scholarly journals Reluctance to Lead: U.S. Trade Policy in Flux

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Vinod Aggarwal
Keyword(s):  
Trade Policy ◽  
Clinton Administration ◽  
Bush Administration ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
Sharp Turn ◽  
The World ◽  
Competitive Liberalization ◽  
The U.S

The U.S. is no longer providing leadership in trade policy. In recent years, we have seen a sharp turn toward a rapid proliferation of bilateral preferential trade agreements, accords that are likely to undermine the World Trade Organization (WTO). By pursuing a strategy of ‘competitive liberalization’ both on a sectoral basis under the Bill Clinton administration, and then a policy of seeking bilateral arrangements under the George W. Bush administration, this article argues that American administrations have undermined the coalition for free trade in the United States. Consequently, protectionist industries including textiles, steel, and agriculture have made further liberalization more difficult and thus the prospects for promoting continued trade liberalization have grown dimmer.

The Clinton Administration and Africa: A View from Gaborone, Botswana

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-69
Author(s):  
Larry A. Swatuk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Clinton Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Material World ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
The World

With fanfare befitting the arrival of a god of the Western material world, U.S. President Bill Clinton toured Southern Africa imparting “words of wisdom” along the way. His aim, we were told, was to see that the United States becomes Africa’s “true partner.” The reason being, according to Clinton, “[a]s Africa grows strong, America grows stronger ... Yes, Africa needs the world, but more than ever it is equally true that the world needs Africa.” To this end, the United States would pursue a mix of political and economic policies that included the African Crisis Response Initiative and the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, both designed to foster “stability” and “prosperity” on the continent. Lofty goals, to be sure, but ends whose means are badly in need of interrogation. This article does just that: To wit, does Clinton, on behalf of U.S. policymakers, mean what he says? If so, in naming “peace” and “prosperity,” can he make them? Put differently, does the Clinton administration have the power to introduce order where there was chaos? Or will it only compound existing problems and visit new ones upon those who had few to begin with?

scholarly journals MULTILATERALISM OR BILATERALISM: THE EU TRADE POLICY IN AN AGE OF THE WTO CRISIS

Ekonomika ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Anna Wróbel
Keyword(s):  
Trade Policy ◽  
World Trade ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
World Trade Organisation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
The World ◽  
The Eu

Abstract. The aim of the study is to analyze the EU trade policy in the age of the World Trade Organization (WTO) crisis. In addition to the WTO membership and a number of international agreements within this organisation, the EU is a party to many bilateral trade agreements and negotiating further. It is the side effect of the protracted negotiations in the WTO under the Doha Development Round. The paper discusses the process of proliferation of bilateral trade agreements in the world economy and its importance for the EU. The article is divided into three parts. Part One identifies the determinants of the WTO crisis. Part Two discusses the process of proliferation of bilateral trade agreements in the world economy. Part Three analyzes the EU trade policy and the system of the EU preferential trade agreements. It also examines trade relations of the EU with the Republic of Korea, India, and the United States of America as an illustration of the new EU trade strategy.Key words: bilateralism, European Union, common commercial policy, World Trade Organisation

THE INFLUENCE OF SCOTTISH ACCOUNTANTS IN THE UNITED STATES: THE EARLY CASE OF THE SOCIETY OF ACCOUNTANTS IN EDINBURGH

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. A. LEE
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Research Program ◽  
The United States ◽  
The World ◽  
Early Case ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Chartered Accountants ◽  
The U.S

This study represents part of a long-term research program to investigate the influence of U.K. accountants on the development of professional accountancy in other parts of the world. It examines the impact of a small group of Scottish chartered accountants who emigrated to the U.S. in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Set against a general theory of emigration, the study's main results reveal the significant involvement of this group in the founding and development of U.S. accountancy. The influence is predominantly with respect to public accountancy and its main institutional organizations. Several of the individuals achieved considerable eminence in U.S. public accountancy.

scholarly journals The Global Domain of the Dollar: Eight Questions

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-429
Author(s):  
Robert N. McCauley
Keyword(s):  
Economic Activity ◽  
Balance Sheet ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fiscal Deficits ◽  
Exorbitant Privilege ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic ◽  
Dollar Debt ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The U.S

Abstract Since the late 1950s, the rest of the world has come to use the dollar to an extent that justifies speaking of the dollar’s global domain. The rest of the world denominates much debt in U.S. dollars, extending U.S. monetary policy’s sway. In addition, in outstanding foreign exchange deals, the rest of the world has undertaken to pay still more in U.S. dollars: off-balance-sheet dollar debts buried in footnotes. Consistent with the scale of dollar debt, most of the world economic activity takes place in countries with currencies tied to or relatively stable against the dollar, forming a dollar zone much larger than the euro zone. Even though the dollar assets of the world (minus the United States) exceed dollar liabilities, corporate sector dollar debts seem to make dollar appreciation akin to a global tightening of credit. Since the 1960s, claims that the dollar’s global role suffers from instability and confers great benefits on the U.S. economy have attracted much support. However, evidence that demand for dollars from official reserve managers forces unsustainable U.S. current account or fiscal deficits is not strong. The so-called exorbitant privilege is small or shared. In 2008 and again in 2020, the Federal Reserve demonstrated a willingness and capacity to backstop the global domain of the dollar. Politics could constrain the Fed’s ability to backstop the growing share of the domain of the dollar accounted for by countries that are not on such friendly terms with the U.S.

Accepting Regional Zero: Nuclear Weapon Free Zones, U.S. Nonproliferation Policy and Global Security, 1957–1968

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Stocker
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Nuclear Weapon ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nuclear Nonproliferation ◽  
Nuclear Strategy ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Over Time

Nuclear weapon free zones (NWFZs) were an important development in the history of nuclear nonproliferation efforts. From 1957 through 1968, when the Treaty of Tlatelolco was signed, the United States struggled to develop a policy toward NWFZs in response to efforts around the world to create these zones, including in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Many within the U.S. government initially rejected the idea of NWFZs, viewing them as a threat to U.S. nuclear strategy. However, over time, a preponderance of officials came to see the zones as advantageous, at least in certain areas of the world, particularly Latin America. Still, U.S. policy pertaining to this issue remained conservative and reactive, reflecting the generally higher priority given to security policy than to nuclear nonproliferation.

The Clinton Administration and Africa: White House Involvement and the Foreign Affairs Bureaucracies

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-13
Author(s):  
John F. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Clinton Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Central Intelligence Agency ◽  
Intelligence Agency ◽  
White House ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

Both continuity and change capture the evolving role of the Clinton White House in the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy toward Africa. Elements of continuity are reflected in a familiar pattern of relationships between the White House and the principal foreign policy bureaucracies, most notably the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and more recently the U.S. Department of Commerce. As cogently argued in Peter J. Schraeder’s analysis of U.S. foreign policy toward Africa during the Cold War era, the White House has tended to take charge of U.S. African policies only in those relatively rare situations perceived as crises by the president and his closest advisors. In other, more routine situations—the hallmark of the myriad of U.S. African relations—the main foreign policy bureaucracies have been at the forefront of policy formulation, and “bureaucratic dominance” of the policymaking process has prevailed. Much the same pattern is visible in the Clinton administration, with the exception of President Clinton’s trip to Africa in 1998. Until that time, events in Somalia in 1993 served as the only true African crisis of the administration that was capable of focusing the ongoing attention of President Clinton and his closest advisors. Given that the United States is now disengaged from most African crises, Africa has remained a “backwater” for the White House and the wider foreign policymaking establishment.

The Most-Favored-Nation Policy in Relation to Trade Agreements

1939 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-423
Author(s):  
Francis B. Sayre
Keyword(s):  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Trade Barriers ◽  
Most Favored Nation ◽  
Economic Stability ◽  
Foreign Markets ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Advantage ◽  
The One

The virulent disease which has been attacking and crippling international trade, particularly since 1929, has manifested itself in two different forms. The one is mounting trade barriers, which tend to fence off nation from nation and thus effectively to check the flow of world trade. The other is the practice of discrimination, which nations are using in increasing degree to force markets out of the hands of their competitors or to gain political advantage of one kind or another. If economic stability is to be won and the peace of the world to be made secure, it is just as necessary to overcome the one as the other.The Trade Agreements Act was passed by Congress for the purpose “of expanding foreign markets for the products of the United States.” It is clear that the accomplishment of this purpose necessitates a program with a two-fold objective. The program must seek, first, the reduction or elimination of excessive trade barriers; and second, the elimination of trade discriminations.

The Detraditionalization of Intimacy Reconsidered

2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Gross
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Relationships ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sexual Intimacy ◽  
Moral Communities ◽  
Cultural Frameworks ◽  
The World ◽  
Relative Decline ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
The U.S

This essay challenges those strains of contemporary social theory that regard romantic/ sexual intimacy as a premier site of detraditionalization in the late modern era. Striking changes have occurred in intimacy and family life over the last half-century, but the notion of detraditionalization as currently formulated does not capture them very well. With the goal of achieving a more refined understanding, the article proposes a distinction between “regulative” and “meaning-constitutive” traditions. The former involve threats of exclusion from various moral communities; the latter involve linguistic and cultural frameworks within which sense is made of the world. Focusing on the U.S. case and marshaling various kinds of empirical evidence, the article argues that while the regulative tradition of what it terms lifelong, internally stratified marriage has declined in strength in recent years, the image of the form of couplehood inscribed in this regulative tradition continues to function as a hegemonic ideal in many American intimate relationships. Intimacy in the United States also remains beholden to the tradition of romantic love. That these meaning-constitutive traditions continue to play a central role in structuring contemporary intimacy suggests that detraditionalization involves the relative decline only of certain regulative traditions, a point that calls into question some of the normative assessments that often accompany the detraditionalization thesis.

scholarly journals The Collapse of the Appellate Body as a Determining Factor of the WTO’s Future

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-255
Author(s):  
Hryhorii M. Kalachyhin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Regulation ◽  
Trade Disputes ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
The World ◽  
Shifting Balance ◽  
Wto Appellate Body ◽  
The U.S

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the leading institutions involved in global economic regulation. Its purposes are to ensure multilateral cooperation on the liberalization of international trade, harmonize existing standards and requirements, and peacefully resolve trade disputes between countries. Since 11 December 2019, dispute resolution has been handicapped due to the consistent blocking of the appointment of members to the WTO Appellate Body (AB) by the United States. This has reduced the multilateral trading system’s (MTS) predictability and threatens its final decay. In this article, the fundamental and formal causes of the collapse are described, and its circumvention mechanisms and effectiveness are discussed. At the same time, an assessment is given of the possibility to overcome the collapse in 2021, considering the change of the U.S. president and other events. Special attention is paid to Russia’s position and its current and potential losses. Finally, the issue of dispute resolution through regional trade agreements is proposed for discussion. The fundamental reasons for the collapse were the shifting balance of power in the world order and the WTO’s inflexibility in adjusting the rulebook and its procedures. The main reasons for the U.S.’ dissatisfaction are objective but based on formalities; the blockage of the AB is an overreaction. Moreover, the U.S.’ position on this issue has not changed with the new president. As a result, there is abuse of the current situation as WTO members file appeals “into the void.” Existing tools to circumvent the collapse are partial and not yet popular among WTO members. Russia needs to resume the AB’s work to complete previously started high-profile disputes and to defend its interests in the future.

scholarly journals World trade and regional trade orientation in the context of forthcoming transatlantic trade and investment partnership

Equilibrium ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Czarny ◽  
Paweł Folfas
Keyword(s):  
World Trade ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
The World ◽  
Trade And Investment ◽  
The U.S ◽  
The Eu

We analyse potential consequences of the forthcoming Trade and Investment Partnership between the European Union and the United States (TTIP) for trade orientation of both partners. We do it so with along with the short analysis of the characteristics of the third wave of regionalism and the TTIP position in this process as well as the dominant role of the EU and the U.S. in the world economy – especially – in the world trade. Next, we study trade orientation of the hypothetical region created in result of TTIP. We use regional trade introversion index (RTII) to analyze trade between the EU and the U.S. that has taken place until now to get familiar with the potential changes caused by liberalization of trade between both partners. We analyze RTII for mutual trade of the EU and the U.S. Then, we apply disaggregated data to analyze and compare selected partial RTII (e.g. for trade in final and intermediate goods as well as goods produced in the main sectors of economy like agriculture or manufacturing). The analysis of the TTIP region’s orientation of trade based on the historical data from the period 1999-2012 revealed several conclusions. Nowadays, the trade between the EU and the U.S. is constrained by the protection applied by both partners. Trade liberalization constituting one necessary part of TTIP will surely help to intensify this trade. The factor of special concern is trade of agricultural products which is most constrained and will hardly be fully liberalized even within a framework of TTIP. Simultaneously, both parties are even now trading relatively intensively with intermediaries, which are often less protected than the average of the economy for the sake of development of final goods’ production. The manufactured goods are traded relatively often as well, mainly in consequence of their poor protection after many successful liberalization steps in the framework of GATT/WTO. Consequently, we point out that in many respects the TTIP will be important not only for its participants, but for the whole world economy as well. TTIP appears to be an economic and political project with serious consequences for the world economy and politics.

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