Interpartner legitimacy in regional strategic networks

Our aim is to add to the knowledge on a network level, focusing on if, and how, interpartner legitimacy affects the success or failure of network formation and development processes. Existing network theories and research tend to focus on resource exchange rather than on how actors perceive each other in terms of being legitimate or not. The purpose of the article is to analyze the interpartner legitimacy's influence on the formation and development processes of regional strategic networks (RSNs) from a network level. Two Swedish cases are discussed in terms of pragmatic, moral and cognitive interpartner legitimacy. The cases and the following discussion illuminate that interpartner legitimacy is important to incorporate into the analytical model if we wish to understand the processes of negotiations on the rules and norms which set the possibilities for survival of multi-actor interactions.     

The North American Free Trade Agreement and the Canadian Agri-Food Sector

In the past five years, Canada has negotiated and ratified three trade agreements: the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the multilateral free trade agreement now administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO). This paper focuses on the implications for agri-food trade of the NAFTA and its interface with the other two agreements. The provisions of the NAFTA are described and evaluated as they relate to market access, domestic support, export assistance, technical regulations and dispute settlement. Observations are presented on the NAFTA's potential effects on trade in red meats, grains and oilseeds, supply-managed commodities and horticulture. In addition, some of the shortcomings of the NAFTA are highlighted.