Free Trade

Developing economies may face a trade-off between specializing according to existing comparative advantage (in low-technology goods), and entering sectors in which they currently lack a comparative advantage, but may acquire such an advantage in the future as a result of the potential for productivity growth (in high-technology goods). Comparative advantage is endogenously determined by past technological change, while simultaneously shaping current rates of innovation. Hence, specialization according to current comparative advantage under free trade may be welfare reducing. Selective intervention may be welfare improving, both for the economy undertaking it, and for its trade partner.

Columbia joint seminar in international trade, the Midwest International Economics Meetings in Pittsburgh in October 1992 and at the NBER 1993 Summer Institute. We thank participants for their comments. We are also grateful to the referees for helpful suggestions. Copeland acknowledges support from a SSHRC research grant. 1. See Anderson and Blackhurst [I9921 and Dean [I9921 for useful surveys of the literature on trade and the environment.

FREE TRADE is one of the most cherished goals of American economists. The the-ory of comparative advantage, taught in every introductory economics course, is regarded as a triumph of scientific reason and a compel-ling argument to reduce legal barriers to in-ternational trade. ...

Supply chains for fresh fruit and vegetables, are going through considerable re-shaping phase worldwide. This study analyses the trends which impose those changes and focuses mainly at the wholesale and export trading of the Euro-Mediterranean supply chain (namely, on how fruit and vegetable producer, wholesale and export firms react to the market forces that direct them). Producer organizations and wholesale firms one the one hand of The Netherlands, Germany and other EU member countries, and of Non- EU Member Mediterranean countries, on the other hand, are the subject of this study. Two graphical representation of the Dutch and the German supply chains respectively are presented here as the main instrument to demonstrate the dynamics of the sectors structure, by describing the position, function size and development for the main chain partner in each of the aforementioned markets. The Euro-Med dimension of the fruit and vegetable supply chain, is analyzed by attempting an impact a...

In the decade since scholarly work on standards began, the basic dynamics of standards in the marketplace have been reasonably well described (see [11],[15] and [30] for surveys of this literature). Some empirical studies have been performed to examine the actual behavior of the marketplace and of committees [12, 25, 33](even though this sampling is far short of what is necessary to fully understand standards), and preliminary attention has been paid to modeling the standards development process [8, 18]. Much anecdotal literature exists ...

In Latin America, indigenous peoples constitute a marginalized group that is using the courts, increasingly, as one means by which to pursue and defend its rights. In part, this is a result of the juridifi cation of its collective rights through processes of constitutional reform across the region during the 1980s and 1990s. It is also a consequence of the very limited advances that have been made to date in guaranteeing these rights in practice. The enlarged legal recognition of indigenous autonomy has occurred at the same time as judicial reform in implementation of economic policies promoting free trade and accelerated natural resource exploitation -policies that affect indigenous communities negatively and disproportionately. This combination of factors has meant that indigenous movements more and more have called on the judiciary in defense of their collective rights, albeit often with limited tangible effects.

Focusing mainly on the United States and Latin America, we aimed to identify the constructions of social reality held by the major stakeholders participating in policy debates about global trade, public health, and health services. In a multi-method, qualitative design, we used three sources of data: research and archival literature, 1980-2004; interviews with key informants who represented major organizations participating in these debates, 2002-2004; and organizational reports, 1980-2004. We targeted several types of organizations: government agencies, international financial institutions (IFIs) and trade organizations, international health organizations, multinational corporations, and advocacy groups. Many governments in Latin America define health as a right and health services as a public good. Thus, the government bears responsibility for that right. In contrast, the US government's philosophy of free trade and promoting a market economy assumes that by expanding the private sector, improved economic conditions will improve overall health with a minimum government provision of health care. US government agencies also view promotion of global health as a means to serve US interests. IFIs have emphasized reforms that include reduction and privatization of public sector services. International health organizations have tended to adopt the policy perspectives of IFIs and trade organizations. Advocacy groups have emphasized the deleterious effects of international trade agreements on public health and health services. Organizational stakeholders hold widely divergent constructions of reality regarding trade, public health, and health services. Social constructions concerning trade and health reflect broad ideologies concerning the impacts of market processes. Such constructions manifest features of ''creed,'' regarding the role of the market in advancing human purposes and meeting human needs. Differences in constructions of trade and health constrain policies to address the profound changes generated by global trade.

This book describes and analyzes critical aspects of the labor market and social protection in the Arab world. The authors address the interrelationship between labor, human development, and social well-being in the Middle East and North Africa region -- an interaction that is viewed against the backdrop of a globalization process that is a crucial shaping factor in national and international relations alike. The authors scrutinize the implications for workers of the new forms of insecurity being ushered in by the globalization era. At the forefront is the issue of social protection, which creates several dilemmas for policymakers, since formal social security covers only a small percentage of the labor force. The idea of social reinsurance, which would integrate the informal sector and allow for social dialog, emerges at various levels, and there is general agreement that any such dialog, or new social contract, must include government, the private sector, and civil society.

This article emphasizes the contribution of International Framework Agreements (IFAs) to collective bargaining within multinational companies (MNC). For this purpose, we used various data, including content analysis of 42 IFAs and interviews with representatives of the five Global Union Federations (GUFs) involved in the negotiation of these IFAs, in order to assess the content and efficiency of these agreements. Our

The theory of International Trade should have been treated as a part of the Theory of Inter-individual Trade and the Market but economists have studied it separately because the assumption of factor immobility eases modelling and mathematical treatment. By rescuing Adam Smith's theory of international trade from obloquy this paper tries to emphasise the connection between trade and growth ignored by generations of theorists obsessed with static questions, such as the sharing of benefits from trade, the scientific tariff, and movements of the terms of trade.

Globalization, free trade, and individualization have opened up a worldwide marketplace for trading goods. The fair trade movement and other political consumerist endeavours view consumers as important active holders of responsibility for global welfare. Civil society and governments strive to teach consumers how political consumerism can be used as a push factor to change market capitalism. The market itself can also create an interest in political consumerism and, thereby, teach consumers about the political responsibility embedded in their shopping choices. When this happens, the market works as a pull factor for securing human rights. Questions can be raised about the significance of political consumers as a way to solve complex global problems. Political consumerism may be a fair-weather option that loses its attractiveness in times of downward private and corporate economic spirals. Parts of the fair trade movement believe that there are problems with sole reliance on voluntary consumer choice and using personal money and private capital to solve human rights problems by shopping them away. The exponential growth of voluntary codes of corporate conduct and labelling schemes has also created contradictory practices, incoherence in efforts, and superficial changes or what activists call ''sweatwash.'' Increasingly, many actors call on international law to create new standards that apply direct human rights obligations on corporations.

This article examines whether the involvement of stakeholders in the design of corporate codes of conduct leads to a higher implementation likelihood of the code. The empirical focus is on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). The paper compares the inclusion of OSH issues in the codes of conduct of 30 companies involved in International Framework Agreements (IFAs), agreed upon by trade unions and multinational enterprises, with those of a benchmark sample of 38 leading Multinational Enterprises in comparable industries. It is found that codes of IFA group have a higher implementation likelihood in OSH than the codes of the benchmark group. Further, European firms, culturally more used to stakeholder involvement, score higher than their US and Japanese competitors, and hence are more capable of addressing the safety and health issues in international supply chains. The implementation likelihood of codes seems closely related to the type of corporate CSR approach.

The book makes an effort in investigating the present and future developments in the global economy, after the 2008 global financial and economic crisis. The results of the global crisis were devastating and destructive all around the world. The USA economy took significant damage when the crisis went into Europe, and it turned out a foreign debt crisis influencing European economies, including Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy. Consequently, the economic crises gave impetus to social uprisings and protest, and this led to giving populist and nationalist politicians the advantage to take the control of government. President Trump's “First USA Policy,” then, European populist and anti-EU politicians including, Le Pen, Wilders, Salvini, and Nigel Farage attack the post-war global economic order and structures like the European Union to vanish the full benefits and wealth of globalization process. After the crisis, the global economy evolved into protectionism, depending on the coming to power of populist leaders. President Trump entered into a great trade war with the European Union and China, later on. In this frame, the study examines the effects of populism/protectionism, which has upsurged after the 2008 crisis, on the global economy in various dimensions.

Kompleksitas struktur perdagangan AS-Cina membuat kita tidak bisa langsung menyimpulkan bahwa perang dagang ini hanya akan mengalihkan keuntungan dari Cina ke AS dan hanya merugikan perusahaan-perusahaan Cina yang bergantung pada pasar AS. Konsumen dan perusahaan di kedua negara yang secara tidak langsung terkait dengan pasar AS dan Cina juga akan terpengaruh. Kenaikan biaya produksi yang dimulai oleh kenaikan tarif dapat terus bertambah sebelum mencapai konsumen.

Il testo Sul finire dell'Ottocento nell'opinione colta italiana iniziò a dissolversi il convincimento di poter trapiantare nel nostro Paese il sistema politico-istituzionale britannico. Gli intellettuali, perlopiù economisti, che si riunirono attorno al «Giornale degli economisti», insieme a poche altre personalità come Luigi Einaudi e Giorgio Arcoleo, furono tra i pochi a ritenere praticabile tale esperimento e a proporlo come via d'uscita non autoritaria alla crisi di fine secolo. In tale battaglia politica, essi avrebbero veicolato un'immagine della Gran Bretagna che andava ormai scolorendo, cristallizzata nella stagione gladstoniana e ancorata a una visione minimale delle funzioni dello Stato. La non piena comprensione del progressivo avvicinamento del modello politico e amministrativo d'oltremanica a quello dei principali Paesi dell'Europa continentale costituì peraltro una felice circostanza nella misura in cui ebbe l'effetto di agevolare la difesa delle libertà statutarie. L'autore Luca Tedesco, già docente Erasmus presso la Freie Universität di Berlino e attualmente professore associato in Storia contemporanea presso l'Università degli Studi Roma Tre, dirige la collana Liberismi italiani dell'Istituto Bruno Leoni di Torino. Ha pubblicato diverse monografie e articoli sulla storia del pensiero economico, tra cui Dal libero scambio all'autarchia. Gino Borgatta e gli «interessi dell'economia nazionale» (2016); Il protezionismo come irrazionalità economica e «sentimento di egoismo patriottico» nell'analisi e nella denuncia di Gino Borgatta sulla grande stampa d'opinione (2016); Gino Borgatta e la crisi economica degli anni Trenta tra protezionismo condizionato e autarchia inderogabile (2012); Il canto del cigno del liberoscambismo: la Lega antiprotezionista e il suo primo convegno nazionale (2008); Un tentativo di fronte «padronale»: la Confintesa (1956-1958) (2008) e L'alternativa liberista. Crisi di fine secolo, antiprotezionismo e finanza democratica nei liberisti radicali (1898-1904) (2002). Per i tipi di Mondadori Università ha scritto un manuale di Didattica della Storia per la scuola primaria e dell'infanzia.

Yemen Economic Update is a quarterly report that consists of five sections. The first section highlights major economic and policy developments. The second section provides "flash indicators" for key economic variables that are available on a monthly or quarterly basis from the Government of Yemen. The third section uses different data sources to compare one development indicator in Yemen with other countries in the MENA region and countries with similar GDP per capita and population. The fourth section summarizes new legislation, publications, data, conferences, and donor activities. The fifth section provides contact information and recent World Bank operations and activities in Yemen. Occasionally, special topics are featured in the Update.

We incorporate intermediate inputs into a small-union general-equilibrium model and develop the welfare economics of preferential trading under the rules of origin. Combining this analysis with the Grossman-Helpman political-economy model, we demonstrate that the rules of origin can improve the political viability of FTAs. Two interesting outcomes are derived. First,

Произходът на стоките следва да се разглежда като сложна икономическа категория, която от митническа гледна точка предопределя наличието на специфични насоки за осъществяване на контрол. Многообразието от споразумения за свободна търговия между ЕС и трети страни въвежда редица условия, изпълнението на които трябва да бъде удостоверявано от митническите органи. Това налага необходимостта от наличието на ясни технологични разпоредби за издаване на доказателства за произход от Съюза и за проверка на представени такива от страни‒бенефициенти. Цел на разработка е да се изследват приложимите на ниво ЕС споразумения за свободна търговия с трети страни от гледна точка приложението им у нас и на тази база да се обосноват и изведат особеностите на митническите формалности по отношение произхода на стоките. Задачите, които са изпълнени за постигането на дефинираната цел, са:
1. Представяне на сключените от ЕС споразумения за свободна търговия с трети страни и извеждане на значението им;
2. Представяне приложението на европейските споразумения за свободна търговия от позицията на Р България;
3. Разглеждане на особеностите на основните митнически процедури, обхващащи контрола върху произхода на стоките.
Основната изследователска теза е, че приложението на споразуменията за свободна търговия и свързаният с тях произход на стоките са основен обект на митнически контрол и като такъв оказват съществено влияние върху външно-търговските връзки на страната ни. В резултат на изследването е обосновано значението на сключените от ЕС споразумения за свободна търговия с трети страни от позицията на осъществявания в Р България митнически контрол. Анализирани са външнотърговските отношения на страната ни и са направени изводи относно степента, в която българският бизнес се възползва от възможните митнически преференции на база произхода на стоките. Ключови думи: митница, контрол, произход на стоки, преференции, свободна търговия.

We provide an overview and introduction to the emerging field of trade and renewable resources, and discuss the potential impact of trade liberalization on welfare and resource conservation. A key factor determining the effect of trade reform is the institutional context or property rights regime, and our survey is organized such that it loosely follows the development of new insights with respect to institutions in this literature. This implies a transition from the benevolent planner's model to the polar opposite benchmark of open access in the 1990s. Currently the pendulum is swinging back towards management and regulation, but institutions are treated as endogenous. We discuss and compare various key models in some detail and search for common ground between protagonists and antagonists of free trade.

State conduct of commerce with the rest of the world has always been important, rather than determinant, to domestic capacity to generate and distribute output and income. Theoretically, engagements of world commerce have included protectionism, inward-looking strategies, integration for interdependence, insertion for dependence, openness to imports and free trade regimes. For erstwhile colonies in Africa, the trajectory of engagement has seemed to be predetermined due to colonial-formation of their economies. As the model of evolution of Africa's external relations demonstrates, states in that continent have been inserted into the global system for dependent extraversion and adjustments. Attempts at trade and market liberalisation there have perpetuated openness to imports. Given that state of affairs, states in that continent have been eroded of capacity of domesticating globalisation for local socio-economic transformation. From a political-economy perspective, the paper views South Africa's Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy as an instrument of appropriation that is set to perpetuate that country's dependent extraversion and openness to imports. The paper uses the balance of payments to demonstrate that country's poor state of commerce with the rest of the world. It argues that as external trade and capital flows and investments, which are shaped through domestic economic policy, affect in return domestic capacity of transforming the structures of deprivation, GEAR has inaugurated a zero-sum game of globalisation, rather than `a better life for all'. We analyse several indicators of economic performance and social wellbeing to demonstrate the paradoxical operations and Janus-faced tendencies of globalisation and the attendant lack of transformation of structures of deprivation in South Africa.

My research will examine the origins of the current corn crisis in Mexico. The rise in corn prices are not the result of shortages in production, but the outcome of increased demand stemming from the production of biofuels. I hypothesize that in an age of trade deregulation and food riots, food security remains a possibility for Mexico. I propose that by examining international conditions, free trade policies and the civic response to the 2007 Mexican neoliberal 1 tortilla crisis, we can understand not only the current corn crisis but also the larger crises of food entitlement currently afflicting the developing world. The goal of this study is to contribute to the evaluation of the impact of trade liberalization on corn production and Mexican food security.

Il lavoro intende ricostruire i fili dell’agitazione in favore del libero scambio tra la crisi politico-economica di fine Ottocento e il tramonto del regime liberale. Tale campagna avrebbe dovuto inserirsi, per il movimento liberista, in una più ampia, volta alla democratizzazione delle istituzioni. Nonostante, peraltro, la comunanza di premesse culturali e intendimenti politici, non mancarono all’interno del mondo liberista linee di frattura e dissonanze. Se difatti il montante clima nazionalista di inizio Novecento avrebbe enfatizzato nell’azione di gran parte dei liberisti i nessi tra liberoscambismo e antimilitarismo, la tematica tributaria registrò notevoli frizioni interne. Nel dopoguerra, infine, il virulento antistatalismo di alcuni esponenti del milieu liberista avrebbe individuato nel governo guidato da Mussolini l’ultima chance per salvare lo Stato liberale.

). Il s'agit d'une modification majeure de la politique commerciale du Sénégal qui bénéficie aujourd'hui d'un accès préférentiel relativement favorable vers les marchés européens, mais aussi vers le marché américain, et applique des tarifs peu discriminatoires. La réforme APE impliquerait une faible amélioration de l'accès au marché pour les exportateurs sénégalais, et une forte ouverture de cette économie aux produits européens. En outre, la réforme impliquerait une perte de recettes tarifaires substantielle pour le Sénégal. Les APE entraineraient donc pour le Sénégal peu de flux commerciaux supplémentaires et beaucoup de détournement de commerce. En utilisant le modèle MIRAGE de l'économie mondiale cet article étudie l'impact potentiel des APE et confirme largement les craintes émises par ces pays sur l'efficacité de ces accords.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had a profound impact on corn trade between the United States and Mexico. Negotiated tariff reductions and the Mexican government's decision not to charge some tariffs to which it was entitled resulted in a doubling of US corn exports to Mexico. This paper examines the environmental implications of this change on both sides of the border.

Over thousands of thousands years history proves to us that Gold and Silver are the best form of money. Both has kept their values time to time. This is the story of three examples how gold and silver coins have maintained their purchasing powers since 1.400 years.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had a profound impact on corn trade between the United States and Mexico. Negotiated tariff reductions and the Mexican government's decision not to charge some tariffs to which it was entitled resulted in a doubling of US corn exports to Mexico. This paper examines the environmental implications of this change on both sides of the border.

This article examines how The wealth of nations (1776) was transformed into an amorphous text regarding the imperial question throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Adam Smith had left behind an ambiguous legacy on the subject of empire: a legacy that left long-term effects upon subsequent British imperial debates. In his chapter on colonies, Smith had proposed both a scheme for the gradual devolution of the British empire and a theoretical scheme for imperial federation. In response to the growing global popularity of protectionism and imperial expansionism, the rapid development of new tools of globalization, and the frequent onset of economic downturns throughout the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, turn-of-the-century proponents of British imperial federation formed into a formidable opposition to England's prevailing free trade orthodoxy – Cobdenism – a free trade ideology which famously expanded upon the anti-imperial dimensions of The wealth of nations. Ironically, at the turn of the century many advocates for imperial federation also turned to Smith for their intellectual inspiration. Adam Smith thus became an advocate of empire, and his advocacy left an indelible intellectual mark upon the burgeoning British imperial crisis.

Este documento desarrolla un análisis descriptivo del Tratado de Libre Comercio suscrito entre Canadá y Colombia, y sus antecedentes en materia de inversiones. Para ello se utiliza la metodología de investigación documental y análisis de contenidos del TLC y sus respectivas rondas de negociación. Los resultados muestran que Colombia tiene sectores atractivos para la inversión de capital canadiense, como es el caso de los sectores minero, inmobiliario y de servicios financieros. Por su parte, este acuerdo le permitirá a Colombia ser más competitivo en el mercado internacional y mejorar la confianza inversionista a nivel mundial.

In this article, core tenets and claims of the theory of ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) are synthesized. EUE theory postulates a net flow of natural resources from peripheral developing to core industrialized countries through international trade, a situation which undermines the development of the periphery while enhancing that of the core. The key claims and EUE mechanisms are categorized and discussed under three topics: 1) the structure of the capitalist world-economy, 2) monetary valuation, and 3) equity and justice. The treadmill logic of capitalism in which capital extracts ecological resources and release waste in an endless pursuit of profits creates an expansionary dynamic which draws peripheral countries into exploitative market relations. This peripheralization is supported by 'free trade' economic policies, while nation-states and other political-economic institutions such as the WTO and IMF provide the regulations which ensure proper functioning of the system. Monetary valuation caps it by obscuring the inverse relationship between thermodynamics and economics, in which low-entropy energy and materials indispensable in economic production processes are lowly priced while processed goods which have dissipated most of their matter-energy are highly priced, ensuring that biophysical resources and profits accumulates in the industrialized Northern countries. This EUE framework is applied to the EU's Raw Materials Initiative from the vantage point of policy as implicit theory. By challenging mainstream policies and their underlying theories, the EUE perspective demonstrates that alternatives to neoliberal policy prescriptions exist and policy can play a crucial role in bringing about the necessary structural changes.

Dans cet article, les principes et les revendications de la théorie de l'échange inégal sur le plan écologique (EUE) de base sont synthétisés. La théorie soutient que naturellement il y a un flux de ressources à partir de la périphérie vers les pays centraux, par le commerce international. La périphérie souffre tandis que le centre est améliorée. Les principales revendications de l'article, ainsi que les mécanismes impliqués en EUE, sont classées sous trois thèmes et discutées: 1) la structure globale de l'économie capitaliste, 2) la valeur monétaire, et 3) l'équité et la justice. La logique de tapis roulant du capitalisme-dans une poursuite sans fin de profits-extrait les ressources écologiques et puis un des déversements de déchets. Il y a une expansion dynamique; certains groupes de pays périphériques sont attirés dans les relations de marché d'exploitation. Cette périphérisation est soutenue par des politiques économiques «libre-échange». Les états-nations et d'autres institutions politico-économiques, telles que l'OMC et le FMI, garantissent le bon fonctionnement du système par la réglementation. L'évaluation monétaire obscurcit la relation inverse entre la thermodynamique et de l'économie, dont l'énergie et les matériaux indispensables dans les processus de production économique à faible entropie ne coûtent pas cher. Les produits transformés, qui ont la plus grande partie de leur matière-énergie dissipée, sont très cher. Cela garantit que les ressources biophysiques et les profits accumule dans les pays industrialisés du Nord. Ce cadre EUE est appliqué à Raw Materials Initiative de l'UE, en envisager la politique comme «théorie implicite». En remettant en question les politiques générales et leurs théories sous-jacentes, la perspective EUE démontre que les alternatives prescriptions politiques existent. La politique peut jouer un rôle crucial dans les changements structurels nécessaires.

En este artículo, resumimos las proposiciones básicas de la teoría del comercio ecológicamente desigual y las convertimos en criterios de evaluación para políticas públicas. La teoría postula que mediante el comercio internacional se establece un flujo neto de recursos naturales de los países en desarrollo a los países del centro, y que está situación menoscaba el potencial de desarrollo de la periferia y por el contrario aumenta la del centro. Las proposiciones principales de la teoría del comercio ecológicamente desigual son clasificadas y discutidas en tres acápites: la estructura de la economía-mundo capitalista, los lenguajes de valoración, y la justicia y equidad. Esos criterios se aplican entonces a la Raw Materials Initiative (iniciativa de materias primas) de la Unión Europea, para mostrar que la teoría del comercio ecológicamente desigual desafía la teoría económica ortodoxa sobre la que descansan políticas tales como la Raw Materials Initiative. Hay otras opciones disponibles para las políticas públicas. Eso se ve si consideramos las políticas como expresiones de teorías. El análisis de políticas debe separar analíticamente las teorías y los supuestos en los que descansan las políticas de los intereses políticos u otros intereses. En los discursos públicos, hay que cuestionar cuán robustos son esas teorías y supuestos frente a otras perspectivas y evidencias científicas. La noción del comercio ecológicamente desigual indica que no podemos continuar como cada día, hay alternativas a la política neoliberal, y las políticas públicas tienen un papel crucial para conseguir los cambios estructurales necesarios.

Presentación de una estrategia para reducir la pobreza y convertir a Honduras en una nación del primer mundo en una o dos generaciones. Análisis de procesos exitosos de liberalización económica en Asia, Europa y América Latina. Elaboración de una estrategia nacional y local de reforma económica para Honduras. Impacto en el PIB de Honduras de las Zonas de Empleo y Desarrollo Económico.