Are Apparel Trade Restrictions Regressive?

Consumer welfare losses from apparel trade restrictions are estimated across different household income levels using Hicksian Equivalent Variations. The 1980–1992 Consumer Expenditure Survey, the 1980–1992 Consumer Price Index, and the 1990 ACCRA Cost of Living Index were used. For price differences under 45 percent, consumer welfare loss from higher apparel prices due to trade restrictions is greater as a percent of total expenditures for wealthy households than for poor households. Apparel trade restrictions, therefore, have a progressive effect.     

Looking Through the Trade Surplus Prism

Huge trade surplus attracks more and more attention to the China's economy operation,a controversial topic on people's lips as well. The years fiom 2005 to 2007,China's most rapid trade surplus growing period. have witnessed China's continuous trade surplus growing,breaking out the thresh- old of US$100 billion,and 200 billion US     

Does Aid for Trade Enhance Export Performance? Investigating the Infrastructure Channel

There are few empirical studies assessing the effectiveness of aid for trade as regards trade performance. Furthermore, existing work does not test which are the channels through which aid for trade has an impact on trade performance. We address this question using a two‐step empirical analysis. Relying on an export performance model, we first test whether institutions and infrastructure, our two potential channels of transmission, are significant determinants of export performance. Second, we test the impact of aid for trade sectoral flows on the previously detected determinants of export performance. We show, as part of the first step, that the infrastructure channel is a highly significant determinant of export performance, whereas the institutional channel turns out to have a limited positive impact on developing countries’ export performance. Furthermore, we show, from the second step, that aid for infrastructure, once instrumented, has a strong and positive impact on the infrastructure level. As a result, we find that a ten per cent increase in aid for infrastructure commitments per capita in developing countries leads to an average 2.34 per cent increase in the exports over GDP ratio. It is also equivalent to a 2.71 per cent reduction in tariff and nontariff barriers. These results highlight the high potential impact of aid for trade on developing countries’ export performance throughout the infrastructure channel.     

Chinese Licensing Trade Going to the World

In late spring this year, Ren Jianxin, President of the Supreme People's Court in China. welcomed the convening of the 1994 international meeting of the Licensing Executives Society (LES) held in Beijing. It was sponsored by the China Licensing Executives Society and was attended by 400 lawyers and academics from over 30 countries including the USA, Britain, France, Japan, Germany and South Korea. Science and technology is gaining     

Can the common agricultural policy be reformed?

Much criticism notwithstanding, the essentials of the common agricultural policy have up to now scarcely been changed. What kind of basic changes would have to be introduced for a new agricultural policy to become also politically acceptable? The following article suggests alternatives to the present agricultural policy — suggestions which the authors first made in a report prepared for the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forests.     

Thinking of exporting?: Export management companies could be the answer

With the interest in globalization, many domestic manufacturing companies are anxious to export their products. Lacking the resources and experience to sell effectively abroad, manufacturers often rely on export management companies (EMCs) to act as their export departments. How successful have these arrangements been? Haigh reports that the performance of EMCs is below the expectations of manufacturers more than half the time, but concludes that EMCs can be a very effective strategy for entering foreign markets if care is taken to select an appropriate company.     

Upholding the Opening for the Chalenge of the World Service Trade

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Can China Export More of Its Culture?

Profile of China's cultural trade China's modern cultural trade began with small scale in the mid-term of the 1980s.The real export of cultural products started in the mid-term of 1990s.     

Are There Efficiency Gains from the Removal of Natural Resource Export Restrictions? Evidence from British Columbia

Log export bans (LEBs) are a popular development tool utilised by developing nations with sizable endowments of timber; however, the actual impact of these policies is debatable. British Columbia has a developed forestry sector and still maintains a LEB. This trade restriction continually creates conflicts with Canada's international trade partners, including the United States. This paper examines the efficiency implications of a hypothetical removal of roundwood export restrictions in British Columbia using roundwood price and quantity data from 1995 to 2008. A time‐series econometric approach is utilised to determine supply and demand elasticities for British Columbia's roundwood. Empirical results from a vector error correction model suggest that a removal of export restrictions will generate an overall increase of approximately $347.91 million US dollars per year to British Columbia's forest economy.     

Can the HM-test be brought to an end?

A significant change seen in the new regulatory framework for communications markets regards issues of market delineation. Relevant markets according to the new regulatory framework should be defined in accordance with competition law methodology/principles, most notably the so-called Hypothetical Monopolist Test (HM-test). Our discussion points to the conceptual and practical difficulties associated with evaluating the effects of a 5–10% price increase on the costs and therefore on the profitability of a hypothetical monopolist. Applying our analysis to fixed retail voice telephony markets we show that, in the presence of scale economies, final results crucially depend on assumptions about the cost function, in particular the relation of variable to fixed costs and the resulting (competitive) margin. The latter, in turn, will depend on the time horizon that is deemed to be relevant for market delineation purposes. Overall quantitative techniques applied to carry out the HM-test rigorously on empirical grounds are highly sensible to those assumptions a priori even if one assumes that (empirical) estimates of elasticities can be derived reasonably.*The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent those of RTR or TKK.     

Can austerity be self-defeating?

With European governments cutting back on spending, many are asking whether this could make matters worse. In the UK for instance, recent OECD estimates suggest that “austerity” will lead to another recession, which in turn may lead to a higher debt-to-GDP ratio than before. As the debate heats up, the following two articles attempt to provide some cool economic logic.     

Foreign Trade Shortens the Distance between an Enterprise and the World

The Tongling Non-ferrous Metals(Group) company was known forproducing the first copper ingot afterthe founding of new China.Through 44years and generations of exploration, thecompany has now become a large nationalconglomerate of more than 30 units, includingsix mines, two smelting plants and threecopper processing factories, coordinated withmining, dressing, smelting and deepprocessing, with its products reaching 150varieties. The Jinlong Copper Co. Ltd.,jointly invested by this company and Japan'sSumitomo co., is the largest Sino-Foreignjoint venture in Anhui Province and theChina National Non-ferrous Metals IndustryCorporation, and is planned to go into operationin 1996. By then, the Tongling Non-ferrousMetals (Group) Company will be highlightedin China's copper industry. In June 1993, the Ministry of ForeignTrade and Economic Cooperation authorizedthe company with the right of import andexport operation. In October the same year,the company established its own foreigntrade institution--the Tongling Non-ferrousMetals Import and Export Company, which     

Can Prompt Corrective Action Rules Work in the Developing World?

Abstract

A major weakness of bank regulation is “regulatory forbearance,” which is partly attributable to the scope for discretionary intervention by bank regulators. Therefore, bank regulation might be improved by subjecting intervention policy to a set of rules, such as the “Prompt Corrective Action” (PCA) rules in the US. The introduction of PCA rules is under consideration in a number of developing countries (DCs), stimulated by costly bank failures. This paper examines the potential benefits and feasibility of incorporating PCA rules into banking regulation in DCs. The paper concludes that PCA rules can improve bank regulation in DCs if introduced as part of a comprehensive set of prudential reforms which strengthens the operational independence of the bank regulators, improves their on-site examination capacities, strengthens accounting standards and raises public and political understanding of the need for strong and impartial bank regulation.     

Trade Policy and Export Diversification: What Should Colombia Expect from the FTA with the United States?

Sectoral concentration of exports has been a longstanding matter of concern for policymakers in developing countries. According to economic theory and recent empirical evidence, improved market access through trade agreements is likely to favor export diversification. In this article, it is assessed whether this has been the case for Colombian exports to the United States and whether an FTA with the United States would help Colombia diversify their exports. We find that lower tariffs have indeed favored exports of new products from Colombia. Predictions suggest that the FTA is likely to induce further diversification, but only up to a certain point.     

Customer and Supplier Portfolios: Can Credit Risks be Managed Through Supply Chain Relationships?

While supply chain risk has been the subject of an ever‐increasing amount of research attention, the importance of credit risk has been less studied, at least by supply chain researchers. Yet, there may be risks inherent within a firm's portfolios of supply chain relationships that are manifested in the credit risk of a firm. Moreover, portfolio characteristics may serve as a signal to the external market regarding these risks. While customer and supplier portfolio characteristics may impact the firm's exposure to risks, the specific issue of how portfolio characteristics relate to credit risk has rarely been examined by supply chain scholars. This research bridges extant works in supply chain management and finance to relate supply chain characteristics to a critical reputational outcome, namely credit ratings. In this research, we utilize a sample of firms that recently underwent an initial public offering to empirically examine the theoretical predictions of Resource Dependence Theory regarding the relationships between different supply chain portfolio characteristics and credit risk.     

Import and Export Quality Guaranteed for the Steady Development of Foreign Trade

Under the good situation of the reform and opening to the outside world, the rapid development of foreign economic and trade has resulted in enhancing the inspection work of import and export commodities in China. The commodity inspection organs at all level adhere to the work policy of guaranteeing quality and offering better service, making import and export commodity quality as their central task. They strictly implement national laws and regulations to serve commodity inspection and management, thus achieving great success.