Effect of the Utilization of Unilateral Trade Preferences on Foreign Direct Investment flows to Beneficiary Countries

This article has explored the effect of non-reciprocal trade preferences (NRTPs) offered by the QUAD countries to developing countries on the foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to these developing countries. The analysis has used an unbalanced panel dataset of 108 beneficiary countries of NRTPs over the period 2002-2019. By means of the two-step system GMM, it has established that low utilization rates of GSP programs are associated with greater FDI flows to less advanced beneficiary countries, including, least developed countries (LDCs). However, high utilization rates of GSP programs induces greater FDI flows to advanced beneficiary countries, including NonLDCs. In addition, low (high) utilization rates of other trade preferences generate higher FDI flows to less advanced beneficiary countries (relatively advanced countries). The analysis has also shown that GSP programs and other trade preferences are strongly complementary in enhancing FDI inflows, especially for high utilization rates of other trade preferences programs. The utilization of each of these two blocks of NRTPs induces greater FDI flows to countries that endeavour to export increasingly complex products, or those with lower dependence on natural resources. Finally, the utilization of NRTPs generates higher FDI inflows to countries that substantially liberalize their trade regimes. JEL Classification: F13; F14; F20.

On the economic thought of trade practices and policies in Kenya

This study explains trade regimes in Kenya from a History of Economic Thought (HET) perspective using secondary materials (books, papers, and original manuscripts). We found that the pre-colonial era (before 1895) had a mixture of Classical doctrines and Mercantilism, whereby long-distance and barter trade between communities were practiced. Nonetheless, certain communities restricted trade. Classical economic thought was practiced in the colonial period (1895-1962), whereby agricultural produce was exported and less expensive consumables were imported. The post-colonial period started with a Mercantilism approach (Importsubstitution), but successive regimes have promoted Classical doctrines of trade by reducing import and export barriers and creating trade-promotion institutions. Trade in services, which is topical in international trade, has also been promoted in this regime.

The Lure and Challenges of the Automobile Industry

The automobile industry simultaneously entices and challenges developing countries. It is a leading employer, a major trader, and a crucial integrator of manufacturing technologies. Would-be entrants into the industry face formidable challenges, however: high entry barriers, demanding quality requirements, and (for components producers) assemblers’ expectations that component producers will be able to co-locate with their plants. Only 15 of the world’s largest auto components manufacturers come from outside Europe, Japan, or North America. Changes in technology and regional and global trade regimes have consolidated the industry and reduced the availability of policy instruments. Nonetheless, opportunities exist for developing economies, not least because of the potential for integration into regional and global supply chains. Most of the growth in demand for autos is concentrated in the developing world. Less developed countries on the periphery of major markets have substantially increased their share of global output over the last two decades.

To Trade or Not to Trade? Using Bayesian Belief Networks to Assess How to Manage Commercial Wildlife Trade in a Complex World

International commercial trade in wildlife, whether legal or illegal, is one of the greatest threats to multiple species of wildlife today. Opinions on how to address it are deeply divided across the conservation community. Approaches fall into two broad categories: making the trade illegal to protect against any form of commercial trade or allowing some or all of the trade to be legal and seeking to manage it through sustainable trade. The conservation community is often deeply polarized on which is the better option. We posit that a way to choose between these options is by considering species-specific attributes of biological productivity, management context, and demand. We develop a conceptual framework to assess which option is more likely to result in successful conservation of a species. We show how to construct a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) to model how these attributes (1) interact to affect the sustainability of the species’ population and (2) vary under different trade management regimes. This approach can support scientifically based decision-making, by predicting the likely sustainability outcome for a population of a species under different trade management regimes, given its particular characteristics and context. The BBN allows identification of key points at which conservation interventions could change the potential outcome. It also provides the opportunity to explore how different assumptions about how humans might respond to different trade regimes affects outcomes. We illustrate these ideas by using the BBN for a hypothetical terrestrial mammal species population and discuss how the BBN can be extended for species with different characteristics, for example, those that can be stockpiled or when there are multiple products. This approach has the potential to help the conservation community to assess the most appropriate regime for managing wildlife trade in a transparent, open, and scientifically based way.

The international politics of amour propre: Revisiting Rousseau’s place in international relations theory

Realism, constructivism, and liberal institutionalism share the assumption that states are rational and self-maximizing actors. While these theories disagree as to whether states prioritize military power or economic wealth, they converge around the notion that states pursue these goods rationally and predictably. Complaints against and threats of defection from prominent international security and trade regimes, including NATO and the EU, raise doubts about states’ rationality and predictability. Perhaps these theories’ shared assumption about rational action has become an impediment to understanding state behavior and institutional cooperation. To enrich and to expand the conversation within international political theory, my article turns to Rousseau’s international political thought. Rousseau anticipates central arguments in each of the major traditions of IR theory but locates political self-interest in the sub-rational passion amour propre rather than in reason itself. Rousseau exemplifies a more nuanced way to understand the irrational roots of political motivation and the limits of international order. My paper traces the international implications of amour propre through Rousseau’s key texts on international politics and turns to his “Letter to Philopolis” as a way to re-frame Rousseau’s account of political responsibility.

Agriculture of the Australian Union: Challenges, Responses, Tasks Ahead

The article analyses the current state of agriculture industry in the Australian Union. It examines the impact of miscellaneous factors, such as natural disasters, climate conditions, the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the establishment of regional free trade regimes, as well as the degree of their implementation. The paper reveals the specificity of the entry of Australian agriculture products into the markets of China, South Korea and Japan along with the development of agriculture in Australia and the efforts made by the Australian government and business community to overcome the troubles the industry suffered from in 2018-2020. In the authors’ opinion, the growing tensions in trade and economic relations between the Australian Union and the PRC affect the overall situation of Australian agriculture. In its turn, this incentivizes Canberra to explore new sources of agriculture product sales and expand cooperation with other partners.

Taxation of Digital Services Under Trade Agreements

ABSTRACT The digitalization of the economy combined with sophisticated tax planning has enabled some multinationals to avoid paying almost any income tax in most market jurisdictions from which they earn substantial profits. Faced with financial and political pressures to act, market states have sought to expand their tax bases so that these multinationals, especially those providing internet advertising and digital intermediation services, pay their ‘fair’ share of tax. The failure to reach an agreed outcome among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and Group of Twenty members has led to an increasing number of states to take unilateral measures. In doing so, states need to navigate their obligations under double taxation agreements and trade agreements. An examination of typical double taxation agreements, the General Agreement on Trade in Services, and recent preferential trade agreements shows that states have limited options to expand their tax bases in compliance with their international obligations. Here, the imposition of an appropriately designed digital services tax has political and legal advantages. The growing volume of cross-border digital services and data flows suggests that greater engagement between the international tax and trade regimes is likely in the future, including in the negotiations of disciplines on electronic commerce.

Multinational Corporations and the Politics of International Trade in Multidisciplinary Perspective

From the technical analyses of wide ranges of scholars to the public discourse backlashes against globalization, there is a huge volume of work historicizing, quantifying, and problematizing the complex role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in international trade. The body of literature is so large that most readers rely on disciplinary boundaries to narrow the catalog, causing them to miss out on important synergies across fields. By bringing the work of historians, lawyers, and political scientists working on MNCs and international trade into conversation, we offer an expanded perspective. Our collective contribution highlights the political dimensions of MNCs within the frameworks of global economic governance, in which corporations seek to influence trade policies amid rising protectionism and coordinate their activities within industry associations while regulators struggle to hold MNC parent companies accountable to international human rights violations across their value chains. Especially in this moment of re-evaluation — and possible de-globalization following the shock of COVID-19 — our multidisciplinary analysis explains how MNCs exerted political power over trade regimes in the past, by what means they seek to shape regulatory frameworks in the present, and what the possible futures might be for big business operations in a more or less global economy.