Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Eplaining The Performance Of Italian Exports During The Crisis: (Medium) Quality Matters, Claudio Vicarelli, Piero Esposito

Claudio Vicarelli

A recent study argues that the contraction in total trade that occurred during the crisis was mainly driven by the fall in high quality goods, which should have higher income elasticity owing to a non-linear Engel curve. Our aims are, on the one hand, to test the quality Engel curve assumption for EU15 imports from Italy and, on the other hand, to ascertain whether a break in income elasticities – either temporary or permanent – occurred during the global financial crisis as a result of the changing preference for quality of consumers in the old EU member states. We test …

Compliance Costs And Dissimilarity Of Vat Regimes In The Eu, Henk Lm Kox

Henk LM Kox

The Transatlantic Gmo Dispute Against The European Communities: Some Preliminary Thoughts, David A. Wirth

David A. Wirth

Any day now, a World Trade Organization panel is expected to rule in a dispute between the U.S. and the EU concerning market access for genetically-engineered foods and crops. This piece, written before the release of the WTO panel's report, analyzes novel systemic issues concerning the impact of WTO law on regulatory design, at both the national and international levels, that are raised by this dispute. These include (1) the application of WTO disciplines to regulatory schemes that require prior governmental approval to protect the environment and public health from newly-introduced products and substances; (2) the role of precaution as …

The Role Of Science In The Uruguay Round And Nafta Trade Disciplines, David A. Wirth

David A. Wirth

The central theme of this article is the necessity for deference to decision-making processes of national regulatory authorities in the application of these new trade disciplines and the need for trade-based reviews of national regulatory measures to operate within clearly defined limits. Accordingly, this article first examines and summarizes the relevant texts, including the original 1947 GATT, the Uruguay Round, and the NAFTA texts on standards. Next, the article considers the role of science in the standard-setting process with reference to the copious literature on this topic. Finally, the article takes up the difficult question of the application of the …

Justice, The Bretton Woods Institutions And The Problem Of Inequality, Frank J. Garcia

Frank J. Garcia

The Bretton Woods Institutions are, together with the WTO, the preeminent international institutions devoted to managing international economic relations. This mandate puts them squarely in the center of the debate concerning development, inequality and global justice. While the normative analysis of the WTO is gaining momentum, the systematic normative evaluation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund is comparatively less developed. This essay aims to contribute to that nascent inquiry. How might global justice criteria apply to the ideology and operations of the Bank and Fund? Political theory offers an abundance of perspectives from which to conduct such …

Is Free Trade "Free?" Is It Even "Trade?" Oppression And Consent In Hemispheric Trade Agreements, Frank J. Garcia

Frank J. Garcia

In order for free trade as a policy to deliver fully on its social promise, it must be both “free” and “trade.” In fact, it must be free, in the sense of voluntary, to be trade at all. In other words, for normative and practical reasons, free trade requires that global economic relations be structured through agreements which reflect the consent of those subject to them. The neoliberal trading system today only imperfectly lives up to this obligation. In this essay, I will examine the role of consent in trade agreements, drawing on examples from CAFTA as representative of important …

The Moral Hazard Problem In Global Economic Regulation, Frank J. Garcia

Frank J. Garcia

Global regulation of international business transactions presents a particular form of the moral hazard problem. Global firms use economic and political power to manipulate state and state-controlled multilateral regulation to preserve their opportunity to externalize the social costs of global economic activity with impunity. Unless other actors can effectively counter this at the national and global regulatory levels, globalization re-creates the conditions for under-regulated or “robber baron” capitalism at the global level. This model of economic activity has been rejected at the national level by the same modern democratic capitalist states which currently dominate globalization, creating a crisis of legitimacy …

Wto-Doha Multilateral Trade Negotiations And Agriculture, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The Doha Development Round or Doha Development Agenda (DDA) is the current trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which launched in November 2001. With the start of this round, non-trade concerns (NTCs) were explicitly renowned and integrated into the negotiation process. Generally, multi-functionality proponents attempt to resist agricultural trade liberalization by giving high support to protect their domestic producers. These are net food importing countries, some small countries with highly protected agricultural sector and large trade deficits in some main outputs and unfavourable agro-climatic conditions. The opponents of the multi-functionality argument all claim to recognize the legitimacy of …

Government Composition And Trade Policies, James Lutz

James M Lutz

No abstract provided.

Marine Mammals And International Trade: Balancing Social Conscience With Trade Obligations – A Summary And Update On The World Trade Organization Seal Products Dispute, Chad J. Mcguire

Chad J McGuire

An Overview Of Economic Patterns Of Partnerships Between Developing And Rich Countries With Special Reference To Usa And Sudan, Issam A.W. Mohamed Professor

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The current paper presents unique approach to economic analysis where the theoretical framework applied here postulates that relationships between rogue countries, such as Korea, Syria, Iran and Sudan necessarily are potential parts for an economically mutual and viably profitable partnership. The paper reviews such relationships, especially between African and European countries like Lume and kotono. I first present a review of existing trade and economic partnerships. Next, I discuss economic relationships between developed and developing countries. It is revealed that in some instances, the predatory nature of those agreements and partnerships are manifested which atrophy the basic potentials of the …

The Pkk And Kurdish Drug Networks: Cooperation, Convergence Or Conflict, Behsat Ekici, Phil Williams, Ayhan Akbulut

Ekici Behsat

This paper investigates the evolving inter-relationship between the PKK and Kurdish Drug Networks (KDNs). To understand the nature of the interaction between these differently motivated organizations, the investigators examined the documented statements of drug investigators, PKK operatives and convicted drug criminals. The PKK-KDN interaction was selected as a case study because it provides important insights into much the broader and highly controversial issue concerning the relationship between criminal and terrorist organizations. The research presented here suggests that the PKK initially developed ad hoc cooperation with various KDNs. From the start, however, such cooperation was asymmetric and involved a high degree …