MERCOSUR and the Brazilian Leadership Challenge in the Era of Chinese Growth: A Uruguayan Foreign Policy Perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Urdinez ◽  
Camilo López Burian ◽  
Amâncio Jorge de Oliveira

AbstractIn recent years, China has expanded its presence in Latin America leading to increased trade flows, foreign direct investment, and bilateral cooperation agreements. At the same time, Brazil has attempted to emerge as a global player from its belief in itself as a regional leader. While both countries are part of the emerging South, they are also competing for influence in the South American area. We hypothesize that for MERCOSUR members, deepening commercial ties with China would be a viable option to counterbalance Brazil’s regional leadership, using Uruguayan legislators preferences as a tool for our study. Using logistic models, we conclude that that the probability of supporting a hypothetical free trade agreement with China is larger when politicians viewed MERCOSUR as an obstacle to the interests of his or her country and when he or she had doubts about Brazilian

Asian Survey ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-64
Author(s):  
Katrin Katz ◽  
Victor Cha

Abstract The year 2011 saw South Korea deepen bilateral cooperation with the United States while building its status as a global player on the international stage. These developments were facilitated by broader regional dynamics—particularly with respect to Japan and China—that helped push Washington and Seoul closer together. Key issues with the potential to redirect South Korea's bilateral and global trajectories in the coming months include the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, the death of Kim Jong-il and policy toward North Korea, and election year politics in South Korea.


2017 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. 267-282
Author(s):  
Shichen Wang

After signing a bilateral free trade agreement with China and joining in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Switzerland has become one of China’s best partners in Europe. The bilateral relationship has been upgraded from “strategic partnership” to “innovative strategic partnership,” and is regarded by the Chinese as “a model relationship for China-European countries.” Two fundamental reasons explain why Switzerland has achieved such harmonious relations with the world’s second largest economy: first, there is no historical conflict between the two countries; second, Switzerland is more pragmatic than other European countries in strengthening bilateral cooperation with China. So far, the two countries have institutionalized dialogues and other exchanges involving both elites and the public; sensitive issues have been properly handled without obstructing the development of their bilateral relations. As ever closer ties are being built between China and Europe as a whole, the Beijing-Bern relationship can serve as a model for other European countries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Rumiana Yotova

ON 16 May 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its Opinion 2/15 concerning the competence of the EU to conclude the Free Trade Agreement with Singapore (EUSFTA) (ECLI:EU:C:2017:376). The Opinion was requested by the Commission which argued, with the support of the European Parliament (EP), that the EU had exclusive competence to conclude the EUSFTA. The Council and 25 of the Member States countered that the EUSFTA should be concluded as a mixed agreement – that is, by the EU and each of its members – because some of its provisions fell under the shared competence of the organisation or the competence of the Member States alone.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-37
Author(s):  
Muhammad Arif Junaidi

Using trade flows data of ASEAN countries and China from 2002 to 2017, this studyestimates the impact of ACFTA on ASEAN countries and China’s trade balance in general,and also for Indonesia’s trade balance in specific by elaborating the impact of ACFTA onthe trade flows both exports and imports. Using the gravity model and estimating by OLSand PPML, this paper finds that the impact of tariffs elimination due to the implementationof ACFTA increased exports and imports for ASEAN countries and China in general, andfor Indonesia in particular. However, the aggregate trade balances of ASEAN membercountries and China is zero since the impact of ACFTA on imports offset the impact ofACFTA on exports. Tariff’s elimination due to the implementation of ACFTA on Indonesiashows a negative and statistically insignificant effect on imports and exports. Thus, tariffshave not played significant role on increasing Indonesia’s exports and imports. As a result,the impact of ACFTA on Indonesia’s trade balance cannot be quantified clearly since theimpact of tariffs on exports and imports are not significant.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-36
Author(s):  
Nguyen Khanh Doanh ◽  
Jeehoon Lee ◽  
Yoon Heo

This study analyzes the impacts of the formation of AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Agreement) on China’s agricultural exports. The Hausman-Taylor analysis is applied to panel data collected from China and its 68 trading partners from 1993–2012. Our major findings areas follows. First, the discrimination in tariffs imposed by AFTA diverts trade in agricultural products from China toward AFTA’s member countries. Second, at the sectoral level, the trade diversion effects of AFTA’s formation on China’s exports are significant in the case of beverage and tobacco industries. AFTA and China need to focus more on diversifying and differentiating their farming products. To gain better access to AFTA’s market, more investment in research and development activities is recommended as a cure for Chinese farmers. Moreover, this study implies that more efforts in reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers to further liberalize trade between China and AFTA could enhance their bilateral trade flows.


Significance The agreement offers zero quotas and tariffs on most goods, but there is little coverage on services while trade flows face disruption from significant non-tariff barriers. Impacts The deal will make it slightly easier to reach a UK-US free trade agreement, though strong divisions remain. The strict conditionality associated with the FTA suggests Euroscepticism will remain an important feature of UK politics. The process and costs associated with Brexit makes it less likely that Eurosceptic member states will attempt to leave the EU.


Author(s):  
Andreas Waldkirch ◽  
Ayça Tekin-Koru

Abstract We investigate how economic integration in North America has altered the pattern of foreign direct investment (FDI) to and from Canada. The theoretical analysis suggests that while the Canadian-U.S. free trade agreement should generate less FDI, the addition of Mexico in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) produces the opposite effect. The fall in trade costs results in investment diversion from the U.S. and Canada, yet lower fixed costs may increase FDI even in those countries via an increased incentive to locate production facilities abroad rather than only domestically. Using a difference-in-differences estimator, we find that U.S. FDI in Canada as well as Canadian FDI in the U.S. have expanded disproportionately since NAFTA, suggesting that the latter effect dominates.


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