTA period the average annual growth rate of exports of both countries declined. Moreover, Georgia's success to increase exports to the EU remain relatively modest as compared to Moldova. Therefore, Moldova has achieved more deep trade integration with the EU than Georgia. Furthermore, the effect of DCFTAs on trade relations between Georgia and Moldova is not substantial, and therefore, increased economic integration between the EU associated countries is not yet evident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes aggregate data on trade flows to examine the performance of bilateral free trade agreements (BFTAs) between the United States and 11 BFTA nations in a two-dimensional approach. In line with the literature, this study applies the gravity model and analyzes the effect of the treatment using Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML) panel data from 1992 to 2017. We use the PPML as an alternative methodology to an ordinary least squares model, as it can treat zero trade values and lead to unbiased estimates and different consistencies. We consider the trade in goods but excluded services because of the different nature of trade for services. Moreover, this study highlights the quantitative performance of BFTAs without considering the industry level to compare the overall benefits for the trade flows from the U.S. as an exporter to BFTA countries and vice versa. It thus adds to the debate on the effect of FTAs on trade flows and conducts pre-FTA and post-FTA analyses to compare the volumes of exports and imports during both periods. Findings vary according to the direction of trade; notably, some trading partners increased their trading volume to 388%. In sum, this paper provides a collective current state assessment to demonstrate the most plausible reasons for the effects of the 11 BFTAs, in addition to informing policymakers on the lessons learned from each BFTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of some early Asian emerging countries such as Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, followed by China and India since 1980, has raised the bar for developing economies. However, other Asian emerging countries, like those from Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and now Viet Nam, have not yet been able to replicate the performance of their Asian predecessors. Could it be that they are already experiencing the problems of a Latin American-style "middle-income trap"? In these two regions, the common factor has been the inability to "upgrade" their growth strategies when the existing ones have run their course and become counterproductive. The "middle-income trap" indicates that productivity growth is more difficult to sustain at higher and more complex stages of the catching-up process. While Latin American countries have exhausted their purely extractive development model (and productivity growth has stalled for decades), Southeast Asian ones have failed to recapture their pre-1997 high growth trajectories as they have been priced out of labor-intensive activities. This paper analyses how the "more of the same but hopefully better" supply-side-strategy that many mainstream economists and trade agreements focus on is the wrong solution for escaping the "trap"; instead, middle-income countries facing a slowdown in productivity growth should reengineer existing development strategies. Matching the performance of the above-mentioned countries requires a conscious, national-level strategy to promote investment in activities with higher long-term potentials for productivity growth, especially higher value-added manufactured exports. The main policy implication of this analysis is that Latin America must reignite productivity growth by adding value to their commodity exports and strengthening backward linkages of export products and services, while Southeast Asian countries should "deepen" their assembly operations in manufacturing. Nicholas Kaldor's argument that manufacturing has the greatest scope to realize increasing returns to scale remains true, even in today's decentralized, fragmented manufacturing systems, but the limited size of domestic markets means that middle-income countries must prioritize manufactured exports using all of the policy instruments still available to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia's Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into force in 2022 as the world's largest free trade agreement. RCEP was concluded, signed and brought into force in the face of major international uncertainty and is a significant boost to the global trading system. RCEP brings Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand into the same agreement with the ten member ASEAN group at its centre. It keeps markets open and updates trade and investment rules in East Asia, a major centre of global economic activity, at a time of rising protectionism when the WTO itself is under threat. The agreement builds on ASEAN's free trade agreements and strengthens ASEAN centrality. One of the pillars of RCEP is an economic cooperation agenda which has its antecedents in ASEAN's approach to bringing along its least developed members and builds on the experience of capacity building in APEC and technical cooperation under the ASEAN Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. There is an opportunity to create a framework that facilitates deeper economic cooperation that involves experience-sharing, extending RCEP's rules and membership at the same time as strengthening political cooperation. The paper suggests some areas that might be best suited to cooperation -- that is confidence and trust building instead of or before negotiation -- and discusses how non-members may be engaged and the membership expanded. Options such as multilateralising provisions and becoming a platform for policy convergence and coordinating unilateral reforms are canvassed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a complex challenge to policymakers from both a public health and economic perspective. It has caused a severe economic shock to both the Irish and global economy with shutdown measures implemented in most economies. This paper describes a high frequency database and model developed from both the econometric and medical literature to provide a relative measure of the path of the pandemic in Ireland and across the globe with the aim of adding to the real time evidence for policy makers. Model estimates are reported for the critical early and peak stages of the pandemic. The pandemic is modelled as a stochastic difference equation. The logistic form is chosen as it is found to be the most practical model with the flexibility to provide daily estimates for a large set of countries on a key aspect of the pandemic, the steepness of the curve. This characteristic of the pandemic, whereby a steep rise in cases results in “flatten the curve” policy responses, is most closely associated with a suppression of economic activity. As a small open economy, it is critical for policy makers in Ireland to track developments in external demand. It is a key variable that frames scenario analysis and forecasting for government budgeting. The high-frequency database and time series model developed in this paper provides a real time relative indicator of potential economic impacts from the global spread of COVID-19 by estimating well known properties of functions. In the early stages of the pandemic the model estimated a high value of steepness of the curve for Spain and Italy and a low level for Korea. Ireland’s measure showed a trend decline, in line with countries such as Denmark and Austria. As the situation improved in Ireland model estimates provided an early indication of a deteriorating situation in some of Irelands main trading partners indicating a more prolonged economic impact. Second wave estimates indicated lockdown measure would persist throughout 2020 in large European trading partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of European economic trade policy and its role in international diplomacy on climate change. This accounts for both the objective financial benefts and incentives of preferential trading agreements as well as the influence of these deals on wider foreign relations. The findings of this paper are that withholding trade agreements to encourage or coerce similar progressive causes such as demilitarisation are highly limited in their impact, and that many of the causes of this outcome apply equally to climate issues. A loose explanation of how trade agreements and the associated diplomatic relationships which accompany them could be utilised to promote better environmental practices is also provided, based on the economic conditions of countries and communities involved. Trade progression with a focus on achievable climate goals is found to be far more beneficial than an exclusionary approach by the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on bilateral trade flows using a state-of-the-art gravity model of trade. Using the monthly trade data of 68 countries exporting across 222 destinations between January 2019 and October 2020, our results are threefold. First, we find a greater negative impact of COVID-19 on bilateral trade for those countries that were members of regional trade agreements before the pandemic. Second, we find that the impact of COVID-19 is negative and significant when we consider indicators related to governmental actions. Finally, this negative effect is more intense when exporter and importer country share identical income levels. In the latter case, the highest negative impact is found for exports between high-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the ex-post trade effects of China's multilateral, regional and bilateral trade liberalization using augmented gravity and panel data estimation methods for the period 1995–2016. China's accession to the WTO was revealed to have had a significant impact on the volume of trade as well as on bilateral exports and imports. Regional trade agreements and the majority of bilateral trade agreements were found not to be effective in increasing China's foreign trade. Only the agreements with Chile, Costa Rica and Switzerland were effective in increasing China's trade volume. Moreover, the results for Chile were driven by increases in both exports and imports, while for Costa Rica and Switzerland only by increased imports from these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys India–ASEAN relations since the late 1990s amid the ongoing quest for a new regional compact in a post-pandemic era to advance India's growing security and economic interests in Southeast Asia. During the cold war, India preferred to engage bilaterally with Southeast Asian countries than engage ASEAN directly. This tack shifted after 2000 as new security challenges arrived, particularly the need to secure the Indian Ocean. India's overtures with ASEAN and ASEAN states grew alongside defense cooperation, which are now being renewed and renegotiated under the "Indo-Pacific" rubric despite differences over how India and ASEAN states regard the concept. Economic liberalization changed India's calculus in the 1980s, which led to a series of overtures to economically tether India to the ASEAN. India–ASEAN trade grew dramatically over the last decade but fears abound over whether India's rejection of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement will reverse its economic footprint in Southeast Asia. Given both security and economic differences between India and the ASEAN, opportunities exist in joining to address shared transnational challenges like cybersecurity and counterterrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analysis the incidence of Free Trade Agreements (FTA) on the duration of exports in Colombia. With firm-product-destination level data, duration models were estimated in discrete time that allowed identifying that the FTAs have a negative incidence on the probability of cessation of active commercial relations before the entry into force of the agreement, however, they increase the exit hazard from those that start after the agreement. This double effect is robust for different types of products and even for exports with a certificate of origin. However, incursions by firms with at least one year of experience in the export sector carry greater prospects for their duration. It is concluded that the role of the learning and knowledge acquired is key to achieve a better use of the agreements and maximize the probability of success of the incursions in the countries with FTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the food regime concept has become an important approach for addressing the global food trade, most of its applications have utilized qualitative methods. This article applies a quantitative social network analysis (SNA) and a more-than-qualitative relational approach, drawing from the geography literature to explore regional food regimes in Asia in the World Trade Organization (WTO) era. Employing data from the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT) and the Design of Trade Agreements (DESTA) project database, this paper's analysis of the governance of Asian regional vegetable trade networks reveals the multiplicity inherent in food regimes under the WTO. In this context, the topologies of food regimes—including degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality—reveal the emergence of a multi-polar food system in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examined dominant discourses in the debate about live animal transport and trade before reviewing trade figures from the UN Comtrade database. Between 1998 and 2015, the trade in cattle increased slightly, the trade in pigs increased by 76%, while the trade in poultry increased more than doubled. It is shown that an increased division of work is the driving force behind animal trade and that not even animal advocacy groups are effective in reducing the amount of trade. Largely independent of the ethical framework applied, in an environment that pays increasingly tribute to animal welfare, this is problematic. The paper concluded that animal trade results in externalities that should be internalized by governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many different approaches and databases have been developed for the evaluation of non-tariff measures (NTMs) and free trade agreements (FTAs). This paper is devoted to the EU-South Korea agreement, which is the first 'second-generation' FTA of the EU, addressing a wide array of non-tariff policies. We review the evolution of NTM types applicable to the EU-South Korea trade relationship and the role of NTMs in ex-ante and ex-post analyses of the agreement. Subsequently a structural gravity model is employed to assess the value added of information on different aspects of FTAs and types of NTMs by evaluating their ability to predict the trade effects of the EU-South Korea FTA. Our results show that, when accounting for information on the components common in modern deep trade agreements, no additional trade effect is attributable to the EU-South Korea FTA. The evolution of NTMs differs considerably across indicators used, but trade predictions are hardly affected. Most specifications point towards a negative effect of bilateral differences in the number of technical barriers to trade (TBT) applied and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) against which trading partners issued complaints at the WTO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a new trade accounting method—the trade in value-added accounting method—this paper constructs the international manufacturing trade in value-added networks and preferential trade agreement (PTA) networks and uses the complex network analysis method to explore the relations between PTA and international manufacturing trade in value-added from the perspective of the global value chain. The results are as follows: (1) Over the years, the international manufacturing trade in value-added networks and PTA networks has shown a significant clustering effect, and the size of networks has grown rapidly. (2) The TEX, DVA and FVA networks of the international manufacturing value added trade over the years can be divided into two societies in the Asia-Pacific region and the European region. This division just reflects the different modes of division of labor in the manufacturing value chain of the two major economic regions in the world. (3) QAP analysis shows that the influencing factors of the traditional gravity model can still explain the manufacturing trade network and its value-added trade network, while the influence of economic globalization, the enlargement of the EU and the internationalization strategy of enterprises, the PTA network and manufacturing value-added the relationship between trade networks changed from positive to negative in 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017, the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), a U.S.-based trade association dedicated to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the book industry supply chain, published Publishing Rights: An Untapped Opportunity. The white paper outlined six findings from an industry survey. Since then, BISG's rights committee extended that initial research by updating a draft taxonomy for rights transactions. The new taxonomy defines rights data, transactions requests, transactions licenses, and royalty data. The taxonomy is being tested now in a set of pilot agreements between trading partners. Benefits of the proposed taxonomy are expected to include lower transaction costs, fewer errors in rights tracking and sale, and improved turnaround times for rights inquiries. Information about the work may be obtained by writing to info@bisg.org. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The United Kingdom has opted to leave the European Union. The consequences of Brexit on international trade are large and negative. While the UK aims for new, ambitious trade agreements after Brexit, it is not explicit about the type of agreements it envisions or with whom specifically. This paper considers the UK's options. We confirm Brexit's substantial, negative trade effects for the UK, EU, and major countries around the world. After reviewing all potential options, our answer to the question whether the UK has an alternative for the existing agreement with the EU is: No. Paradoxically, only a trade agreement with the EU can compensate for Brexit's trade losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Leaving the EU will reshape the UK's economic relations with the rest of the world. This paper summarizes the findings of recent research studying the UK's role in the global economy, and the consequences of Brexit for UK trade, investment, and living standards. We emphasize that international integration affects investment and labour flows as well as trade in goods and services. There are important interdependencies between different forms of integration that should be accounted for when evaluating policy changes. Brexit is likely to make the UK poorer by reducing trade and investment flows, but the magnitude of the economic decline will depend upon the nature of the UK's post‐Brexit economic relations with the EU and the rest of the world. We conclude by considering options for UK‐EU relations after Brexit and how the UK should approach future trade negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As international trade receives the brunt of local discontent with globalization trends and recent changes by the Trump administration have put into question the viability of such trade arrangements moving forward, there has been a clear trend in using international trade fora for managing regulatory barriers on economic development. This paper will discuss this recent trend in international trade toward increased regulatory cooperation through the creation of formalized transnational regulatory bodies, such as the U.S.-EU Regulatory Cooperation Body that was being discussed in the TTIP negotiations and comparable ones in the Canadian-EU Trade Agreement as well as U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada Regulatory Councils. In examining the informal transnational regulatory networks that have emerged from trade integration, it becomes clear that fragmentation has created non-centralized avenues for dialogue among various stakeholders to influence domestic regulation, especially in areas of environmental regulation, energy, and sustainable development. The paper argues that this trend has led toward the institutionalization of regulatory cooperation through preferential trade agreements, rather than multilaterally. Transnational regulatory networks and more formalized means of regulatory cooperation have influenced the executive branch, traditionally charged with negotiating trade agreements, from lead negotiator to a "regulatory partner" working not only for reducing barriers to trade, but also more specifically for the streamlining of regulatory standards that impact costs of inputs along the supply chain. Given today's negative climate around globalization and recent U.S. initiatives to diminish the role of agencies all together to implement regulation, this trend could take yet another turn--one that centralizes decisions regarding regulation in the President and his cabinet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: This paper analyses critically the integration model proposed by the Pacific Alliance (PA) from the perspective of the legal foundations of Colombia's foreign policy, in order to determine the degree of normative convergence between the Colombian constitutional order and this particular trade agreement. Methodology: This research uses legal technique and case-law analysis as research methodologies, offering a detailed panorama of the normative development of the PA and its relationship with the constitutional requirements regulating the international relations of Colombia. Conclusion: Despite being at an initial stage in relation to its normative and institutional structure, the PA has emerged as a second generation regional trade agreement (RTA), which complements its commercial trajectory with political, social and productive integration agendas, promoting the diversification of international economic relations of its members without altering or modifying their sovereign powers. The above allows to show its compatibility with the constitutional mandate pro integratione, particularly in regard to the ideal of promoting the internationalization of Colombian economic relations with countries of Latin America and other world regions. Originality: The proposed approach has theoretical and methodological originality inasmuch as there are no previous studies analyzing the legal and normative nexus between the interests of Colombia's foreign policy and the PA. Its relevance lies not only in the validity of the issue in question, but also for scenarios of reflection on the participation of the State in trade agreements or regional integration schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing number of regional blocs and interdependence of nations have become important aspects of global economic integration. The European Union (EU28) as one of the most advanced regional bodies has had preferential trade agreements with other regional bodies, such as the East African Community (EAC). Historically, the EU28 has been the EAC's leading trading partner. Against this background, this paper analyses the dynamics of bilateral trade in agri-food between the two regional blocs for the period 2000–2018, using the battery of empirical tools. The findings indicate that even though the EU has finalised trade agreements with the EAC, it holds on the region regarding trade has diminished. The EAC bloc has diversified its trading partners (to other African countries, India and China) beyond the EU28 markets. The results further reveal that the EU28 has comparative advantages in 32 out of 46 agri-food products in trading with EAC. The export concentration ratios show the EU28 slightly concentrated more in exporting products to the EAC than EAC to the Union. The BCG findings reveal (un)competitive and/or promising (dropping) products in export structures of both regions. By and large, the results indicate certain shifts in the comparative advantage, specialisation/diversification of exports and competitiveness of specific products on the bilateral level between EU28 and EAC. Policymakers, especially from EAC should continue to create enabling environments to stimulate food processing, trade and monitor changes in trade patterns or shocks within the framework of the Partnership Agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to consume less and better energy pushes more and more to find efficient solutions at the individual end-user and community levels. The concept of an energy community is becoming increasingly popular, and recently, many studies try to demonstrate how an aggregation of end-users, which produces energy according to a distributed generation concept, is a mechanism able to overcome the increasingly tight constraints imposed by the electricity market, both for the end-user and for the network and market operators. In this context, the paper is aimed at verifying the convenience for both end-user and aggregator sides to operate in an aggregate form considering the new tariff scenario imposed in some European countries like Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the formal and informal ways in which different actors involved in shaping trade agreements pursue their interests and understand the interactions with nutrition, in order to improve coherence between trade and nutrition policy goals.Design: The paper draws on empirical evidence from Australian key informant interviews that explore the underlying political dimensions of trade agreements that act as barriers or facilitators to getting nutrition objectives on trade agendas.Setting: Countries experiencing greater availability and access to diets full of energy-dense and nutrient-poor foods through increased imports, greater foreign direct investment and increasing constraints on national health policy space as a result of trade agreements.Participants: Interviews took place with Australian government officials, industry, public-interest non-government organizations and academics.Results: The analysis reveals the formal and informal mechanisms and structures that different policy actors use both inside and outside trade negotiations to pursue their interests. The analysis also identifies the discourses used by the different actors, as they attempt to influence trade agreements in ways that support or undermine nutrition-related goals.Conclusions: Moving forward requires policy makers, researchers and health advocates to use various strategies including: reframing the role of trade agreements to include health outcomes; reforming the process to allow greater access and voice to health arguments and stakeholders; establishing cross-government partners through accountable committees; and building circles of consensus and coalitions of sympathetic public-interest actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the race for establishing trading architecture consistent with new landscape of the global economy, the US is ahead of the game by concluding the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement with 11 countries. To make it reality, the ratification is essential. In the battle for ratification in the US, declining globalism confronts rising protectionism. This paper models the ratification process as contest between globalism and protectionism, and analyzes the optimal timing for ratification. Based on this framework, various ratification scenarios are analyzed. The paper argues less likelihood for the lame-duck session passage and more likelihood for prolonged and protracted delay, due to changing political dynamics and declining intellectual support for globalism. Hence, the future of Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement may prove different, compared to the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, both of which were renegotiated and ratified eventually. Then, the US would lose the first move advantage. The paper also discusses strategic implications of delayed ratification on the evolution of trading architecture in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is a recent trade agreement after negotiated for decades. TPPA was very sensation due to the new world trade movement lead by the United States. TPPA also seen as the greatest trade agreement in the 21st century that will bring major changes to TPP Member States in various sectors, mostly on economic, trade and investment fronts. Issues arising from the TPPA are not only in the domain of trade, but also intervenes other important aspects such as labour standards, the environment and intellectual property rights. In turn, this will have implications for our current standards and legal framework of TPP member states. A significant problem, and the focus of this paper, is the the impact of the TPPA on existing Malaysian labour laws. Whether Malaysia could maintain the existing framework for labour or does this agreement will require for necessary amendments need to be done in realizing the effectiveness of the TPPA? This article discusses the implications of Chapter No. 19 of TPPA (Labour Chapter) onto Malaysian labour laws resulting from the signed TPPA with other 11 Member States. Methodology used in this article is theoretical analysis based on primary and secondary sources. The interim review found that several sets of labour laws in Malaysia must be amended and the Government of Malaysia should aware with facing of any possible constraints and challenges to comply with international labour standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been 10 years since the introduction of the euro in Slovakia. Regarding the introduction of the single currency, we can highlight factors that have contributed to the economic recovery experienced in recent years. Besides the positive effects, the negative effect appeared as well. The basic goal of the research is to map the experience Slovakia had with the introduction of the euro, 10 years following the introduction of the single currency. In order to achieve the research objectives, we applied primary data collection to obtain information about the researched issue. An anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted among the respondents. Data collection among the residents was realized with the help of an agent, but also an online questionnaire was provided for the respondents in the time interval of 6-20th December 2018. Basic statistic indicators were used to verify our assumptions. The most informed about the role of the ECB and the EU common financial policy were the respondents of age group 26-40, while the respondents over 56 were more informed where the ECB is headquartered. These results can be explained by the fact that the younger generation developed resistance towards the political situation in the EU, they have less interest and show indifference. The proportion of respondents with a clear negative opinion has increased both among the respondents with full secondary school degree and those with college or university degree. The biggest disadvantage they experienced was the increasing price of products. We find it important to suggest that the active involvement of MEPs within a framework of an intensive information campaign is essential. The main objective would be to bring closer the EU economic policy to economically active people and make them less resistant and uninterested in the policy of the EU due to lack of information. We recommend highlighting positive facts regarding the introduction of the single currency not only in the field of international trade but also in everyday transactions on national and EU level. An information campaign is suggested to highlight the positive aspects. The original contribution and the main added value of the paper is the mapping of the consequence of the euro introduction in Slovakia. The example of Slovakia can be a starting point for the tasks to be completed by the neighbouring EU member countries e.g. Czech Republic, Hungary to enter the eurozone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Doha Development Agenda recognizes the central role that international trade can play in the promotion of economic development. In fact, the increase of exports from developing countries to developed nations' markets has been considered a key element for developing countries to realize the potential benefits of globalization. Over the last decades, developed countries have provided preferential access to their markets to developing countries through nonreciprocal trade agreements. Moreover, developing countries have also participated in reciprocal trade agreements. This paper re-examines comparatively the effect of both kinds of trade agreements on exports from developing countries but also from the developed world. In line with other studies, our results across specifications are unstable. However, the results of our preferred specification give additional support to the argument raised by critics of nonreciprocal preference regimes who consider that developing countries should abandon their reliance on one-way trade preferences in favor of reciprocal agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how market-access strategies, via exports and FDI, respond to changes in the level of integration. Empirical evidence shows that both firm exports and multinational activity are affected by trade liberalization episodes. We account for the strong positive correlation between exports and FDI by developing a general-equilibrium model featuring firm heterogeneity, trade and FDI with final and intermediate products. Different geographical spaces are considered to quantify the effect of a preferential trade agreement ( PTA) on supply-mode decisions, for both partner and excluded countries. The model sheds new light on the mechanisms through which geography reshapes the concentration of economic activities both inside and outside the PTA area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a trend of ever expanding cases of trade liberalisation worldwide. The main question for academics is "why is there such a world-wide support for trade liberalisation?". This paper will take on this research question. Current literature seem tofocus on the differentiation of internal and external reasons. However, it will be argued in this paper that these factors may not work in the same way for every country. Instead, it will be suggested that there might be a significant difference between developed and developing countries. Hence, the paper will aim at contributing the academic discussion by providing a theoretical analysis of how these reasons differ for the developed and the developing. Hence, offering an alternative perspective for future discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) has been recognized as a significant progress in regional economic integration for member countries. While the existing literature has widely studied the trade effects of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), it remains unclear how it affects environment-related input use. This paper examines the impacts of agricultural trade liberalization on the domestic fertilizer use following the CAFTA. Using a combined dataset consisting of country- and product-level fertilizer use and predictors over the period 1995–2015, this paper empirically examines the impact of CAFTA on the domestic fertilizer use for the exported fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV) from China to ASEAN members. We use the synthesis control method to identify the aggregate impacts of CAFTA on the domestic fertilizer use, followed by the propensity score matching difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) method to examine the mechanism through which fertilizer use is increased. We find that the total volumes of the domestic fertilizer use for Chinese exported FFV increased significantly following the implementation of the Early Harvest Program under CAFTA in 2004. This impact is more evident for exports to the initial ASEAN members compared to the new members. The PSM-DID results suggest that CAFTA increased the degree of export concentration on ASEAN members. The evidence is consistent with the export diversion effect of a customs union instead of the export creation effect due to trade liberalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, Turkey's EU membership prospects have further deteriorated amid intensive political crisis between Brussels and Ankara. The Turkish government and the European Commission have agreed to upgrade the two-decade-old Customs Union between Turkey and the EU, with negotiations likely to begin in 2018. This paper explores the European Commission's CU upgrade scenarios in tandem with European proposals to form a "Privileged Partnership" between the two parties as an alternative to Turkey's membership in the Union. An upgraded agreement would be a significant step toward Privileged Partnership, maximizing Europeans' political and economic benefits from Turkey and eroding any remaining motives for the EU to welcome Turkey as a full member. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Economic Geography (NEG) focuses on the question of whether trade leads to a greater concentration of economic activity. Little empirical work has been done on assessing the regional distribution of the impact of trade. Therefore, this paper looks at the regional distribution in Mexico of the benefits from trade after NAFTA. Unlike previous papers, this study works with municipal-level data, which not only makes it possible to observe the growth patterns across space more clearly but also to identify the effect of NAFTA. The results show that after NAFTA, output per worker in regions near the Mexico-U.S. border grew faster than that in those further away. Furthermore, the trade agreement increased inequality, implying trade increased economic concentration by causing cities to grow faster than other regions. Similarly, regions with a more literate workforce were better able to benefit from NAFTA, growing faster than other areas after the trade agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international trade for wide world countries in the means more growth, more jobs and access on more products at competitive prices. The European Union is a major economy and an important trading partner for many countries and regions in the world. To stimulate growth and to create jobs in the Union, this economy has concluded multilateral trade agreement (under the World Trade Organisation) and a number of bilateral (preferential) trade agreements. The aim of this paper is to present an example of fully elimination of tariffs and tariff lines under a bilateral trade agreement. In this case, we have analysed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiated by the European Union and Canada. For both sides of Atlantic, the CETA is supposed to bring the solution for today's issues concerning the important trading aspects and, also, to facilitate the EU-Canada bilateral trade by creating competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors discuss the main arguments for and against the most controversial individual issues in negotiations over the potential EU-US free trade agreement. The paper takes into account differences between the USA and EU and tackles the most controversial individual issues which threaten to derail the negotiations, and individual issues which seem dubious from the perspective of the general public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raising global labor standards has been a goal of labor activists, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and nations for over a century. The International Labor Organization (ILO) was created nearly one hundred years ago for that purpose, but a century later its goal remains largely unfinished. This paper will propose a retooling initiative for the ILO that will give it the enforcement power it needs for real labor standard change and the resources it needs to use that enforcement power to promote work according to established international labor standards. This enforcement power will take place through regional free trade agreements (RFTAs), which have increased greatly in popularity over the past twenty years. The initiative will take a degree of voluntarism on behalf of the trade partner countries and their multinational corporations (MNCs), but it will satisfy goals of all parties involved, including the MNCs that will pay for the enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1830's the Ottoman government initiated a series of liberalization measures, including several trade agreements, aimed at integrating domestic economy to the world economy. The agreement known as the Treaty of Balta Liman has been subject to numerous debates. Many scholars argue that this agreement was an indication of the economic collapse in the State because of worsening the trade account and external debt position and also the liberalization reforms caused the State to loose political and economic independence and to collapse soon afterwards. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the long-run relationship between exports and imports in the Ottoman state for the period of 1840-1913 using Engle and Granger (1987) and Johansen and Juselius (1990) co-integration tests to determine whether the macroeconomic policies and liberalization reforms applied by the State were effective in making the trade deficit a short-run phenomenon. The co-integration test results indicate that there exists a stable long-run relationship between exports and imports of the Ottoman State for the period of 1840-1913. The existence of long-run relationship between exports and imports in the Ottoman State implies that the Treaty of Balta Liman is not responsible for worsening external debt position of the Ottoman State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries whose joint gross domestic products (GDPs) account for 36 percent of world GDP and whose mutual trade accounts for approximately 24 percent of world trade. As for most proposed free trade agreements (FTAs), trade economists have provided ex ante computable general equilibrium (CGE) estimates to predict the trade, employment, and real per capita income effects of this agreement, such as ITC (2016). This paperintended to complement these studies-examines the potential impacts of TPP beyond such traditional CGE estimates, taking a broader economic, governance, and historical perspective. First, we contrast these traditional CGE trade and welfare estimates that treat all firms within an industry as homogeneous with more recent CGE analyses that allow firms' productivities to be heterogeneous. We show that the latter models' trade predictions are much more consistent with ex post empirical evidence of average trade effects of FTAs. Second, empirical evidence now strongly confirms the existence of FTA "contagion." We review this evidence and show that predictive models of the evolution of FTAs indicate that the TPP should be formed. With China now having formed 12 FTAs and negotiating five new ones (including a sixteen member Asia-Pacific FTA), the United States would likely face considerable trade diversion without the TPP. Third, we examine empirical evidence on the likely further economic growth implications of FTAs by reducing firms' uncertainty over trade relations and trade policies. Fourth, we examine empirical evidence on the additional impact of FTAs on consolidating democratic institutions in countries. The TPP would likely help consolidate some of the less mature democracies. Fifth, we examine empirical evidence on the reductions of conflicts (and enhanced peace) between countries owing to the formations of FTAs. We conclude the paper noting that the potential net benefits to member countries of the proposed TPP extend well beyond the real income gains to households based upon traditional CGE models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Called off while still under negotiation, the impact of the failed SACU-USA Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will most likely never be known. Diverse opinions abound regarding the possible benefits and disadvantages of this would-be pioneering pact between a developed country and a group of developing countries. It is argued in this paper that there is no clear-cut answer to this complex question and that the implications of the agreement would depend largely on its specific content and the extent to which it accommodated the interests of all concerned. To determine how the agreement would have affected the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) in particular, several existing FTAs between the USA and other countries, all of which bear striking similarity, are examined. The paper also explores the significance of SACU's refusal to endorse what it perceived to be an unfavourable agreement and what this means for the future of trade between Africa and the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant player behind the Trade-Related Intellectual Property (TRIPs) agreement, as regards patents, was a handful of American pharmaceutical transnational corporations ('big pharma'). Given that TRIPs was exceptionally controversial, how was US big pharma uniquely enabled to command the entire trade diplomatic machinery of the US and, through that, enact global law in its favour? This paper explores one crucial factor in the enacting of TRIPs, namely the prior pursuit of domestic US patent reform, from which a highly integrated and powerful single-issue political coalition between US big pharma, the new biotechnology sector and academic life science departments was formed. This created the political context in the US in which patent issues, particularly those affecting the pharmaceuticals industry, came to be considered matters of state. But explaining both the success of this patent coalition and the subsequent success of the US-led international demands for TRIPs in turn demands appeal to analysis of the structure of the global economy and its transformation to one of neoliberal financialisation, from a watershed of 1980. The paper explores how the critical histories of each of the three sectors of the patent coalition are illuminated by analysis in the context of this structural change and the underlying connections between apparently disparate issues it reveals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU claims that its free trade agreements with regional organisations of developing countries can promote the respective regions' integration into the world economy. Taking as case studies EU negotiations with the Southern African Development Community and Mercosur, the paper argues that the EU and its partners have different conceptions of integration into the world economy. For the EU the latter simply means multilateral trade liberalisation under the wto, while, for its partners, it involves increasing industrial production and exports of manufactured products. If the latter notion is accepted, an fta with the EU should increase European foreign direct investment into the region or at least increase their trade surpluses, thus increasing the resources available for support of local firms. The paper argues that an fta with the EU will not be likely to produce these results; thus the fta will simply be an instrument to promote market access for EU firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses current dynamics of the relationship between Colombia and the United States. The Free Trade Agreement negotiations, the armed conflict in Colombia and the Plan Colombia have been central issues in bilateral relations. Recent political changes in the region promise to affect not only Colombia's bilateral relations with its neighbors, but have an effect on US. - Colombian relations. The paper evaluates the particularities of president Uribe's Democratic Security policy, and the state of U.S. - Colombia relations during the Uribe administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education is one of the sectors negotiable under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (Gats), one of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements. This paper analyzes the consequences of this liberalization. Specifically, it assesses the legal impacts of Gats obligations for the pursuance of higher education policies by WTO Members. The paper argues that despite the potential effects of Gats, the way it works can be used to nullify or mitigate its effects, in accordance with the level of liberalization sought by each Member. At the end, this paper also presents an overview of Members' positions, stressing their arguments pro and against liberalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]