European Competition vs. Global Competitiveness Transferring EU Rules on State Aid and Public Procurement Beyond Europe

As long as state aid outside the EU is unregulated, the European Commission faces a dilemma: either European firms will be disadvantaged in global competition by strict EU rules, or the Commission will come under pressure to relax the rules, thereby running the risk that fair competition within the EU will be undermined. As a consequence, the Commission attempts to promote EU rules on state aid and public procurement beyond EU borders — in non-member countries as well as at the WTO level. This article analyses the Commission’s channels of regulatory transfer and the factors accounting for its varying success. Bilateral cooperation provides many opportunities to spread European state aid rules, but decentralised enforcement at the national level remains ultimately deficient. Moreover, the transfer of European rules to the multilateral WTO depends heavily on the EU’s ability to reach prior consensus with its most powerful partner and rival, the US government.     

Enlargement and the EU budget: The battles ahead

The coming enlargement of the EU is unprecedented as regards both the number of acceding countries and the wealth differentials existing between the Union's current members and the candidates. The contributors to this forum present their views on how the complex financial issues involved can be solved in a way that will enable the enlarging Union to continue to function while ensuring a fair distribution of the costs and benefits of enlargement. This article is part of the project “Membership of Central and Eastern European Countries in the EU” funded by the Otto Wolff-Stiftung, Cologne.     

迈进入世山 再遇入市坎

美国及欧盟等国家不承认我国是市场经济体制国家.给不给予我国市场经济地位的待遇,不仅是一个贸易问题,更重要的是一个政治问题.我国要求承认我国是市场经济国家,对我国融入国际贸易体系,获取公正的国际贸易待遇,加快社会和经济发展意义重大.而＂非市场经济＂地位,对我国的国际形象、对外贸易造成的影响与损失极大.对此,我们应该采取＂冷静对待,力争突破＂的方针,力争获得市场经济国家的地位与待遇.     

Turkey: Toward EU Accession

The purpose of this paper is to study selected aspects of Turkish accession to the EU. Joining the EU will require that Turkey attains macroeconomic stability, adopts the Common Agricultural Policy, and liberalizes its services and network industries. Furthermore, joining the EU will require Turkey to adopt and implement the whole body of EU legislation and standards – the acquis communautaire. According to the EU membership criteria, new members must be able to demonstrate the ‘ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union’. Thus Turkey will be expected to adopt the euro when it is ready to do so, but not immediately upon accession. Integration will boost allocative efficiency in the Turkish economy which in turn will make the country a better place to invest. Furthermore, Turkey will reap the benefits from monetary integration and from migration of labour to the EU. But the welfare gains will have a price, and the price will be the adjustment costs associated with the adoption of the acquis communautaire. The final section of the paper considers the effects of accession on the EU in terms of migration and budgetary effects.     

浅析新会计准则下公允价值会计计量

目前,公允价值已经被很多国家的法律法规接受。但是,公允价值的计量问题却一直是困扰人们的一个难题。当某种产品存在活跃市场时可以用公允价值计量,当同类产品不存在活跃市场时却很麻烦。对公允价值应用的争论与疑虑多来源于此。会计产生于消息信息不对称的需要,研究这些问题及其解决对策,对促进会计理论和会计实务向更高层次发展,具有非常重要的理论和现实意义。     

Bilateral Free Trade Agreements and Customs Unions: The Impact of the EU Republic of South Africa Free Trade Agreement on Botswana

The EU has indicated that after 2008 its trade relationships with developing countries will be dominated by the development of preferential trade agreements. Although not a consequence of the Cotonou Agreement, the free trade agreement between the EU and the Republic of South Africa (EU RSA FTA) was clearly one of the first fruits of this approach to trade relationships. However, there is no evidence that the design of the EU RSA FTA incorporated a comprehensive general equilibrium evaluation of the agreement for either the signatories or the other southern African nations. The analyses reported here indicate that while the EU RSA FTA may substantially benefit the signatories, there are appreciable negative impacts for other states, especially the Republic of South Africa's immediate neighbours. Moreover, the analyses indicate that the structural adjustments for African economies signalled by the FTA are substantial, which implies that there will be substantial economic costs associated with the FTA.     

Canada Finance Minster： Welcome China＇s Investment in Canada

To forward the relationship between China and Canada in financial and trade sectors and strengthen the cooperation in avoiding the worse impact of international financial crisis, Canadian financial high-level leaders involving Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, Canada＇s Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty, Federal Superintendent of Financial Institutions Julie Dickson, as well as five major banks and the two biggest insurance companies in Canada, who are looking to strengthen and expand business ties with China, visited China from August 8 to August 14, 2009. Also they send warm invitations to China enterprises to invest and to be listed in Canada. This visit is a preparation for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper＇s coming visit to China in November.     

Legal But Costly: An Analysis of the EU GM Regulation in the Light of the WTO Trade Dispute Between the EU and the USA

In this study, we investigate the new European Union (EU) regulations in the light of the ruling by the World Trade Organization (WTO) panel on the trade in genetically modified crops. To this end, we describe: the basic differences in approaches between the EU and the complaining parties with regard to genetically modified crops, what the main arguments were of the complaining parties as well as the defence of the EU, what the final judgement of the panel was and finally, we describe the current EU regulations. We then analyse to what extent, the arguments and conclusions of the panel still hold regarding the new EU legislation. We find that parts of the current EU legislation, that is, the safety bans as they are currently in place, are in breach of the WTO commitments. Moreover, the new approval procedures have the potential to also break these rules, although whether or not they will, depends on how the European Commission acts. Whether or not the EU will be challenged at the WTO remains an open question, as the decision to fight before the WTO may be more costly than working out new bilateral trade agreements.     

Withdrawal legitimised? On the proposal by the constitutional Convention for the right of secession from the EU

Summary  All in all it can be stated that since the heterogeneity of the EU will increase considerably due to its enlargement and at the same time the trend towards centralisation and redistribution will be strengthened, secession and opting out will become important as constitutional arrangements for the EU. They are an instrument against stronger centralisation and redistribution mechnanisms. They make a contribution to the operationality of the subsidiarity principle. They form a counterweight to the domination of minorities by majority decisions. At the same time they facilitate the mechanisms for the endogenous determination of the optimal size of the EU and for the increasing of the efficiency of the EU institutions in the sense of federalism theory. Globalisation increasingly requires and enforces liberal institutions of integration. Every country should therefore have the choice of terminating its participation in a Community policy or even its membership of a club in a regulated fashion. Thus, the European Convention has made a trail-blazing proposal with the constitutional right of secession from the EU.     

欧盟东扩对中国外经贸企业的影响

2004年5月1日，中东欧10个国家加入欧盟，欧盟成员国增至25个国家，这是欧盟有史以来实现的最大规模的扩张。此举会给当今世界政治经济格局带来重大影响，同时，也给中国外经贸企业带来机遇和挑战。面对机遇和挑战，中国外经贸企业应牢固树立以质取胜的意识，提高产品档次；认真研究欧盟的法律、法规和技术标准；采取多种投资方式，不断创新，提高核心竞争力，迂回进入欧盟市场。     

Macroprudential Risk Management Problems in Brexit

Brexit is not only a historical chapter of the British — EU relationship, but it also carries immense challenges for fi nancial market stability in the short and medium run for the 28 member states of the European Union. The scale of these challenges depends heavily on the outcome of EU-UK negotiations. The European Systemic Risk Board plays a critical role in macroprudential supervision, a crucial policy challenge for the EU. However, there are doubts as to whether it will fulfill its mandate. The EU27 faces major problems in terms of prudential supervision after Brexit since a very large part of their wholesale banking markets are in the UK and thus will not be regulated by the EU after 29 March 2019. Indications point to a considerable risk of a new transatlantic banking crisis in the future.     

中国扩大对欧盟出口贸易的战略

欧盟是我国的第三大贸易伙伴 ,是我国重要的商品出口市场。随着美国经济的减缓、日本经济的下滑 ,进一步扩大欧盟市场对于促进中国对外贸易发展具有十分重要的战略意义。但欧盟作为世界上最发达的区域性经济集团 ,保护性措施很多 ,严重阻碍了中国对欧盟出口贸易的发展。     

Evaluation of the Information and Communications Infrastructures of Bulgaria and Romania Following Their Accession to the EU

ABSTRACT

The European Union (EU) completed a massive expansion in 2004. On January 1, 2007 Bulgaria and Romania were admitted into the union. EU accession requires the fulfillment of a list of requirements relating to judicial, economic, information and social infrastructures. This article examines Bulgaria's and Romania's National Information Infrastructures (NII) analyzing traditional, high technology and competitive structures. Comparisons are made to the original 15 European Union member countries' (EU15) NII structures and to those ten countries which entered in 2004 (EU10). Results of the analysis indicate that Bulgaria and Romania compare favorably on traditional measures, though high technology infrastructures lag considerably in some instances, and will be costly to build well beyond available EU funding sources. The gap will provide opportunities for western high technology firms which should be favorably embraced by the two resource strapped governments.     

欧盟东扩对我国纺织业的潜在影响分析

进入21世纪,欧盟东扩的进程不断加快。作为我国支柱产业的纺织业将面临更多的挑战:原有出口配额企业配额的丧失;贸易转移效应;反倾销、反补贴措施的严重性;技术贸易壁垒的“东扩”;保障条款的滥用以及投资转移效应的影响等。我国的纺织服装企业只有全面提高自己的适应能力,才有可能将欧盟东扩作为进入欧盟的平台,扩大对欧盟的出口。     

The Economic Impacts of Turkish Accession to the European Union

Half a century has passed and Turkey is no further toward achieving EU membership. Under the mandate of the Barcelona Declaration, EU–Turkish industrial tariffs will be abolished, whilst agro‐food protectionism remains largely intact. Consequently, the direct impacts from a hypothetical EU accession scenario will be concentrated in agro‐food sectors, whilst their share of economic output in Turkey implies ‘secondary’ macro impacts. To this end, a computable general equilibrium (CGE) framework is employed to quantitatively reassess full Turkish accession. Unlike previous CGE studies, agriculture, fishing and food sectors are disaggregated, whilst significant advancements to the ‘standard’ model code are incorporated to capture the vagaries of agricultural factor, input and product markets. In addition, a realistic ‘baseline’ scenario is constructed including ‘up to date’ trade and domestic agricultural policy reforms prior to Turkish entry to the EU. The results show that trade‐led gains in Turkey are moderated due to tariff liberalisation prior to EU entry, whilst Turkey receives significant budgetary transfers from the CAP budget, which are ‘mirrored’ as EU‐27 costs. With additional migration effects, Turkish (EU‐27) production possibilities fall (rise), whilst real income per capita rises (falls).     

EU Enlargement Creating a Framework for the Eu-Russian Rapprochement

Abstract

The Eastern enlargement of the European Union has substantial influence on EU external policy and its relations with non-EU countries, including Russia. In this situation, Russia's main concern is to avoid the creation of new dividing lines after the enlargement. This paper will argue that instead of dividing Europe, the EU enlargement would create a framework for further cooperation and eventually rapprochement between the EU and Russia. Therefore, Russia would be able to benefit from this process. The paper will analyse the consequences of the EU enlargement for Russia and examine the main political concepts determining directions of this rapprochement between the European Union and Russia: New Neighbourhood, Common Spaces and Eastern dimension.     

Time to Do the Job Properly—The Case for a New Approach to EU Consumer Legislation

Following 25 years of legislative activity in the field of consumer law, the EU has proposed major reforms to the consumer law acquis. Existing legislation is largely based on directives harmonizing aspects of national consumer laws. This paper argues that a more appropriate approach for EU consumer law would be legislation in the form of a regulation which is applicable to cross-border transactions only. This argument will consider the constitutional constraints of the EU Treaties, before examining the case for a cross-border-only measure. It will be argued that the cross-border approach is preferable, because it would provide clearer benefits for consumers seeking to buy goods/services across borders, while not upsetting domestic law unnecessarily, in particular in the context of e-commerce.     

The economic effects of the UK government's proposed Brexit deal

The focus of our analysis is on how the UK government's proposed Brexit deal is likely to affect the economy. First, we assess how trade, migration, foreign direct investment, productivity and contributions to the EU budget might change by reviewing current proposals against historical evidence. Second, we use the National Institute Global Econometric Model (NiGEM) to analyse the macroeconomic effects. Our assessment is that trade with the EU, especially in services, would be more costly after Brexit. This would be likely to have adverse effects on living standards in the UK. Our central estimate is that if the government's proposed Brexit deal is implemented, then GDP in the longer term will be around 3% lower per head than it would have been had the UK stayed in the EU. If the UK were to stay in a customs union with the EU, or if the Irish backstop position was to be invoked, there would still be a hit to GDP per capita of 2%. These estimates represent our considered view of the economic impact of the government's proposed Brexit deal, but they are themselves uncertain as there is no historical precedent of a country leaving a major trading block such as the EU.     

中欧贸易隐含碳及政策启示——基于投入产出模型的实证研究

虽然欧盟一直是节能减排的积极倡导者和实践者,但如果欧盟各国通过减少国内生产,增加从中国的进口而实现其减排目标,则其承诺将是毫无意义的。采用投入产出法对中欧贸易隐含碳进行结构分解分析,结果表明:1995—2010年,中国对欧盟净出口隐含碳占到中国总排放量的3.07%～8.41%;技术效应和结构效应都有利于减少碳排放,但是它们却不足以抵消规模效应所导致的碳排放增加。因此,欧盟应对中国的部分碳排放负责,中国则需加大低碳技术的应用,改善生产结构和贸易结构。     

欧盟贸易协定谈判机制研究

国际协定是欧盟法律体系的重要组成部分。与贸易有关的国际协定,包括贸易协定、合作协定以及联系协定等,也是欧盟贸易政策的重要组成部分。本文通过介绍欧盟贸易协定谈判权的法理依据、各参与主体的法律地位和作用、参与主体内部及之间的权力平衡关系,分析和研究了欧盟贸易协定谈判机制,以利于进一步了解欧盟法律和贸易政策,也有益于发展中欧贸易关系。