The grain trade and the failure of international control

In common with international agricultural trade in general the grain trade has remained immune to pressure for liberalization, and equally immune to suggestions of international management in the form of reserve stock holding, price floors and ceilings, or a full scale commodity agreement. What are the reasons for failure of such attempts in the past? Is there still a chance for GATT at least to minimize the adverse effects, especially on developing countries, of the present inefficient trading system?     

Barriers in services trade: The state of negotiations and prospects

Trade in services constitutes one of the still unresolved problems in the Uruguay Round. What progress has been made so far in this field? Which are the remaining points at issue? What are the prospects for agreement on a comprehensive solution?     

Structural changes in EC trade intensities

The European Economic Community has now been in existence for about 20 years. Five years have elapsed since it was enlarged. What progress have the member countries made in the integration of their foreign trade? What would be the repercussions of a southward extension of the EC to take in Greece, Portugal and Spain?     

Structural changes in EC trade intensities

The European Economic Community has now been in existence for about 20 years. Five years have elapsed since it was enlarged. What progress have the member countries made in the integration of their foreign trade? What would be the repercussions of a southward extension of the EC to take in Greece, Portugal and Spain?

     

The development finance challenges facing Latin America in the 1990s

Growth in Latin America in the 1980s was much slower than it had been in previous decades and real resource transfer has been negative since 1983. What are the chances that this situation will change in the nineties? Where can the necessary development finance come from? Can bottlenecks be avoided?     

How to combat NEET? Evidence from Austria

The number young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has been rising since the beginning of the economic and fi nancial crisis in 2008. This article contributes to the discussion about the reduction of the NEET rate by addressing the questions: Which structural factors can explain differences in the NEET rates among Austrian federal states? What causes an increased or reduced NEET risk at the individual level? What are the key factors for an exit from a NEET situation?     

Scandinavia's monetary convergence with the European Community

In the twelve months preceding the conclusion by the EFTA countries and the EC of the agreement on the establishment of a common European Economic Area in October 1991, the three Skandinavian EFTA members-Norway, Finland and Sweden-decided to tie their currencies to the ECU. What objectives do these countries hope to achieve by this move? What effects is it likely to have?     

The multilateral GATT negotiations

The final package of the seventh round of multilateral GATT negotiations has been ready for initialling since April 11, 1979. What has been achieved in these negotiations, commonly known as the Tokyo Round, and what has been left undone?     

“No sale” items in auctions: do they really matter?

Research interest in auctions has grown steadily in nearly every business discipline because of the distinctive constructs and processes that the data analyses yield. Auction data present researchers with a particular challenge because of the presence of no sale items. Researchers have varied in their accommodation of no sale items and the analysis technique, which may lead to biases in the analyses. The first question is how should no sale items be treated? To address this, the type of data generated by auctions must be examined, since various methods handle no sale items differently. Additional questions are: What analysis technique is preferred for this type of data? What is the effect of using other analysis techniques? The results suggest that including no sale items improves estimation accuracy. Also, we found that using ordinary least squares with censored data provides results that are much better than using truncated data.     

Double talk—The political economy of eastward enlargement of the EU

There is an inherent ambiguity in the attitude of the EU towards eastern enlargement. On the one hand, since the Gothenburg Council of June 2001 the EU appears to be at last on the brink of a first round of eastward enlargement. On the other hand, the major internal reforms in the EU which are essential if enlargement is to take place have so far made only unsatisfactory progress. What are the reasons for this situation? What are the perspectives?     

The relationship between CMEA and EC

In early 1970 responsibility for the conclusion of trade agreements was transferred from the individual member states to the EC. Since then the EC has been recognized throughout the world as a contractual partner in its own right within this area. Only the Soviet Union and the CMEA are being difficult accepting these changes in responsibility since 1970. This means that in trade between the EC countries and the state trade countries there exists at present a situation without treaties. Where do the problems lie? What models offer themselves for overcoming this situation?     

Disaccord on seabed mining

Continuing the discussions under way since 1973, the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) held the first half of its ninth session from March 3 to April 4 in New York. What has been achieved at this meeting?     

Issues of European monetary integration

In recent years significant progress has been made towards European monetary integration. Widespread agreement as to the role of monetary policy has been established and there were no realignments of exchange rates within the European Monetary System between March 1983 and July 1985. This was the longest period without realignment in the EMS and contrasted sharply with the six realignments observed in the four years previously. What are the prospects for the further strengthening of the EMS? How can the present system be developed further?     

National and international developments in technology

Declining R&;D intensities at the national level coincide with growing international technological links. In this context a number of questions arise: Do companies research in the same field of technology abroad as they do at home? Are the fields of technology in which R&;D is concentrated within a country those in which it has a comparative advantage? What drives the process of the internationalisation of technology? What are the implications for host countries and home countries? What are the implications for policy on a national and an international level?     

“Good governance”, democracy and development paradigms

“Good governance” has become a central term in the international discussion on development co-operation. What is actually meant by “good governance”? By which yardstick can it be measured? How is governance related to development, political participation and democracy? What implications does this have for bilateral and multilateral donors?     

Textiles and clothing in the Uruguay Round: Current situation and future perspectives

The success of the entire Uruguay Round of the GATT depends considerably upon the success of the negotiations on the liberalization of world trade in textiles and clothing, since a number of developing countries have made their support for progress in the negotiations on services or safeguards contingent upon progress in this field. What are the present controversies? And what are the chances of resolving them in time?     

Regional Policy in the Americas: The EU Experience as a Guide for North-South Integration?

After ten years the negotiations on the largest free trade agreement to date, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which is to include 34 countries, have still not resulted in an agreement. What can the countries involved learn, both positive and negative, from the experiences of the EU with regional policy?

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The author would like to thank Herman Hoen and J?rg Noll for their comments on an earlier version of this article.     

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE:"China Won't Let her Bread and Butter in Others' Hands"

Grain production: strategic industry to maintain socical stability Q: What is the grain issue of China? A: I'd like to answer this question with two sentences.First,grain production is a strategic industry to maintain social stability of China; our government should always consider feeding a population of 1.3 billion as the major priority and can never overlook this issue.Second,China,a heavily-populous nation,must stick to the principle of"relying mainly on her own to achieve self-sufficiency"to ensure food security;China cannot let her bread and butter be held in others' hands.     

Raw materials prices under pressure

Since April 1984 there has been a general fall in world market prices for industrial raw materials following upon increases which, in some cases, had been quite considerable. What are the reasons for this development? What are the prospects for 1985?     

The “brain drain” from developing countries — An enduring problem

For several decades there has been a migration of highly qualified workers from developing to industrial countries. What are the causes of this “brain drain”, which many regard as a subsidy from the poor to the rich? What consequences does it have for the countries concerned? Are there effective ways of curbing it?