The Costs and Benefits of Duty-Free, Quota-Free Market Access for Poor Countries: Who and What Matters

Most "green" thought and action fails to grasp that this society involves levels of resource consumption and environmental impact that are far beyond those that can be sustained or spread to all people. Technical advance and reforms within consumer-capitalist society cannot solve the problems; this will be illustrated by reference to greenhouse and energy problems. Although present levels of consumption are grossly unsustainable, the supreme priority is economic growth, i.e. to raise them without limit. In addition a system based on free market principles cannot be just. Rich world affluence would not be possible if wealth was not being transferred from poor countries. The only way out of the alarming global situation is via transition to some kind of Simpler Way, which is unlikely to be taken. Implications for bringing about such a transition will be indicated.

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Making Globalisation Inclusive of People: A Trade Union Perspective (The Mahbub-ul-Haq Memorial Lecture)

The Pakistan Development Review ◽

10.30541/v41i4ipp.357-387 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 41 (4I) ◽

pp. 357-387 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Noriyuki Suzuki ◽

Sabur Ghayur

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Market Access ◽

Free Play ◽

Memorial Lecture ◽

Policy Space ◽

Industrial Countries ◽

Poor Countries ◽

Trading Partners ◽

External Conditions ◽

The Rich

“The greatest tragedy is to treat the unequal as equal”, says Aristotle. In a different perspective, similar concerns have found an echo centuries later—” the free play of market forces between unequal trading partners would only punish poorer commodity exporters at the same time as it brings advantages to the rich industrial countries”.1 New modalities of participation for developing countries in the trading system were suggested decades ago to attack the persistent trade imbalance and to create essential external conditions for accelerating the rate of economic growth. These included: (1) guaranteeing price stabilisation and improving market access for primary exports; (2) allowing greater policy space to develop local industries and reducing barriers to their exports; (3) establishing more appropriate terms of accession to the multilateral system, and (4) reducing the burden of debt-servicing. The developments as unfolded over the years, and more so since 1990s, are found as largely drifting away from these assertions of yester years. Market access to the agricultural products still has to materialise. Greater policy space to developing countries almost stands abandoned. Debt burden of the developing poor countries, the HIPC initiative notwithstanding, remains at volatile level.

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Symbolic and effective? An LDC perspective on duty-free and quota-free market access

Routledge Studies in Development Economics - European Union Trade Politics and Development ◽

10.4324/9780203934043-16 ◽

2007 ◽

pp. 151-172

Keyword(s):

Market Access ◽

Free Market

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The multilateral decision on duty free quota free market access and least developed countries’ export performance

Economic Analysis and Policy ◽

10.1016/j.eap.2017.08.003 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 56 ◽

pp. 86-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sèna Kimm Gnangnon ◽

Shishir Priyadarshi

Keyword(s):

Market Access ◽

Free Market ◽

Export Performance ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Least Developed Countries

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China’s Raw Materials Diplomacy and Governance Cycle: Toward Sustainable Mining and Resource Extraction?

Issues & Studies ◽

10.1142/s101325111840009x ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 54 (04) ◽

pp. 1840009 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

REINHARD BIEDERMANN

Keyword(s):

Market Access ◽

Raw Materials ◽

Free Market ◽

Resource Extraction ◽

Reform Process ◽

Industrialized Countries ◽

Theoretical Terms ◽

Resource Nationalism ◽

Belt And Road ◽

Private Actors

China’s raw materials diplomacy and unregulated purchasing of minerals in Africa and Latin America, as well as its domestic raw materials export quota, have for years been eyed with suspicion by state and private actors. Industrialized countries want to uphold and extend free market access to raw materials, but also strengthen their political accountability and sustainability. However, critics argue that in contrast, China, the world’s largest metals and minerals trading power, has taken the opposite course, ignoring social and environmental standards, reinforcing authoritarian governments, and erecting trade barriers. China is faced with several interrelated challenges in its resource diplomacy and governance. This article claims that an identifiable, chronological connection and pattern has existed between China’s aid and investment diplomacy for resources since the late 1990s, free trade agreements since the 2000s, Beijing’s resource nationalism since the 2010s, and the reform process of national and privately organized transnational governance toward sustainability in the present day. Is China socializing with emerging transnational standards on mining and resource extraction in the developing world, and if so, why? This article argues that China’s raw materials governance, including corporate governance, has entered a phase of reform to pacify the external environment and to implement the Belt and Road Initiative. In theoretical terms, China’s raw materials governance will continue to emphasize neoliberal and neo-mercantilist goals, cushioned by globalist features.

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Digital borders in the European Union

Studia Prawnicze KUL ◽

10.31743/sp.5549 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 193-217

Author(s):

Carmen Parra Rodriguez

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Digital Media ◽

Market Access ◽

Free Market ◽

Global Solutions ◽

Single Market ◽

The European Union ◽

Protection Measures ◽

Digital Platforms ◽

Provision Of Services

The world is facing a new geoeconomic order in which digital media has changed the rules of the game. Borders are fuzzy and both companies and consumers try to strike a balance between free market access and the restrictions that protected economic interests establish. Based on these parameters, the European Union is trying to restructure the single market by applying global solutions that nevertheless collide with the protection measures demanded by economic operators, blocking the provision of services and the free movement of goods through so-called geoblocking. This practice consists of blocking access to services and/or the offer of products depending on the geographical origin of the user/client, either by redirecting users to local websites or simply by restricting access to their product brochure. The fact that consumer associations and users of digital platforms have considered this blockade as a real attack on the digital single market has led the European Union to seek legislative solutions. That is why the European Commission has promoted Regulation 2018/302, which aims to prevent unjustified geographical blocking and other forms of discrimination based on the nationality, place of residence or place of establishment of clients in the internal market. The justification of these protective measures as well as their location in the global geoeconomic space are studied in this work.

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