The free trade agreement between Mexico and the United States: Financing and investing considerations

Enactment of a free trade agreement between Mexico and the United States will probably increase trade between the two countries. Direct foreign investment and capital market transactions will play a critical role in financing the ever-growing mutual economic interdependence of the two countries. The sustained growth of the Mexican economy is a critical factor in a successful long-term trading relationship. To a certain extent, Mexico's economic health is dependent on U.S. investment in Mexico and in Mexican companies. This article examines certain investing and financing considerations regarding U.S. investment in Mexico. The intent of this study is to make individuals, on both sides of the border, aware of the financial environment in which they are operating. This, in turn, should enhance the opportunities for successful cross-border business activities. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The canada-U.S. free trade agreement

This article examines the forces that caused Canada and the United States to negotiate the free trade agreement, its principal provisions, the projected welfare gains, and estimated labor adjustments. Focusing on the latter, the impact on manufacturing employment is expected to be positive but small in the United States and negative but small in Canada; with the agriculture and resource sectors losing employment shares in both countries. The impact on services will be negligible in the United States and positive in Canada. Focusing on specific industries, nonferrous metals sector appears vulnerable in the United States, while textiles, clothing, furniture and fixtures, electrical and nonelectrical equipment and machinery, nonmetallic mineral products, and fabricated metal products appear vulnerable in Canada. However, actual job losses could be significantly circumscribed by moderate growth and employee turnover, and within vulnerable Canadian industries, there are pockets of significant strength such as in office furniture and telecommunications equipment.     

Navigating a Collision Course: Clinical Ethics vs. Business Ethics

The purpose of this paper is to present a teaching tool that can be used in a variety of courses to examine ethical issues that have emerged in the turbulent health services environment of the United States. More specifically, we describe a structured discussion on the collision between traditional medicine and business practice. We examine six ethical dilemmas and frame them according to the major stakeholders in each situation. We describe these dilemmas in the form of double binds, unattainable situations, conflicts of interest, and countervailing incentives existing between the stakeholders. We analyze the roles that various players have in maintaining the integrity and ethical foundations of health care in the United States. Finally, in light of the increasing industrialization of medicine, we use evidence from the business ethics literature to provide an additional perspective on these relevant health care issues.     

The state of North American free trade

In 1989, a Free Trade Agreement was signed between the United States and Canada. This past June, at a meeting between the presidents of the United States and Mexico, agreement was reached to begin negotiations toward a similar agreement between their countries. Could this be the impetus for a trilateral agreement among the three countries and, perhaps, even creation of a North American Common Market?     

Business Ethics East vs. West: Myths and Realities

The West has a stereotypical image of businesses, officials, and politicians, etc., in the East (Third World) countries being pervasively corrupt while it views itself as being almost completely uncorrupt. One closer look, however, realities turn out to be quite different. Business corruption is much more universal that Westerners are generally willing to accept. The major differences are that corruption in the East is practiced so blatantly that it makes major news. Western businesses, on the other hand, have, over time, developed sophisticated techniques whereby corruption becomes almost invisible. This paper discusses the myths and realities of Eastern versus Western corruption and discusses several means which have allowed Western companies to exploit others through subtle and, almost invisible means. The overall advantage, however, still goes to the West where petty corruption has been pretty much eliminated.     

The clash of liberalizations: Preferential vs. multilateral trade liberalization in the European Union

Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) are characterized by liberalization with respect to only a few partners and thus they can potentially clash with, and retard multilateral trade liberalization (MTL). Yet there is almost no systematic evidence on whether the numerous existing PTAs actually affect MTL. We provide a model showing that PTAs hinder MTL unless they entail accession to a customs union with internal transfers. Using product-level tariffs negotiated by the European Union (EU) in the last two multilateral trade rounds we find that several of its PTAs have clashed with its MTL. However, this effect is absent for EU accessions. Moreover, we provide new evidence on the political economy determinants of trade policy in the EU.     

Ethics and management: A controversial issue

This paper is a part of a broader research project which aims to examine how ethical paradigms are related to theories of organization and management. Using an analysis of various studies on the issue of Business Ethics as its point of departure the paper points out that there are two converging lines of thought. The first emphasizes that management should be reexamined in the light of the cultural changes taking place and maintains that management is a key factor in this change. The second proposes that ethics in general (and Business Ethics in particular) should be understood to mean more than simply applying certain values and stresses that this definition of ethics should be rethought in order to foster a closer relationship between ethics and the decision-making processes.Josep M. Lozano teaches Social Philosophy and Business Ethics at ESADE (Barcelona). He hasLicenciatura degrees in Philosophy and Theology and is currently working on his doctorate, researching the correlation between concepts of ethics and management. He is a regular contributor to a number of Spanish journals, writing on cultural analysis, ethics and theology. He is the author of three books which are systematic studies of these subjects.     

Technology transfer in Mexico: Past patterns and new problems related to the North American free trade agreement

As the Mexican economy prepares to transition from a relatively closed and protected market to a regionally integrated free market which is part of the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a change in its technology licensing environment will be needed to enable Mexican companies to compete for technology with firms from the other member countries of the NAFTA. This study identifies the national sources which have provided Mexico with technology and the Mexican industrial sectors which have been able to attract this technology in the 1980s. It further evaluates the current licensing environments in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.A. as well as in the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA). The study provides recommendations for changes to the Mexican licensing environment and proposes strategies for attracting technology to Mexican industry under the changed conditions which would be introduced by the NAFTA. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The economics of trade agreements in the linear Cournot delocation model

Existing theories of trade agreements suggest that GATT/WTO efforts to reign in export subsidies represent an inefficient victory for exporting governments that comes at the expense of importing governments. Building on the Cournot delocation model first introduced by Venables (1985), we derive new results from this model and use these results to develop a more benign interpretation of efforts to restrain export subsidies in trade agreements. And we suggest that the gradual tightening of restraints on export subsidies that has occurred in the GATT/WTO may be interpreted as deriving naturally from the gradual reduction in import barriers that member countries have negotiated. Together with existing theories, the Cournot delocation model may help to provide a more nuanced and complete understanding of the treatment of export subsidies in trade agreements.     

Overlapping free trade agreements and international trade: A network approach

In our work, we have analysed the effect of the hub‐and‐spoke nature of free trade agreements (FTA s) on trade. Contrary to previous analyses, we have considered the effects of the country's position in the FTA network on the bilateral trade of the hub country. We have conducted an in‐depth analysis of the global network of FTA s, focusing particularly on its evolution in the last 15 years. We have utilised a panel data set covering the period 1960–2010 to investigate the effects of the hub‐and‐spoke on trade. Our results show that the countries that are more connected to FTA s export more than those that are less involved, although not all the partner countries you can connect with are the same. An increase in the number of spokes that have no link between them has, on average, a negative effect on the trade of the hub, which indicates that signing FTA s with every country is not the optimal strategy for increasing trade. However, if we consider the way new FTA s change the relative position of a country, we can see that if new FTA s make the country more central or less constrained in the network, these new agreements have a strongly positive and significant pro‐trade effect.     

东亚地区自由贸易协定的前景探析

近年来,随着区域内的贸易和经济活动在东亚的贸易体系和经济合作中的重要性和影响力的增加,建立多方面优惠的经贸安排,寻求更广阔的经济发展空间,进而建立起东亚自由贸易区的呼声也愈来愈高.本文首先分析了东亚自由贸易协定的发展现状,并分析了当前东亚地区自由贸易协定所面临的主要困难,提出了对东亚地区自由贸易协定发展的建议.     

论《国际经济学》课程在国际贸易专业中的再定位

国际经济学是国际贸易专业的核心课程,但其在国际贸易专业教学实践中存在定位不清的问题,笔者从教学目的、教学内容和教材三方面说明了这一问题,并指出其原因,最后给出了相应的对策建议.     

The gain from free trade under conditions of uncertainty

It is argued that recent attempts to demonstrate that free trade may be harmful under some kinds of uncertainty are based on implausible assumptions. It is shown also that standard proofs of the gainfulness of free trade can be adapted to accommodate uncertainty.