Protectionism in EC-US trade relations

During the 1950s and early 1960s the trading interests of the US and the EC generally coincided, with the result that tariff negotiations could be held successfully. Since that time the interests of the US and the EC have diverged somewhat, and pressures for increased protection have arisen.     

Urgency of trade reform over trade liberalisation

The GATT system has in recent years revealed a number of dangerous weaknesses. Therefore there is reason for concern not only with the further liberalisation of trade within the accepted framework of GATT rules but with a reform of the rules as well.     

Goals, decision-making mechanisms and instruments in the Japanese-American trade conflict

Trade conflicts flaring up at intervals have become a feature of economic relations between Japan and the USA. The following article examines the history of these conflicts against the background of the two countries’ differing political traditions, goals, negotiating mechanisms and policy instruments.     

Euro-Asian trade: The stepchild in triadic relations takes over

Euro-Asian trade was for a long time by far the weakest link in the triadic chain of economic relationships between Europe, North America and Asia. The development of the EC towards the single market, the opening up of Eastern Europe and the growth of trade within the Asia Pacific region itself have led to the expectation that this link would become even weaker in future. The following article presents evidence to the contrary. This paper is a revised version of a lecture given at the Euro-Asia Centre of INSEAD on 14 February 1992. The statistical work and the preparation of graphs was largely done by Alexander Bushaev.     

外贸软件:不再"雾里看花"

外贸软件在一些采购商眼里,就好象时时都蒙着面纱,好容易揭开一层还有一层,越是渴望越是茫然。今天,特别邀请到6位业界专家做客本刊,为外贸企业拨开迷雾。     

电视媒体的质与值

媒体是时代的产物,媒体评估也应随媒体环境的变化与时俱进,但无论环境如何变迁,媒体评估体系所追求的,应当始终是媒体效应的真实呈现。     

The trade comovement puzzle and the margins of international trade

Countries that trade more with each other tend to have more strongly correlated business cycles. Yet, traditional international business cycle models predict a much weaker link between trade and business cycle comovement. We propose that fluctuations in the number of varieties embedded in trade flows may drive the observed comovement by increasing the correlation among trading partners' aggregate productivity. Our hypothesis is that business cycles should be more strongly correlated between countries that trade a wider variety of goods. We find empirical support for this hypothesis. After decomposing trade into its extensive and intensive margins, we find that the extensive margin explains most of the trade–productivity and trade–output comovement. This result is striking because the extensive margin accounts for only a fourth of the variability in total trade. We then develop a two-country model with heterogeneous firms, endogenous entry, and fixed export costs, in which the aggregate productivity correlation increases with trade in varieties. A numerical exercise shows that our proposed mechanism increases business cycle synchronization compared with the levels predicted by traditional models.     

The WTO and the trade-environment conflict

The shrimp-turtle case and the angry reactions it produced both inside and outside the WTO are only one striking example of the explosive force with which environmental policy disputes can shake the world trade system. Given a world whose economies are more closely linked and where environmental problems extend over national borders, it is to be expected that interest groups increasingly concentrate on influencing the institution which is dedicated to promoting international trade, the WTO.     

电视与网络的合纵连横——“安徽电视台与搜狐公司高层对话”纪实

11月19日,安徽电视台与搜狐公司高层对话暨战略签约新闻发布会在北京举行,宣布双方将结成友好的战略合作伙伴关系,在品牌推广、内容服务、技术开发、广告经营以及人才交流等方面开展全面深入的合作。     

The trade structure effects of endogenous regional trade agreements

This paper formulates an empirical model to estimate the impact of endogenous new regional trade agreement (RTA) membership on trade structure. The likelihood of new RTA membership is influenced by economic fundamentals such as country size, factor endowments, and trade and investment costs. In a sample of country-pairs covering mainly the OECD economies we find a particularly strong effect of endogenous RTAs on intra-industry trade in a difference-in-difference analysis based on matching techniques. The associated trade volume effects are similar to the ones found in previous research on the effects of endogenous RTAs. Overall, this indicates that RTA membership might reduce inter-industry trade not only in relative but also in absolute terms and that the trade volume effect is due to the associated growth in trade within industries.     

The dynamics of trade and competition

We estimate a version of the Melitz and Ottaviano [Melitz, Marc J. and Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P., 2008, Market size, trade, and productivity, Review of Economic Studies 75(1), pp. 295-316.] model of international trade with firm heterogeneity. The model is constructed to yield testable implications for the dynamics of prices, productivity and markups as functions of openness to trade at a sectoral level. The theory lends itself naturally to a difference in differences estimation, with international differences in trade openness at the sector level reflecting international differences in the competitive structure of markets. Predictions are derived for the effects of both domestic and foreign openness on each economy. Using disaggregated data for EU manufacturing over the period 1989-1999 we find short run evidence that trade openness exerts a competitive effect, with prices and markups falling and productivity rising. The response of profit margins to openness has implications on the conduct of monetary policy. Consistent with the predictions of some recent theoretical models we find some, albeit weaker, support that the long run effects are more ambiguous and may even be anti-competitive. Domestic trade liberalization also appears to induce pro-competitive effects on overseas markets.     

The WTO trade effect

This paper re-examines the GATT/WTO membership effect on bilateral trade flows, using nonparametric methods including pair-matching, permutation tests, and a Rosenbaum (2002) sensitivity analysis. Together, these methods provide an estimation framework that is robust to misspecification bias, allows general forms of heterogeneous membership effects, and addresses potential hidden selection bias. This is in contrast to most conventional parametric studies on this issue. Our results suggest large GATT/WTO trade-promoting effects that are robust to various restricted matching criteria, alternative GATT/WTO indicators, non-random incidence of positive trade flows, inclusion of multilateral resistance terms, and different matching methodologies.     

浅谈绿色贸易壁垒

随着经济全球化和世界环保浪潮的日益高涨,环境因素在国际贸易中的影响力在不断加大.绿色贸易与绿色贸易壁垒成为人们普遍关注的课题之一,并日益深刻地影响着世界各国贸易的发展.     

The impact of the financial and economic crisis on world trade and trade policy

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The impact of the financial and economic crisis on world trade and trade policy     

跨境贸易人民币结算对外经贸企业的影响分析

当前,世界金融危机的影响仍然存在,北非和西亚的政治动乱及战争;日本地震海啸的发生和严重的核污染形势都在改变和影响着世界的经济格局.虽然我国宏观经济刺激政策使我国外贸呈现企稳回升的趋势,但我国外经贸企业仍然面临着较严峻的形势.如外贸规模下降、利润空间受挤压、外贸环境恶化等严峻挑战.开展跨境贸易人民币结算,推动了我国与周边国家和地区经贸关系发展,促进对外贸易稳定增长.     

中俄经贸关系的问题及对策

中俄关系从政治层面来说处于历史上的良好时期,但双方经贸关系有待进一步发展.了解中俄经贸关系存在的问题,研究对策有助于两国加强合作,推动两国在合作与互补中共同走向繁荣.     

The great trade collapse and Indian firms

The collapse in global trade during the 2008–09 crisis has been widely studied using the developed nation(s) data. I use firm‐level data from Indian manufacturers to show that: (a) Indian firms experience strong negative demand shocks concerning their exports to the USA and the EU, the effect being significantly higher in case of the USA. Results assert that 1% increase in the exposure towards the crisis‐affected zones (the USA and the EU combined) reduces an average Indian manufacturing firm's export earnings by 1.17%–1.36%; (b) trade in consumer non‐durables and durables are the two most affected sectors, impact being higher for the latter; (c) evidence in support of similar effects throughout the size distribution of firms, with the effect being highest for small or the most vulnerable firms; (d) drop in demand, as a result of the 2008–09 crisis, only affects the high‐exposure industries. My results are robust to IV analysis and a variety of checks.