Trade Union Mergers in British and Australian Television Broadcasting

A complex set of forces facing trade union organizations has meant that union restructuring vis-à-vis merger activity has been a prominent feature of many Western labour movements in the 1980s and 1990s. This paper is located in these structural developments, and its main contribution lies in the insights provided by an in-depth examination of recent union merger activity in commercial television in the UK and Australia. In contrast to the work of Undy et al . (1981), the results suggest that union mergers are influenced by more than changes in membership patterns, and that the delineation of merger categories may be far more complex than what has previously been identified by their model. It is argued, too, that the nature of the forces and the processes that led to the broadcasting union mergers in the UK and Australia were significantly influenced by the different institutional contexts of both countries. Finally, and related to this, it would appear that union merger outcomes (at least in the short term) are linked to the preceding processes by which merger is brought about. One policy implication of this is that anything other than a case-by-case evaluation of union mergers may be misleading.     

“技术壁垒”的反思考

本文对国外技术性贸易措施对我国对外贸易的影响进行反思,并就国内企业应该如何认识与对待国际贸易中的技术性贸易措施提出建设性建议。     

Benefit cost analysis of an import access request

Invasive species outbreaks are often unintended side effects of trade. In this paper partial equilibrium trade models and stochastic bioeconomic impact simulation models are combined to present a benefit cost analysis template to assess market access requests. The template is used to assess the likely regional economic welfare implications of a decision by Australian biosecurity regulators to allow the Chilean table grape industry access to the national table grape market. We show that consumption benefits expected to accrue to Western Australia are exceeded by increases in likely invasive species damage resulting from grape imports, implying that insufficient consumer gains are grounds to deny market access.     

The importance of EU-15 borders for CEECs agri-food exports: The role of tariffs and non-tariff measures in the pre-accession period

This paper assesses the evolution of the EU-15 market access for the agri-food products, originating from CEECs. A gravity model technique has been used to assess the overall trade resistance (border effect), and to weight its various components such as tariff and non-tariff measures (sanitary and phytosanitary standards, other quality measures) in the pre-accession period (1999–2004). The findings reveal, despite the undertaken integration and trade liberalisation processes, a persisting and significant trade resistance for the CEECs’ agri-food exports to the EU market, even just prior their accession in 2004. Still present difficulties in market access at the time are partially explained by tariff and non-tariff measures, while a large part of border effect remains in the domain of other, presumably non-trade policy related factors (home bias, consumer preferences, etc.). These results indicate that despite the accession process (customs union and adoption of the EU standards), the trade integration of the enlarged EU market was not yet completed in 2004.     

计算机技术在纺织行业中的应用

计算机技术应用的范围广,种类多。本文结合纺织行业的信息化,介绍了纺织行业所用的计算机技术以及它们在纺织行业中发挥的作用。     

Impact of water scarcity in Australia on global food security in an era of climate change

Australia is a major food exporting country. Recent droughts reduced dryland farming production and the volume of water allocated to irrigated agriculture, with a resulting decline in aggregate agricultural production and exports. This paper analyses the possible impact of increased water scarcity on Australian agricultural production and the magnitude of subsequent impacts on global food security. Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data on land and water use coupled with a hydro-economic stochastic modelling approach, the impacts of reduced agricultural production in the southern Murray–Darling Basin, and more generally for Australia, are analysed. Changes in agricultural activity, reduction in agricultural exports and altered composition of products exported attributed to the severe 2000–2009 drought are also analysed to highlight the implications for global food security. The impact of climate change on food production is examined. The analysis shows that climate change, when modelled as the extreme case, along with other factors such as land use, will impact Australian food exports. Despite its relatively small contribution to total global food supply, Australia’s contribution to international trade in wheat, meat and dairy products is substantial and could affect global food prices. Furthermore, Australia’s agricultural exports are of disproportionate importance within the South- and South–East Asian and Oceania region, both in terms of volume and for strategic reasons. Adaptation along with investment in agriculture production is needed to maintain Australian agricultural production and enhance global food security.     

澳大利亚新西兰农产品环境贸易措施初探

澳大利亚、新西兰两国近年来与中国的贸易关系不断升温,本文关注的是两国在农产品贸易领域的环境措施。首先明确农产品环境贸易措施的概念,并与"绿色贸易壁垒"这一概念进行区别。接着从管理机构、法律法规、技术标准和进口程序方面介绍两国的环境贸易措施,最后指出中国的对策。     

ICT interaction with trade,FDI and financial inclusion on inclusive growth in top African nations ranked by ICT development

The significance of ICT (information and communication technology) framework in efforts to attract foreign investment (FDI), sustain commerce, and boost financial inclusion for enhanced inclusive growth has revolutionized the global system recently. Furthermore, earlier researches on the connection between ICT and growth concentrated more on general expansion than on the kind of growth that is evenly distributed and has broader societal implications than merely growing the size of the overall economic pie. This study critically analyzes the connection between ICT diffusion and inclusive growth, considering the interactive impacts of trade openness, FDI, and financial inclusion on inclusive growth in top African nations ranked in terms of ICT development, so as to close the existing literature gap. An improved-GMM (generalized method of moments) technique, founded on panel data-set spanning the years 2000–2020, is used in the study. By employing PCA (principal component analysis) to measure inclusive growth, ICT diffusion, and financial inclusion indices, the study contributes to the body of prior research. The model also accounts for the heterogeneous impact of the interactive term between ICT diffusions and trade openness, FDI, and financial inclusion on inclusive growth. Overall, results indicate that while ICT diffusion, trade openness, FDI, and financial inclusion significantly and positively enhance inclusive growth at both the individual and interaction levels, inflation hinders it. The study suggests that policymakers should establish measures to advance ICT development, encourage trade openness, attract foreign direct investment, and improve financial inclusion because these measures have tendencies to support inclusive growth by opening up a number of opportunities.     

中国服务贸易推动经济增长效应研究——基于两阶段时间序列数据的实证分析

服务贸易的日益快速增长是我国入世后服务贸易的特点之一。本文通过引入贸易竞争指数,对入世前后两个阶段的服务贸易与经济增长关系进行实证的比较分析,以寻求对入世前后两个不同阶段的经济增长效应分析。分析结果说明入世以来我国对外服务贸易受到的冲击较大。对此,文章将发挥静态比较优势和培育动态比较优势相结合,就服务贸易对经济增长的推动作用提出了可行的政策建议。     

中国产业内贸易状况的实证研究：1980～2006

随着新贸易理论在国际经济学中的扩展,产业内贸易（IIT）已成为当前世界贸易的一个重要现象。文章主要采用格鲁贝尔（Grubel）和劳艾德（Lloyd）提出的测量产业内贸易指数的G—L公式,利用我国的相关统计数据。具体考察我国1980～2006年初级产品与工业制成品的产业内贸易状况。实证分析表明,我国目前已呈现明显的产业内贸易趋势,但初级产品的产业内贸易不发达,且开展产业内贸易的产业分布与行业结构仍有待优化。     

Trade Intensities with Asian Countries: Comparing Australia, Canada and Sweden

In recent years, Canadian government officials have been under increasing pressure to promote increased Canadian economic integration with fast growing Asian economies, especially Southeast Asia. While the Canadian government has become more active in promoting trade with Asia through government-sponsored trade missions and the like, there has been little research documenting the underlying causes of Canada's limited trade and investment ties to the region. This study provides some empirical evidence that Canada's trade performance with Asian countries is consistent with Canada's underlying pattern of comparative advantage. The main policy implication is that a more aggressive pursuit of freer trade and investment regimes with Asian countries might be the most promising instrument for promoting increased exports and outward direct investment to the region.     

我国汽车行业出口贸易的影响因素及出口潜力研究——基于面板数据模型的实证分析

自新中国成立以来,我国汽车行业经过了几十年的发展,现在已经开始大量走出国门。本文利用与我国汽车贸易最密切的34个国家,通过构建扩张的引力模型,对影响我国汽车出口的因素进行了实证分析。结果表明：距离、GDP、互惠贸易、总产量等都对我国汽车行业出口贸易有显著影响。在此基础上,对我国汽车行业的出口潜力进行预测,并提出相应的对策建议。     

Geographical indications in the UK after Brexit: An uncertain future?

The protection of geographical indications (‘GIs’) within the UK is placed into doubt by the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (‘Brexit’). The default legal position is that after Brexit, there would be no legal provision for GIs in UK law. This default position can only be changed if the UK and the EU agree the terms of the UK’s withdrawal and then their future relationship. The article considers the implications of the draft withdrawal agreement which, inter alia ensures the continuing reciprocal protection of UK and EU GIs. In July 2019, a new UK Prime Minister took office, and renegotiated the draft withdrawal agreement, which retained the reciprocal protection of GIs. The ratification of this renegotiated withdrawal agreement depends on the result of the December 2019 general election. Under the withdrawal agreement GIs from outside the EU are not protected. Consequently, the article considers how UK GIs will continue to be protected in countries that have concluded a free trade agreement with the EU, by examining the rollover agreements that the UK Government are concluding around the world. Finally, given the intention of the UK Government that, post-Brexit, the UK will conclude free trade agreements with countries that have traditionally been reluctant to recognise GIs, such as the USA and Australia, the article examines the prospects for GI protection to be included in these agreements.     

人民币汇率变动对中国贸易结构影响的实证分析

文章通过协整检验、向量误差修正模型、脉冲响应函数深入分析了人民币汇率变动对贸易结构的短期和长期影响。结果表明,实际有效汇率升值对贸易结构的影响长期为正。短期为负,长期影响显著,人民币汇率稳步升值将有利于我国贸易结构的优化升级。     

贸易与气候变化的关联机理分析

气候作为全球性环境公共品,维护气候安全也是贸易发展所追求的目标,贸易发展目标与气候目标相一致。贸易对气候的影响主要体现在生产环节,运输环节的气候效应不足为虑。气候友好商品贸易自由化可在全球范围内增进结构和技术效应,有助于贸易与气候目标相互支持。气候和贸易政策都与各国的贸易利益紧密相关,只有在相关国家间相对均衡地分割贸易利益才能消除贸易与气候目标之间的潜在冲突。外松内紧是我国在国际气候博弈中的应对策略。     

A business and ICT architecture for a logistics city

The city of Melbourne, Australia, stands to benefit from achieving the logistics city status. The planning theme of a logistics city is designed around achieving efficiencies and long term sustainability out of the legacy of dispersed groups of intensive “logistics activity areas”. This is not to re-invent solutions particularly in Melbourne, where the existence of a legacy logistics infrastructure and ad hoc growth has resulted in the business architecture that is constantly in the “catch-up” mode. This is seen as a unique opportunity for developing business models to meet the future challenges of the growth of trade, freight movement and maintaining economic, environmental and urban sustainability. Enterprise architecture will enable attention to be focused on the development of a collaborative business model, which will help to achieve efficiencies in view of the complex set of economic, social and environmental parameters. The logistics city business architecture responds to the shift to a services economy, which is generating different patterns of workforce travel to ensure good access to skilled workers, to other services, to business clients and to national and international markets.     

Agro-food trade competitiveness of Central European and Balkan countries

This paper investigates the level, composition, and differences in agro-food relative trade advantages/disadvantages for eight Central European and Balkan countries on the European Union (EU) markets and their implications for food policy. Higher and more stable relative trade advantages are found for bulk primary raw agricultural commodities and less for consumer-ready foods, implying competitiveness shortcomings in food processing and in international food marketing. Duration analysis shows that the EU enlargement has a negative impact on agro-food relative trade advantages for all eight analyzed countries. Estimations imply that the duration of agro-food relative trade advantages are the highest for Hungary and Poland, and for Bulgaria in differentiated products, indicating their agro-food trade potentials in the EU-15 markets.     

Consumer information,labelling and international trade in agri-food products

The focus of the World Trade Organization is establishing limits on governments’ ability to impose trade barriers in response to producers’ requests for protection. In recent years, however, requests for protection from imports has increasingly come from consumers over issues ranging from animal welfare concerns, employment of child labour, the use of growth hormones, differing environmental standards and GM foods. The current international trade regime is ill-suited to deal with consumer-based protectionism. This paper develops a model that explicitly incorporates consumer concerns into an international trade model and compares the result with the standard treatment. Further, using the model incorporating consumer concerns, a labelling policy for imports is compared to an import embargo. The labelling policy is found to be superior to an embargo. Implications are drawn for future trade negotiations pertaining to sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade.     

An International Study of Trade Union Involvement in Community Organizing: Same Model,Different Outcomes

This article reports on a two‐year study of union/community organizing in the UK, USA and Australia. It takes a particular model of organizing — that of the Industrial Areas Foundation — and analyses trade union engagement in coalition‐building activity in each of the three countries. Findings show mixed approaches to working with community groups from ad hoc instrumentalism to deep coalition‐building. While these variations may, in part, be explained by different industrial relations contexts, it appears that the ‘fit’ between ideology and culture of unions and their coalition partners, as well as the practices and strategies that reinforce this fit, have much greater effect on the attitude and behaviour of unions towards non‐workplace‐based organizing. The article contributes to debates about the conditions under which unions succeed (or not) in sustaining strong coalition‐building beyond their traditional constituencies.     

“一带一路”倡议下中国与西亚贸易潜力研究--基于引力模型的实证分析

西亚地处亚欧非交界地带,自古以来就是丝绸之路的重要组成部分,广泛开展与西亚各国的经贸关系对“一带一路”建设具有重要意义。本文以中国与西亚各国的进出口贸易数据为基础,利用扩展的贸易引力模型分析了中国与西亚各国的贸易潜力,测算了双边贸易效率。实证结果表明:双方人均GDP、西亚各国的人口规模和区域贸易协定可以显著促进双边贸易,双边距离和中国的人口规模会阻碍贸易发展。据此建议中国在与西亚贸易往来时,应注重优化贸易结构、加强区域合作、发展港口运输和基础设施建设以及防范贸易风险。