Search

Refereed/Peer-reviewed During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries applied trade restrictions to insulate their domestic markets from the world market. However, these trade policies could have amplified international market price fluctuations. This paper explores the effects of trade restrictions on international agricultural price volatility. A theoretical model is developed to quantify how trade policies amplify the initial shock. Using panel data covering 71 countries from January 2020 to July 2021, we examine empirically the effects of trade policies on world agricultural price volatility. The results show that trade distortions further induced volatility of world agricultural prices by around 22 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic. The multiplier effects are much more substantial in agricultural exporting countries than in importing countries. Large countries like China and the US could make significant contributions to stabilizing world prices by limiting the extent of unilateral trade policy interventions.

The recent U.S.–China trade conflicts cast new light on the role of trade policies in global value chains (GVCs). Contrary to the expectation that trade restrictions lead to the shrinking or disruption of GVCs, our article posits that the unintended consequences of trade policies (both restrictions and trade agreements) are amplified by the prevalence and organizational complexity of GVCs. We anchor our argument in the historical evolution of three classic GVCs – apparel, automobiles, and electronics – from the 1970s to the present. Our framework highlights the dynamic interaction between GVC-oriented trade policies and firm strategies, which often has counterintuitive implications in terms of upgrading outcomes for the countries and companies involved in these GVCs. While trade policies often provide momentum for an adaptive reconfiguration of GVCs, firms’ strategic actions are crucial in modifying the geographic and organizational features of GVCs in ways that support their longevity. Firm strategies can mediate the effect of trade policies on GVC configurations in two ways: (1) firms can accommodate trade restrictions and trade agreements by altering supply and demand locations and by switching supply-chain partners; and (2) firms pursue diverse strategies to upgrade their value chain activities, leveraging the shifting geographies associated with new trade rules.

We employ a global vector autoregression (GVAR) model to analyze international spillover effects of US trade restrictions, modeled as a reduction of US imports. Our sample consists of the US and 25 countries in the rest of the world, grouped into larger regions comprising European nations, non-European industrial countries and emerging economies. We find US trade restrictions to reduce trade volumes and income levels in the rest of the world as well as in the US. The trade balance deteriorates across all world regions except in the US, where it is unaffected by the trade restrictions. We also model the effects of a trade war in which the rest of the world responds in equal measure to the trade restrictions imposed by the US. We again find that export and import activity recedes both in the US and in the rest of the world, although the resulting effects are now strongest in the short run. The trade balance improves in the rest of the world but deteriorates in the US. In terms of the GDP response, the rest of the world is initially much harder hit by the imposition of the retaliatory trade measure than is the US.

В современной мировой обстановке признана необходимость государственного регулирования внешнеэкономической деятельности. Надобность в государственном регулировании внешнеэкономической деятельности подтверждена практикой ведения бизнеса новых индустриальных и промышленно развитых стран. Торговая политика Российской Федерации является важным составляющим элементом экономической политики Российской Федерации. Целью торговой политики Российской Федерации является создание благоприятных условий для российских экспортеров, импортеров, производителей и потребителей товаров и услуг, путём введения системы регулирования, включающей в себя нетарифные и тарифные меры. Вопросы работы таможенной службы в условиях запретов и ограничений внешнеторговой деятельности являются сегодня особенно актуальными. В статье проанализирована деятельность таможенных органов в осуществлении торговых ограничений и сформулированы направления развития в данной сфере., In the modern world situation, the need for state regulation of foreign economic activity is recognized. The need for state regulation of foreign economic activity is confirmed by the practice of doing business in new industrial and industrially developed countries. The trade policy of the Russian Federation is an important component of the economic policy of the Russian Federation. The purpose of the trade policy of the Russian Federation is to create favorable conditions for Russian exporters, importers, producers and consumers of goods and services by introducing a regulatory system that includes non-tariff and tariff measures. The issues of the work of the customs service in the conditions of prohibitions and restrictions on foreign trade activities are particularly relevant today. The article analyzes the activities of customs authorities in the implementation of trade restrictions and formulates the directions of development in this area.

В современной мировой обстановке признана необходимость государственного регулирования внешнеэкономической деятельности. Надобность в государственном регулировании внешнеэкономической деятельности подтверждена практикой ведения бизнеса новых индустриальных и промышленно развитых стран. Торговая политика Российской Федерации является важным составляющим элементом экономической политики Российской Федерации. Целью торговой политики Российской Федерации является создание благоприятных условий для российских экспортеров, импортеров, производителей и потребителей товаров и услуг, путём введения системы регулирования, включающей в себя нетарифные и тарифные меры. Вопросы работы таможенной службы в условиях запретов и ограничений внешнеторговой деятельности являются сегодня особенно актуальными. В статье проанализирована деятельность таможенных органов в осуществлении торговых ограничений и сформулированы направления развития в данной сфере., In the modern world situation, the need for state regulation of foreign economic activity is recognized. The need for state regulation of foreign economic activity is confirmed by the practice of doing business in new industrial and industrially developed countries. The trade policy of the Russian Federation is an important component of the economic policy of the Russian Federation. The purpose of the trade policy of the Russian Federation is to create favorable conditions for Russian exporters, importers, producers and consumers of goods and services by introducing a regulatory system that includes non-tariff and tariff measures. The issues of the work of the customs service in the conditions of prohibitions and restrictions on foreign trade activities are particularly relevant today. The article analyzes the activities of customs authorities in the implementation of trade restrictions and formulates the directions of development in this area.

"The new coronavirus (Covid-19), which spread almost the entire world, adversely affected many sectors, both internationally and 30 locally. Households’ panic purchase have rocketed the demand for some food items in the early days. Besides, food safety 31 concerns have increased. This research aimed to uncover how the public perceived the impact of Covid-19 on the agriculture and 32 food sector. The online survey was conducted, and the data from 428 participants were analysed using the SPSS (v.23) program. 33 The third of respondents (30.8%) believed the outbreak would last between six months to one year, during which time food 34 shortages will occur (32.5%). While 27.4% of the respondents reported that they stockpiled food, 44.8% reported that if the 35 outbreak continued, they would stock up on food. Participants were concerned that if planting cannot be done, food shortages will 36 occur (74.6%), basic foodstuffs cannot be produced (67.8%), food imports (69.4%) and exports (74.6%) will be adversely 37 affected by the outbreak. The research found that if farming disturbed, food prices would increase (82.3%) and the government 38 should include agriculture-supporting measures (85%) in its economic measures."

The greatest challenge for the EU in trying to identify an optimal response is understanding the motives behind the US strategy. The rhetoric, and more recently also actions, of the current US administration on trade and the global multilateral system are a real threat to the process of globalisation. While the costs are not immediate, they will materialise and they will be hard to revert.

В статье рассматривается вопрос применения экономических санкций как инструмента воздействия в торговой войне на мировом рынке средств связи. Авторы исследуют вероятные причины возникшего острого противостояния между США и Китаем, являющимися ведущими экспортерами данной группы товаров. Анализируются возможные последствия экономических санкций, выражающиеся в различных формах барьеров, ограничений и запретов на экспорт и импорт. Авторы отмечают, что с экономическими издержками столкнутся все страны, участвующие в санкционном процессе, а также подчеркивает важность диалога между конфликтующими сторонами для сохранения экономических выгод, которые могут быть получены через торговлю.

Проблема влияния санкций и торговых ограничений на российскую экономику является актуальным предметом для дискуссий в среде отечественных экономистов. Неоднократное продление и введение новых ограничений со стороны западных стран стало существенным вызовом перед российской экономикой, а сложившаяся экономическая ситуация создаёт неблагоприятные условия для функционирования промышленных предприятий, что в свою очередь требует принятия государством ответных мер и проведения промышленной политики, направленной на защиту интересов субъектов промышленности. В статье рассмотрена проблема импортозависимости российской промышленности, а также недостатки проводимой промышленной политики., The problem of the impact of sanctions and trade restrictions on the Russian economy is a relevant subject for discussions among domestic economists. Repeated extension and introduction of new restrictions from Western countries has become a significant challenge to the Russian economy, and the current economic situation creates unfavorable conditions for the functioning of industrial enterprises, which in turn requires the government to take response measures and conduct industrial policies aimed at protecting the interests of industrial entities. The article deals with the problem of import dependence of Russian industry, as well as the shortcomings of the industrial policy pursued

In this paper we use the blockchain technology to develop a peer to peer energy trade platform without a trusted third party. Our main contribution is a novel distributed double auction mechanism which allows any peer to act as an auctioneer and the blockchain mechanism ensures that a peer behaves lawfully while acting as an auctioneer. Using experimental evaluation we show that (1) the distributed auction converges quickly, (2) it minimizes energy loss due to long transmission, (3) computational overhead due to employing a blockchain is negligible, (4) it is efficient and (5) it can implement trade restrictions imposed by the energy distribution network.

We compare redistribution through trade restrictions vs. domestic lump-sum transfers. When preferences are non-homothetic, even domestic lump-sum transfers affect relative prices. Thus, contrary to the conventional wisdom, domestic lump-sum transfers are not necessarily superior to distortionary trade policy. We develop this argument in the context of food export bans imposed by many developing countries in the late 2000s.

The paper includes overview of the current state of the EU-CIS and the EU-Russia trade flows with particular attention to trade in agricultural commodities, as well as contemporary tendencies in agricultural production and foreign trade in agricultural commodities and food in Russia. The paper specifically addresses the possible effects of the trade restrictions between the EU and Russia, particularly the imposed ban on agricultural trade, on the Visegrad countries. The paper is concluded with an overview of the expected influences of the trade tensions on Russia’s domestic agricultural market, including consumers, producers, and retailers.

U.N. Commodity Trade (COMTRADE) statistics have major shortcomings for many analyses relating to tariffs and other trade barriers. The use of a cost-insurance-freight valuation base for these data results in an upward (sometimes severe) bias in the implied dutiable value of imports for countries that utilize free-on-board tariffs. This problem can be greatly exacerbated by the 'general' trade system procedure used to compile the U.N. statistics, as opposed to the 'special' trade practice used for the World Trade Organization Integrated Database. U.S. International Trade Commission statistics show that the combined effects of these biases can reach magnitudes that preclude the legitimate use of COMTRADE for many tariff-trade simulations or related trade negotiations. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.

The pace of trade reforms waned from the mid-2000s as protectionist sentiment began to increase. With the onset of the global financial crisis, reform progress not only halted but began to reverse. As we show in this note, new trade restrictions have had—in the limited products they targeted—a strong negative impact on trade. The aggregate impact of new restrictions is modest, at about 0.25 percent of global trade, as most countries have resisted a widespread resort to protectionism. Looking ahead, however, in 2010 sustained high unemployment, uneven growth, and an unwinding of government stimulus measures suggest that protectionist pressures may rise. Gaps in World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments leave ample scope to further restrict trade, so unless all countries vigorously resist protectionism this could threaten the economic recovery and drag down future growth. Continuing and further enhancing the monitoring of all protectionist measures and maintaining the high-level political awareness of the associated macroeconomic risks will help. But the surest way to avoid such a downside scenario is to tighten multilateral trade commitments by completing the WTO Doha Round. This can be viewed as a key part of the exit strategy from the global economic crisis.

Cross-country panel data are used to assess the effect of free-trade agreements on flows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Free-trade agreements are found to have a significant positive effect on FDI flows, and free-trade agreements are found to matter more for the smaller members of the agreement. For example, the North American Free-Trade Agreement's (NAFTA) effect on FDI flows into Mexico is much larger than its effect on flows into the United States. These cross country results are used to assess NAFTA's effect on FDI flows into Mexico. After controlling for a set of other factors such as an increase in worldwide FDI flows the trade agreement is found to generate FDI flows nearly 60 percent higher than they would have been without the agreement.

What affects a country's decision of whether to formally engage in a trade dispute directly related to its exporting interests? This article empirically examines determinants of affected country participation decisions in formal trade litigation arising under the World Trade Organization (WTO) between 1995 and 2000. It investigates determinants of nonparticipation and examines whether the incentives generated by the system's rules and procedures discourage active engagement in dispute settlement by developing country members in particular. Though the size of exports at stake is found to be an important economic determinant affecting the decision to participate in challenges to a WTO-inconsistent policy, the evidence also shows that measures of a country's retaliatory and legal capacity as well as its international political economy relationships matter. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of an implicit 'institutional bias' generated by the system's rules and incentives that particularly affects developing economy participation in dispute settlement.

This article is concerned with the interaction of regulated efficiency and World Trade Organization (WTO) accession and its impact on China's motor vehicle sector. The analysis is conducted using a 23 sector-25 region computable general equilibrium model. Regulatory reform and internal restructuring are found to be critical. Restructuring is represented by a cost reduction following from consolidation and rationalization that moves costs toward global norms. Without restructuring, WTO accession means a surge of final imports, though imports of parts could well fall as production moves offshore. However, with restructuring, the final assembly industry can be made competitive by world standards, with a strengthened position for the industry.

Consider an agent who holds a stock, but is allowed to buy and hold some quantity of at-the-money put options on the stock. Such an agent must decide the optimal use of financial derivatives under trade restrictions. This paper uses simulation to compare the optimal quantity when the agent maximizes mean-variance utility or Value at Risk over wealth at option expiry. The optimal quantity is larger than the stock holding under mean-variance utility and precisely the same under value at risk. The options do not remove all variation in returns but still benefit the agent.

We explore the incentives countries face in trade litigation within the new WTO Dispute Settlement System. Our analysis yields a number of interesting predictions. First, because sanctions are ruled out during the litigation process, the Dispute Settlement System does not preclude all new trade restrictions. However, the agenda-setting capacity of the complainant, including its right to force a decision, make traderestrictions less attractive than under the WTO's predecessor GATT. Second, the system's appellate review provides the losing defendant with strong incentives to delay negative findings, and both parties with a possibility to signal their determinacy in fighting the case. Third, a relatively weak implementation procedure potentially reinforces incentives to violate WTO trade rules. Fourth, bilateral settlements are more likely at an early stage in the process and are biased towards the expected outcome of the formal dispute settlement procedure. empirical evidence based on a first data set of cases at an advanced stage of the litigation process provides qualitative support for our claims. (pdf, 230k)

This paper analysis the global distribution of art collections and collectors' biases with respect to the origin of artworks. Employing a unique dataset we find that the greatest number of private art collections are located in Europe, North America and Asia. There are relatively few collections in Latin America and Africa. The artists whose oeuvres dominate the markets for collected art come from North America, followed by Asian and European artists. The home bias in private art collections turns out to be strong in all continents and countries. It is highest for Asian and African collections and smaller for European and North American collections. The home bias can partly be accounted for by high export and import restrictions.

To what extent has Sub-Saharan Africa’s slow economic growth over the past five decades been due to price and trade policies that have discouraged production of agricultural relative to non-agricultural tradables? This paper uses a new set of estimates of policy distortions to relative prices to address this question econometrically. We first test if these policy distortions respond to economic growth, using rainfall and international commodity price shocks as instrumental variables. We find that on impact there is no significant response of relative price distortions to changes in real GDP per capita. We then test the reverse proposition and find a statistically significant and sizable negative effect of relative price distortions on the growth rate of Sub-Saharan African countries. Our fixed effects estimates suggest that, during 1960-2005, a one standard deviation increase in distortions to relative prices reduced the region’s real GDP per capita growth rate by about half a percentage point per annum.

This paper investigates how trade flows are being affected by new discriminatory measures implemented during the global financial crisis. We match data on behind-the-border measures (e.g., bailouts and subsidies) and border measures implemented through April 2010 to monthly HS 4-digit bilateral trade data. Our estimation strategy relies on a first-differenced gravity equation and time-varying fixed effects to disentangle the impact of new discriminatory measures. Trade in exporter-importer pairs subject to new measures decreased by 5 to 8 percent relative to trade in the same product among pairs not subject to new measures. These product-level results imply global trade declines at the aggregate level of about 0.2 percent, or $30-35 billion a year. These aggregate figures would be higher, if one third of measures had not been excluded due to incomplete data. The paper then goes on to dissect protectionism’s trade impact by disaggregating measures by type, advanced/developing countries, regions, sectors, and time. Behind-the-border measures are found to have been more harmful than border measures at the product level. Among border measures, impacts tend to be higher for less transparent measures. Advanced countries are found to be responsible for 2/3 of the trade decline due to crisis protectionism, but their exports also absorbed 2/3 of this decline. When breaking down measures in a time dimension, we find that those taken in the first nine months after the Lehman collapse were most harmful and likely continue to constitute a drag on trade.

In the three decades since China's economic opening to the world, the country's integration into the global economy has progressed by leaps and bounds. Especially after joining the WTO in 2001, international trade and investment flows have been on a steep upward trajectory. This process was not only driven by market forces but heavily influenced by government intervention in commodity and financial markets. While government authorities are strongly determined to promote closer economic integration with the rest of the world, they seek to supervise and control the process in order to carve out maximum benefits for domestic enterprises and the economy as a whole. Balancing market forces and industrial policy strategy, political decision makers have worked out an elaborate framework of measures to create an environment conducive to the development of several sectors deemed backbone or pillar industries. As one of them, the steel industry is subjected to numerous measures steering its development both in the home market and at the global market interface. By examining these mechanisms, this article aims to illustrate that sectoral industrial policy in China does not push for expanding exports and investments across the board but carefully and discretionarily promotes global integration in some areas while delaying it in others.

We provide a unified discussion of the issues that confront negotiators of the next international climate agreement. We offer a novel proposal that entitles countries to discharge their treaty obligations by paying a “fine†. This escape clause provides cost insurance, simplifies the problem of enforcing compliance, and increases incentives to participate in the agreement. We explain why developed country obligations should rely on a cap and trade commitment rather than carbon taxes. A Central Bank maintains stability of carbon prices by defending a price ceiling and floor. An so-called intensity target is not a good alternative to an emissions cap. Modest trade restrictions, consistent with WTO law, will form an important part of the next agreement. Developed and developing countries have differentiated responsibilities. Developing countries do not adopt binding targets at the next round of negotiations, but they accept the principle of binding targets in the subsequent agreement, beginning in the early 2020s. Developed country participation relies on a reformed CDM and sectoral agreements that are financed by the sale of emissions permits.

The literature measuring the effects of WTO membership on trade flows has produced remarkably diverse results. Rose (2004) reports a wide range of empirical specifications that produce no WTO effects. Tomz et al. (2007) use Rose's data but include de facto WTO membership, to find positive WTO trade effects. Rose (2005) also produced positive WTO trade effects after accounting for the diverse trade effects produced by individual preferential trade agreements (PTAs). When Subramanian and Wei (2007) emphasize general equilibrium trade effects by controlling for multilateral resistance, they find strong WTO trade effects only for industrialized countries. Subramanian and Wei (2007), however, account neither for unobserved heterogeneity among trading partners, nor for differences in trade effects across PTAs (which could inflate WTO estimates). We unify the Rose, Tomz et al., and Subramanian and Wei specifications in one comprehensive approach that minimizes omitted variable bias to show that all specifications produce one consistent result: WTO effects on trade flows are not statistically significant, while PTAs produce strong but uneven trade effects. Extending the gravity model to address specific avenues in which WTO may have affected trade flows, we find that WTO membership boosts trade prior to PTA formation and increases trade among proximate developing countries (at the expense of distant trade). An augmented gravity model that accounts for WTO terms-of-trade theory shows that countries with greater incentives to bargain for tariff reductions before WTO accession experience positive and significant subsequent WTO trade effects.

We develop and evaluate two significant modeling concepts within the context of a large-scale Airspace Planning and Collaborative Decision-Making Model (APCDM) and, thereby, enhance its current functionality in support of both strategic and tactical level flight assessments. The first major concept is a new severe weather-modeling paradigm that can be used to assess existing tactical en route flight plan strategies such as the Flight Management System (FMS) as well as to provide rerouting strategies. The second major concept concerns modeling the mediated bartering of slot exchanges involving airline trade offers for arrival/departure slots at an arrival airport that is affected by the Ground Delay Program (GDP), while simultaneously considering issues related to sector workloads, airspace conflicts, as well as overall equity concerns among the airlines. This research effort is part of an $11.5B, 10-year, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-sponsored program to increase the U.S. National Airspace (NAS) capacity by 30 percent by the year 2010. Our innovative contributions of this research with respect to the severe weather rerouting include (a) the concept of "Probability-Nets" and the development of discretized representations of various weather phenomena that affect aviation operations; (b) the integration of readily accessible severe weather probabilities from existing weather forecast data provided by the National Weather Service (NWS); (c) the generation of flight plans that circumvent severe weather phenomena with specified probability levels, and (d) a probabilistic delay assessment methodology for evaluating planned flight routes that might encounter potentially disruptive weather along its trajectory. Given a fixed set of reporting stations from the CONUS Model Output Statistics (MOS), we begin by constructing weather-specific probability-nets that are dynamic with respect to time and space. Essential to the construction of the probability-nets are the point-by-point forecast probabilities associated with MOS reporting sites throughout the United States. Connections between the MOS reporting sites form the strands within the probability-nets, and are constructed based upon a user-defined adjacency threshold, which is defined as the maximum allowable great circle distance between any such pair of sites. When a flight plan traverses through a probability-net, we extract probability data corresponding to the points where the flight plan and the probability-net strand(s) intersect. The ability to quickly extract this trajectory-related probability data is critical to our weather-based rerouting concepts and the derived expected delay and related cost computations in support of the decision-making process. Next, we consider the superimposition of a flight-trajectory-grid network upon the probability-nets. Using the U.S. Navigational Aids (Navaids) as the network nodes, we develop an approach to generate flight plans that can circumvent severe weather phenomena with specified probability levels based on determining restricted, time-dependent shortest paths between the origin and destination airports. By generating alternative flight plans pertaining to specified threshold strand probabilities, we prescribe a methodology for computing appropriate expected weather delays and related disruption factors for inclusion within the APCDM model. We conclude our severe weather-modeling research by conducting an economic benefit analysis using a k-means clustering mechanism in concert with our delay assessment methodology in order to evaluate delay costs and system disruptions associated with variations in probability-net refinement-based information. As a flight passes through the probability-net(s), we can generate a probability-footprint that acts as a record of the strand intersections and the associated probabilities from origin to destination. A flight plan's probability-footprint will differ for each level of data refinement, from whence we construct route-dependent scenarios and, subsequently, compute expected weather delay costs for each scenario for comparative purposes. Our second major contribution is the development of a novel slot-exchange modeling concept within the APCDM model that incorporates various practical issues pertaining to the Ground Delay Program (GDP), a principal feature in the FAA's adoption of the Collaborative Decision-Making (CDM) paradigm. The key ideas introduced here include innovative model formulations and several new equity concepts that examine the impact of "at-least, at-most" trade offers on the entire mix of resulting flight plans from respective origins to destinations, while focusing on achieving defined measures of "fairness" with respect to the selected slot exchanges. The idea is to permit airlines to barter assigned slots at airports affected by the Ground Delay Program to their mutual advantage, with the FAA acting as a mediator, while being cognizant of the overall effect of the resulting mix of flight plans on air traffic control sector workloads, collision risk and safety, and equity considerations. We start by developing two separate slot-exchange approaches. The first consists of an external approach in which we formulate a model for generating a set of package-deals, where each package-deal represents a potential slot-exchange solution. These package-deals are then embedded within the APCDM model. We further tighten the model representation using maximal clique cover-based cuts that relate to the joint compatibility among the individual package-deals. The second approach significantly improves the overall model efficiency by automatically generating package-deals as required within the APCDM model itself. The model output prescribes a set of equitable flight plans based on admissible trades and exchanges of assigned slots, which are in addition conformant with sector workload capabilities and conflict risk restrictions. The net reduction in passenger-minutes of delay for each airline is the primary metric used to assess and compare model solutions. Appropriate constraints are included in the model to ensure that the generated slot exchanges induce nonnegative values of this realized net reduction for each airline. In keeping with the spirit of the FAA's CDM initiative, we next propose four alternative equity methods that are predicated on different specified performance ratios and related efficiency functions. These four methods respectively address equity with respect to slot-exchange-related measures such as total average delay, net delay savings, proportion of acceptable moves, and suitable value function realizations. For our computational experiments, we constructed several scenarios using real data obtained from the FAA based on the Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS) flight information pertaining to the Miami and Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC). Through our experimentation, we provide insights into the effect of the different proposed modeling concepts and study the sensitivity with respect to certain key parameters. In particular, we compare the alternative proposed equity formulations by evaluating their corresponding slot-exchange solutions with respect to the net reduction in passenger-minutes of delay for each airline. Additionally, we evaluate and compare the computational-effort performance, under both time limits and optimality thresholds, for each equity method in order to assess the efficiency of the model. The four slot-exchange-based equity formulations, in conjunction with the internal slot-exchange mechanisms, demonstrate significant net savings in computational effort ranging from 25% to 86% over the original APCDM model equity formulation. The model has been implemented using Microsoft Visual C++ and evaluated using a C++ interface with CPLEX 9.0. The overall results indicate that the proposed modeling concepts offer viable tools that can be used by the FAA in a timely fashion for both tactical purposes, as well as for exploring various strategic issues such as air traffic control policy evaluations; dynamic airspace resectorization strategies as a function of severe weather probabilities; and flight plan generation in response to various disruption scenarios. Ph. D.

The dominant perspective in discussions of labour and environmental standards and globalization is that of North-South competition and its impact on Northern standards. This Paper presents an alternative perspective, that of South-South competition to export to the North, and its impact on Southern standards. It develops a simple model of Southern competition on standards, which can begin to provide insights into some key questions. A Southern race to the bottom is possible but not inevitable. It depends intricately on the Northern demand curve, the size of big exporters relative to each other, and the relative size of the competitive fringe of small exporters – a precise and complete characterization is developed in the Paper. The Paper also analyses the effect of Northern tariffs on Southern strategic competition in standards. It is shown that Northern trade protectionism undermines Southern standards.

In this paper I present evidence on the effectiveness of AD actions. Using a data set based on the line-item tariff codes identified in the cases, I examine the trade patterns of both countries named in the petition and those countries not subject to the investigation. Several important finding emerge. First, AD duties substantially restrict the volume of trade from named countries, especially for those cases with high duties. Second, AD actions that are rejected still have an important impact on named country trade, especially during the period of investigation. Third, there is substantial trade diversion from named to non-named countries and the diversion is greater the larger is the estimated duty. Because of the diversion of imports, the overall volume of trade continues to grow---even for those cases which result in duties. Fourth, despite the diversion of imports, AD law still offers important benefits because it induces substantial import prices increases both by named and non-named countries. Finally, because of the diversion of imports, aggressive use of AD law by U.S. firms has the peculiar side-effect of benefiting non-named countries who are active in the areas under investigation.

Congo's vital dependence on trade for development stands in contradiction with its trade policy. As a member of the CEMAC, Congo's tariff scheme at least formally is guided by CEMAC's 1994 trade regime agreement. This paper shows CEMAC's customs code is restrictive relative to that of comparable regional integration groups. The paper also discusses a number of quantitative and qualitative barriers to trade applied by Congo that render its current regime complex, nontransparent, and relatively unpredictable, compromising efforts to develop the non-oil sector and the country's export base. Moreover, Congo's high tariffs and other taxes have not led to higher fiscal revenues, as the number of exemptions granted in recent years has surged and customs administration remains weak.

This paper is concerned with the determinants of car prices in four European countries: Belgium, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, over the period 1970-1985. The main focus of the study lies in explaining the levels of, and the changes in, the large price differentials observed across the several countries, and in exploring the impact of the trade restrictions imposed on Japanese car exports to Europe over the period in question. The main finding is that these two sources of price differentials play a substantive role in explaining observed differentials. The second major theme relates to the effects of the increase of Japanese import penetration and the resulting trade restrictions.

The semiconductor arrangement was intended to enhance free trade based on market principles. This paper argues that the arrangement had exactly the opposite effect. The arrangement has two parts: a price floor to prevent predatory pricing, and provisions to double U.S. market share in Japan to counter market closure. Given semiconductor production technology, the price floor forced a capacity reduction, a rise in world prices and a cartelization of the market. Since the observed dumping was probably not predatory pricing, the price floor restricted competition and free trade. The market closure probably exists and significantly harms non-Japanese producers. It is therefore an anti-competitive practice.

The paper examines the implications of lower trade barriers for sectoral diversification and macroeconomic stability in developing economies with a large primary goods sector. It shows that lower trade barriers can have ambiguous effects on macroeconomic stability. It shows also that diversification, in the form of equal distribution of resources between nonprimary sectors, may be counterproductive. In fact, investment in the nonprimary sector with lower trade barriers unambiguously enhances macroeconomic stability in a developing economy that is subject to substantial primary shocks.