scholarly journals Labor market in conditions of COVID-19 pandemic: EU vs. USA

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 13-33
Author(s):  
Nevena Jolović

Since March 2020, the global labor market has been exposed to exceptional shocks due to the outbreak of a global pandemic - Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The COVID-19 crisis has threatened subjects and shaken relations in labor markets around the world, and employment levels in the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA) have begun to oscillate significantly. The aim of the research is to review the trends observed in the labor markets of the EU and the USA during the first and second quarters of 2020, and to review the projections of eminent authors related to future trends in the mentioned markets. The analysis of the unemployment rate, as well as the policies and measures taken by the EU and USA governments in order to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic, were used in making the final assessment which of these systems suffered more damage, and which of them responded more adequately to crisis. The descriptive and comparative method, analysis and synthesis technique, as well as content analysis of available domestic and foreign literature, were used for research purposes. The result of the research is reflected in the observation that both the EU and the USA responded to the economic and social emergency, and through a number of initiatives supported employees and companies in their labor markets in a timely manner. Finally, the so-far analysis results show that after the first six months of 2020 the American labor market has been much more affected by the pandemic than the European labor market.

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 226-235
Author(s):  
O. Khlopov

The article is devoted to the study of energy problems in the foreign policy of the EU and the United States. The analysis of the paper is formed on a cognitive approach in analyzing the foreign policy making process and explores the relationship between energy and foreign policy of the EU and the USA. Based on the comparative method, the study races the role of the energy factor in shaping the foreign policy of the European Union and the United States. Although the US is the world's largest hydrocarbon producer and net exporter of energy, mainly due to its shale deposits, the EU remains the world's largest energy importer. This significant difference provides an opportunity to compare the role of energy in the foreign policy process of the two participants with completely different potential for the production and export, mostly of hydrocarbon resources. The author argues that the energy security strategies of both actors are based on interaction of material and ideological factors, but they have different ideas about the interests that generate their foreign policy behavior.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-59
Author(s):  
Viktoriya Mashkara-Choknadiy ◽  
Yuriy Mayboroda

The pandemic of COVID-19 has influenced all sectors of social life, including the global economy and trade relations. The year of 2020 was marked with significant changes in internal and foreign economic policy of almost all nations. The purpose of the paper is to study the measures taken by the EU and the USA as the world's leading economies to regulate their foreign trade in the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The tasks of the study are to show the influence of the crisis on changes of global trade policy in front of the threat to national security. Methodology. The study is based on the results of statistical analysis of data provided the WTO and the UNCTAD. The authors show an analytical assessment of the foreign trade indicators of the EU and the USA. Methods of comparison and generalization were used to formulate conclusions on regulatory trends in foreign trade of the US and the EU. Results allowed identifying specific features and changes in the regulation of foreign trade of the EU and the US, assessing the impact of the pandemic on their foreign trade. It was found that both mentioned players of the world economy have actively introduced both deterrent and liberalization measures during 2020, which were aimed at providing the domestic market with scarce COVID-related goods. The study shows the transition from export restricting to import liberalizing measures in foreign trade policies from the start of pandemic to the late 2020. Practical implications. Understanding and predicting the possible actions of partners (the US and the EU in this case) in the field of foreign trade regulation is an important practical aspect, which has to be taken into account when developing Ukraine's foreign trade policy. Value/originality. The study of foreign trade policy of the world's leading countries allows us to understand the behavior of governments of the countries that are largely dependent on participation in international trade in their development, to draw conclusions about the most common instruments of foreign trade policy in the time of humanitarian and economic crises.


Author(s):  
Michael Smith ◽  
Rebecca Steffenson

This chapter examines the evolution of the European Union's relations with the United States. More specifically, it looks at the ways in which EU–US relations enter into the international relations of the EU as well as the implications for key areas of the EU's growing international activity. The chapter begins with an overview of the changing shape and focus of the EU–US relationship as it enters into economic, political, and security questions. It then considers the impact of EU–US relations on the EU's system of international relations, on the EU's role in the processes of international relations, and on the EU's position as a ‘power’ in international relations. It shows that the EU–US relationship has played a key (and contradictory) role in development of the EU's foreign policy mechanisms.


2020 ◽  
pp. 114-136
Author(s):  
Vladimir Chernega ◽  

The article considers the views existing in France on the prospects of the European Union becoming a «political power» and the appearance in it of its own military instrument. It is noted that, in the opinion of most French politicians, experts and journalists, the EU is still far from being a full-pledged political subject. Although political and military structures are formed in it, as a kind of «embrio» of quasi statehood, and a «neo-imperial» tendency already exists in it, basically the EU is an economic and «civilian» power which must fight for influence on the international arena only with the help of «soft power». The main reason of its weakness is its internal friability, disagreements between Members States over its future. In addition, the United States, which are not interested in a new global rival, are hampering the achievement of the self-sufficiency, especially in the military-political share. NATO, controlled by the USA, can only allow the creation of a «European pillar» under its umbrella. Eastern European countries are against military integration of the EU, because they are oriented not by Brussels, but by Washington in the security field. However, the rise of China and the election of the nationalist Donald Trump as a President of the United States strengthened the trend in the EU advocating its political independence and the creation of its own «European defence». The article analyzes the initiatives and actions of French President Emmanuel Macron who personifies this trend. It is stated that, with the help of Germany, he managed to achieve certain progress both in terms of general integration and in the field of «European defence». This allowed him to speak about the formation of a «European army». But the question of whether he will be able to go further remains open. Besides the obstacles to political and military integration, which did not disappear, the coronavirus pandemic introduces its «corrections». The newly discovered split in the EU into «South» and «North» called into question its already fragile construction.


Author(s):  
Ruth A. Bevan

The basic thesis of this paper is that Southeast Asia will be the crucible and the testing ground for a new Euro-American partnership. Both the United States and the European Union have vital interests in Southeast Asia. These interests certainly involve economics. They definitely concern security issues. And, for both the United States and the European Union, though for similar reasons differently nuanced, these interests aspire to the realm of ideals and idealism, of norms and normativism.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Petros C. Mavroidis ◽  
Kamal Saggi

Abstract ‘The US won a $7.5 Billion award from the World Trade Organization against the European Union, who has for many years treated the USA very badly on Trade due to Tariffs, Trade Barriers, and more. This case going on for years, a nice victory’, tweeted President Trump on 3 October 2019. The United States (US) won not only the highest amount of retaliation ever adjudicated in the history of the WTO but also an ongoing right to retaliate on an annual basis until such time as the EU had complied by either removing the subsidies it granted Airbus or somehow neutralizing their adverse effects on Boeing. In light of the facts of the case, this ruling has two major shortcomings. First, in sharp contrast with the statutory language and practice until now, the Arbitrator effectively introduced a permanent liability rule into the WTO system through the backdoor. Second, given the way the decision and the associated award has been written, it is simply impossible for the EU to comply because (a) the contested subsidies are no longer in existence and (b) no guidance has been provided on how the EU might go about removing their adverse effects on Boeing if it sought to achieve compliance. Thus, in all likelihood, the EU is saddled with a ruling that obligates it to cough up an annual sum of $7.5 billion USD for an indefinite time period.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 807-823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nik Theodore ◽  
Derick Blaauw ◽  
Catherina Schenck ◽  
Abel Valenzuela Jr. ◽  
Christie Schoeman ◽  
...  

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare conditions in informal day-labor markets in South Africa and the USA to better understand the nature of worker vulnerabilities in this market, as well as the economic conditions that have contributed to the growth of day labor. The conclusion considers interventions that are underway in the two countries to improve conditions in day-labor markets. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on national surveys of day laborers in South Africa and the USA. A random sample of day laborers seeking work at informal hiring sites was undertaken in each country. The paper presents key findings, compares conditions in South Africa and the USA, and analyzes the relationship between economic change, labor-market dynamics, and worker vulnerability. Findings – Day-labor work is characterized by low pay, hazardous conditions on the job, and tremendous income insecurity. The day-labor markets in South Africa and the USA perform somewhat different functions within regional economies. Within South Africa, day labor can be regarded as a survival strategy. The growth of day labor in South Africa over the past decade is a manifestation of a formal labor market that is incapable of absorbing the structurally unemployed. Here, day labor is the employment of last resort, allowing workers to subsist on the fringes of the mainstream economy, but offering few pathways into the formal sector. In the USA, the day labor workforce is a largely undocumented-immigrant workforce. Workers seek work at informal hiring sites, maintaining a tenuous hold on jobs in the construction industry. There is evidence of some mobility into more stable and better paying employment. Practical implications – This paper documents the need for policies and programs to increase employment opportunities for day laborers and to better enforce labor standards in the informal economy. Originality/value – This paper summarizes findings from the only two national surveys of day laborers that have been conducted, and it compares for the first time the dynamic within growing day-labor markets in a developed- and emerging-market context.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 109-125
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Andrzejczak-Świątek

The aim of this article is to analyse the international legal and political process of reconciliation between Serbia and Kosovo in terms of its impact on the scope of development directions and strategies of the European Union countries as well as Russia and the USA. Particular emphasis was placed on the treatment of these issues in the light of the activities of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office. The main theses assumed for the purposes of this article are as follows: firstly, that the policy of reconciliation between Serbia and Kosovo is multidimensional, including the necessity of the process of international criminal liability for the crimes committed by both states, while at the same time influencing the dilemmas of the development directions of individual European countries, but also of the European Union and the United States. In addition, the legal and political stabilization of the Balkan region, especially in the context of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and the possibility of cooperation with these states as part of intergovernmental international organizations, is strategically extremely important for the EU, the USA, as well as for Russia. The Author critically analyses issues using polemics with the standpoint presented in the doctrine of the subject as well as interpreting selected instruments of international law and Kosovo’s national law. The deliberations resulted in conclusions as to the determinants in terms of the directions of the legal and political development of the EU and Russia resulting from the complicated process of reconciliation and mutual settlement of sins by Serbia and Kosovo.


Author(s):  
Michael Smith

This chapter examines the United States’ transatlantic relationship with the European integration project and its implications for US foreign policy. In particular, it considers the ways in which US policy makers have developed images of the European Community (EC) and later the European Union (EU) on the challenges posed by European integration for US policy processes and the uses of US power. The chapter first explores key factors in the evolution of the relationship within US foreign policy up to the end of the Cold War before discussing trends and tensions in the period between 1990 and 2016 covering the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. It also analyzes the impact of Donald Trump’s policies on US relations with the EU before concluding with an assessment of a number of wider questions about the future of the US–EU relations.


2019 ◽  
pp. 316-322
Author(s):  
M. HADDAD

The article is devoted to the study of foreign policy strategies of the main actors of the world politics, represented by the USA and the countries of the European Union, regarding the Middle East and the Syrian Arab Republic. The interest in this topic is explained by the particular attractiveness of the Middle East region for the above-mentioned actors, since it has significant economic and transport potential and a favorable geographical position, which opens up opportunities for establishing strong partnership trade and economic ties between the US and the EU on the one hand and Middle Eastern states on the other. At the same time, the Middle East, as a region of increased military-political and social tension, directly influences peace and security situation in the entire world, and because of that the most developed countries of the world seek to establish control over the internal politics in the Middle East and spread their influence on its territory. The author pays great attention to the study of factors that have contributed to the formation of certain US and EU foreign policy courses in respect of the entire Middle East and Syria in particular, and comes to the conclusion that all of them can conditionally be divided into several large groups that equally affect the development process strategies. Their comparison allowed us to establish that in general both the USA and the countries of the European Union have similar perspective goals and objectives, however, they use different methods and forms of implementing their strategies. This explains the difference in the results achieved: while the United States successfully implement their geopolitical aspirations and gradually strengthen their presence in the Middle East, the EU countries are faced with a number of problems that impede their participation in the current regional events. Nevertheless, despite the successes and failures, the importance of the Middle East region for both the United States and the EU is beyond doubt.


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