Trends in international business thought and literature (supplement): The transatlantic business dialogue: Business at the negotiating table

The Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) is a novel coalition of American and European business leaders who seek to influence their respective governments on transatlantic trade and investment matters. In the past year, the TABD has emerged as a powerful voice in setting the agenda for the “transatlantic marketplace.” This article examines the TABD's origins and development, and suggests that the TABD may serve as a future model for trade and investment negotiations.     

Associating Turkey with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: A costly (re‐) engagement?

Policy debate on the implications of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) for Turkey has focused almost exclusively on “how” Turkey can/will take part in a forthcoming transatlantic deal. Turkey's association with a TTIP has largely been conceived as an inevitable and beneficial policy choice to re‐engage Ankara with the Atlantic alliance and emerging transatlantic trade framework. The arguments for extending TTIP to Turkey have mostly been built upon a conventional understanding of preferential trade agreements. The debate has not provided a comprehensive assessment of costs and benefits for Turkey's exclusion from or joining TTIP as it dismissed multiple dimensions of the “deep integration” agenda which underpined the transatlantic talks. This paper intends to contribute to the “why” debate with a thorough analysis of critical issues on the transatlantic agenda by evaluating economic and policy implications of TTIP both for exclusion and association scenarios together with associated compliance and adjustment costs.     

Inside or outside? The role of the WTO in the settlement of the transatlantic trade dispute on GMOs

The looming transatlantic trade war over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has revived the debate on the appropriateness of the WTO.¹ In this article, it is asserted that the present WTO remains the appropriate forum for addressing the GM dispute as its science-based approach harmonises members' food safety concerns with free trade interests. Calls for the recognition of consumer preferences by the WTO severely underestimate the dangers of disguised producer protectionism. This article is a revised version of a paper written during the author's sojourn at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. The author wishes to express his thanks to Professor László Csaba, Department of International Relations and European Studies, Central European University, for his assistance and helpful comments. See: Forum. New Transatlantic Trade War, in: INTERECONOMICS, Vol. 37, No. 3, 2002, pp. 124–137.     

Transatlantic business ethics

The Business Ethics Center of the Budapest University of Economic Sciences organized a Transatlantic Business Ethics Summit on September 15–17, 2000 in Budapest, Hungary. The Summit was sponsored by the Community of European Management Schools (CEMS) and Procter & Gamble.
The main function of the Summit was to provide a forum for leading American and European scholars to explore the background theories and value bases of business ethics from the perspective of the 21st century. The participants reflected on the state of the art of business ethics as it has been practised in the USA and Europe; however, the future of business ethics as a discipline was the main focus of the Summit. Since business ethics is closely related to business and capitalism, some considerations of the 21st century economic, political, and social reality were presented too. The paper is based on and composed from the abstracts provided by the participants of the Transatlantic Business Ethics Summit. The abstract booklet can be obtained from Laszlo Zsolnai, the Convenor of the Summit.     

Setting Standards: Strategic Advantages in International Trade

Among the most important technical barriers to trade are the different standards, testing and certification measures for products and services. Efforts to co-ordinate these within Europe - including the EU's increasing reliance on private sector standards bodies - are now underway. The EU's single market has not only integrated national markets, but has also shaped trading principles at the international level. The EU has exported its trade principles to third country markets and European companies have gained strategic advantages in influencing standards both internally within Europe and externally at the international and transatlantic level. Firms should invest resources and actively participate in setting standards to protect and increase their competitive advantage.     

Corporate citizenship in Germany and the United States – differing perceptions and practices in transatlantic comparison

Because of the declining fiscal capabilities of the German welfare state and the resulting reductions in social services provided by the government, increasing attention has been given to the voluntary social engagement of businesses, often referred to as corporate citizenship. In that context, scholars and politicians alike have pointed to the United States as a country with a strong corporate citizenship culture and advocated a transatlantic transfer of the respective practices. Against this background, it is the first aim of this paper to examine the socio‐economic environment for corporate citizenship in both countries. Second, it will be investigated if corporate citizenship is really practiced more widely in the United States than in Germany and what forms of corporate citizenship are used by businesses. For that purpose, the corporate citizenship activities of the 100 largest companies in the United States and Germany each will be analyzed. Results show that more US than German companies undertake corporate citizenship activities and apply a wider variety of different forms. The possibilities for a transatlantic transfer are limited because of the differences in the cultural and political systems of both countries.     

The deceptive allure of a Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement: A US perspective

The idea of a Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement enjoys strong support in both the United States and Europe. Our author takes a critical view of such an agreement in the light both of his overall assessment of the implications of regional trading pacts for the larger multilateral trading system and of issues raised by the particular details of a US-EU agreement. This article is based on a paper presented at the 1998 Congress of Istanbul, The New Atlantic Initiative, May 1–3, 1998.     

The welfare effects of free trade agreements in quantitative trade models: A comparison of studies about Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

We compare different methodological approaches to predicting the welfare effects of trade policy experiments. We focus on studies that estimate the economic effects of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Methodologically, the studies can be divided into those employing computable general equilibrium (CGE) models and structural gravity (SG) models. We compare and critically discuss differences in the estimated trade cost reductions and in the economic models employed, and how these can explain the relatively wide range of economic effects found in the different TTIP studies. We conclude that reasonable estimates of the welfare effects for the TTIP partners are between 0.5% and 2%.     

A Deeper Union: From a Failed Project to the European Quality Lead

Intereconomics - After President Trump’s departure, many expected that the transatlantic partnership would return to its previous state with the US playing a leading role. This article...     

A Real Chance for the Transatlantic Partnership on Climate Policy

Intereconomics - The new transatlantic partnership can be the cornerstone of this change: real climate protection without false truths and hidden smoke bombs, but a shift to a full supply of...     

Book Reviews

Geography and Trade by PAUL KRUGMAN (Cambridge MA, London, MIT Press, 1991), pp. xi and 142, £15.95 hardback, ISBN 0 262 11159 4. Reforming Central and Eastern European Economies — Initial Results and Challenges by VITTORIO CORBO, FABRIZIO CORICELLI and JAN BOSSAK (eds.), (Washington: The World Bank, 1991, obtainable in the UK from Microinfo Ltd., Po Box 3, Omega Park, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 2PG) pp. xiv and 299, ISBN 0 8213 1893 4. Financial Enterprise in South Africa Since 1950 by STUART JONES (ed.), (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992), pp. xiv and 316, ISBN 0 333 52412 8. Commodities in Crisis by ALFRED MAIZELS (Oxford, New York, The Clarendon Press, 1992), pp. xviii and 307, £35.000 hardback, ISBN 0 19 828387 An Economic Analysis of the EC by JØRGEN ULFF-MØLLER NIELSON, HANS HEINRICH and JØRGEN DRUD HANSEN (London, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992), pp. xiii and 247, £17.95 softback, ISBN 0 07 707422 X. Economic Integration and Financial Liberalization, Prospects for Southern Europe by HEATHER D. GIBSON and EUCLID TSAKALOTOS (eds.), (Basingstoke: Macmillan in association with St Antony's College, Oxford, 1992), pp. xiv and 209, ISBN 0 333 54444 7. Dynamic International Oil Markets, Oil Market Developments and Structure 1860–1990 by COBY VAN DER LINDE (Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, 1992), pp. 224, Dfl 165.00, US $94.00, £56.00 hardback, ISBN 0 7923 1478 6. GATT and Conflict Management, A Transatlantic Strategy for a Stronger Regime by REINHARD RODE (ed.), (Oxford: Westview Press, 1990), pp. 125, US $28.50, £18.95 softback, ISBN 0 8133 7967 9.     

A new transatlantic trade war?

Six months after the Doha agreement on a new round of talks to liberalise world trade, tension is mounting between the EU and the US, the world's two major trading powers, giving rise to fears of a full-blown transatlantic trade war and a new wave of global protectionism. The contributors to this Forum look at the causes of, and possible remedies for, this development, taking economic, legal and political aspects into consideration.     

欧亚经济合作的金融支撑体系构建

欧亚地区一直是我国经济合作进程中关注的地区之一。欧亚经济联盟的产生使得"一带一路"在欧亚地区国家的推进中存在共通之处。对欧亚地区国家而言,基于其经济发展态势、金融发展现状、与中国经济合作现状等方面考虑,通过金融合作推动欧亚经济合作,进而提升欧亚地区国家在"一带一路"中的参与度是有可能且有必要的。本文通过分析其中的机遇与挑战,提出了我国应着重从提升双方接受程度、打造金融合作框架和针对性开展金融合作等方面构建欧亚经济合作的金融支撑体系的建议。     

基于主成分分析的山东半岛蓝色经济区域物流能力分析

山东半岛蓝色经济区建设已正式上升为国家战略,如何客观、准确地山东半岛蓝色经济区域物流能力与区域经济协同发展是一个关键性的问题。依据科学性、全面性等原则,建立区域物流能力评价的指标体系,采用主成分分析法,对山东半岛蓝色经济区域物流能力进行分析。     

Transaction costs of early modern multinational enterprise: measuring the transatlantic information lag of the British Royal African Company and its successor, 1680–1818

There is extensive previous research on the early modern chartered multinational corporations, their development and how they dealt with the various challenges they faced. This article attempts to contribute to this field of research by estimating quantitatively the information lag in early modern multinational enterprise, studying the case of the British Royal African Company and its successor the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa. The results show that the transatlantic information lag decreased somewhat during the second half of the eighteenth century. The decrease was however quite modest, and far less striking than has been claimed in some previous research. During the period, this information lag therefore still posed a major constraint on the development of multinational enterprise.     

经济法的生成逻辑及经济法学的任务

主流经济法学观点认为经济法是在市场存在缺陷的情况下由政府对经济进行干预的过程中产生的,但其在对现实经济生活进行解释时存在局限。对经济进行干预是政府经济职能最本质的要求,这种干预的正当性主要不是来自于"市场失灵"理论,而是政府经济职能。厘清这一点有助于人们把握经济法学的任务,放弃"法学家的幻想",从现实出发发挥经济法学的功能。经济学为经济法学的进一步发展提供了动力,经济法学应当大胆吸收经济学的研究成果,将其转化为法律的语言并应用于法律实践,这也是经济法学面对经济学不断发展,并在各学科全面渗透形势下的重要任务。     

How does economic policy uncertainty affect cross-border M&A: Evidence from Chinese firms

Based on the data of Chinese cross-border mergers and acquisitions in 29 countries from 2008 to 2017, we adopt the index of world economic policy uncertainty constructed by Baker et al. (2016) to empirically test the impact of economic policy uncertainty triggered by financial crisis on the scale and performance of M&A behavior. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Economic policy uncertainty in host country can significantly reduce the scale of cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises. (2) The negative impact of economic policy uncertainty is more evident in non-state-owned enterprises. (3) Economic policy uncertainty in the host country has a U-shaped influence on short-term M&A performance of enterprises; (4) Economic policy uncertainty in host country has a negative impact on mid-term M&A performance of enterprises. Our results can provide reference for enterprise investment and home country policy.     

North Atlantic trade and investment links: For internal and external openness

Proposals for transatlantic integration of any kind arouse strong interest because of the economic power of the potential partner countries. The following article attempts to assess the impact of a “free trade and investment area” and examines the costs and benefits involved. The author would like to thank Michael Finger (WTO), Ray Matalony and Obie Whichard (US Department of Commerce) for the kind provision of trade and investment data.     

GPS电离层延迟误差修正中二阶项角度的分析

提出了一种利用三频观测值修正电离层延迟误差二阶项的方法,可使延迟误差 达到毫米级精度。理论分析表明,影响修正结果达到毫米级的主要因素是总电子含量（TEC ）和G PS信号传播方向与地磁场方向的临界夹角。取通常情况下TEC的值,在不同频率条件 下,通过解算给出了达到毫米级精度所要求的临界夹角值。研究结果对精密定位过程信号的 接 收提供了参考方法。     

Das transatlantische Freihandelsabkommen — Relativierung von Chancen und Risiken

Since June 2013, negotiations have been underway between the U.S. and the EU on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Proponents of the envisaged agreement predict significantly positive effects on growth and employment. Critics, however, fear a reduction of existing standards, such as consumer or environmental protections, or abuse of the scheduled Investor- State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). The often very contrary positions recall the hopes and fears associated with the establishment of the European Single Market in the early 1990s. Against the background of the realised growth and employment effects of the much wider EU single market project and the significantly lower economic ties between the EU and the U.S., both the expected growth momentum as well as the potential risks of the TTIP need to be qualified.