COVID-19 and Global Supply Chain Configuration: Economic and Emissions Impacts of Australia-China Trade Disruptions

Economic shocks from COVID-19, coupled with ongoing US-China tensions, have raised debates around supply chain (or global value chain) organisation, with China at the centre of the storm. However, quantitative studies that consider the global and economy-wide impacts of rerouting supply chains are limited. This study examines the economic and emissions impacts of reorganising supply chains, using Australia-China trade as an example. It augments the Hypothetical Extraction Method by replacing traditional Input-Output analysis with a Computable General Equilibrium analysis. The estimation results demonstrate that in both exports and imports, a trade embargo between Australia and China – despite being compensated for by alternative supply chains—will cause gross domestic production losses and emissions increases for both countries and the world overall. Moreover, even though all other economies gain from the markets left by China, many of them incur overall gross domestic production losses and emission increases. The finding that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and India may also suffer from an Australia-China trade embargo, despite a gain in trade volume, suggests that no country should add fuel to the fire. The results suggest that countries need to defend a rules-based trading regime and jointly address supply chain challenges.

The Human Capital Legacy of a Trade Embargo

We estimate the effects of in-utero exposure to a trade embargo on survival and human capital in an import-dependent developing country. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that a nearly comprehensive embargo imposed by India on Nepal in 1989 led to a large decline in reported live births, and increased early life mortality. The decline in births is concentrated in poorer, more remote districts, and is sharper for female births than male births, consistent with documented gender discrimination. Women survivors of exposure are more educated in adulthood than unexposed cohorts.

US-Cuban Musical Relations before and after the Revolution

Chapter One provides the history and context for the rest of the book. The United States and Cuba had a vibrant musical relationship before the Cuban Revolution. When the United States instituted a trade embargo and travel ban on Cuba, musicians continued to seek opportunities for cultural exchange and pushed the boundaries of what travel policies permitted. The chapter outlines how the US-Cuban relationship has changed under various US Presidents, and how musical exchanges have been both stifled and briefly sanctioned under different administrations.

Wizygoci w rejonie Bałkanów w teorii i praktyce politycznej dworów późnego cesarstwa rzymskiego

From the half of the 4-th century to the end of the 4-th century a tribe of Goths – Westgoths, played a significant role in the politics of the Eastern and Western Roman Empire courts. Activities of the emperor valens against Goths showed that regardless of military measures, an equally effective form of compulsion could also be economic actions. It was supported by an exceptional effectiveness of the trade embargo which use turned out to be much more effective measure which forced the barbarians to the obedience than acts of war. The initial politics of containment of the Goths invasion within the framework of the so called Gothic „wars” exercised by Valens was replaced by politic of opening of the borders of the Empire for Gothic immigrants in hope of strengthening of the Roman army with conscription of barbarous recruits. Lack of ability of mastering the crowds of newcomers and providing them a basis for peaceful existence ended with the tra-gedy at Adrianople in 378. A treaty of alliance of 382 seemingly met the expecta­tions of both Parties, but for a short time only. Some attempts of the revision of the conditions of the treaty to the advantage of the Goths appeared as early as for a de­cade later. The key problem of the politics of the imperial courts in the Balkans at the turn of 4th and 5th century was the activity of the Visigothic king Alaricus who superbly made use of disagreements between Ravenna and Constantinople. Moreover, he made use of opportunities resulting from bestowing him a few times the rank of Roman magister militum. A controversial and still unexplained issue is, if Alaricus became the magister militum per Illyricum, already in 395 as result of negotiations with Rufin. Next disputable issue is, in which degree the ruler of the Visigoths led his own deliberate politics, and in which degree he remained a tool in hands of the politicians of the Eastern and Western Roman courts.

Trade Embargo as a Geopolitical Tool: A Case of Nepal-India Trade Relations

As interdependence grows, economic issues are increasingly political in their nature and impact, and political issues are increasingly economic. The interdependence is acute in issues that relate to international trade, and especially in the case of landlocked countries. Nepal is one such land-locked country, being between India and China, whose economy depends on the trade relations with its neighbouring countries. Two-thirds of Nepalese trade depends on India. The article presents a summary of Nepal-India trade cooperation, primarily the Nepalese dependence in trade and transit route to India and its effects. It also presents an overview of the trade pattern between the two countries and focuses on the trade embargoes by India. The article analyses the reason behind the embargoes of 1969, 1989 and 2015 and how the situations have been resolved. The embargoes imposed by India on Nepal seem to be more political in nature and their impacts are both political and economic. The Indian embargoes in Nepal follow an objective of compliance, deterrence and subversion. By analysing India’s pursuance of trade embargoes against Nepal, the article reaffirms that landlocked nations such as Nepal are susceptible to manipulation by geopolitical threats since neighbouring countries adjust trade ties or use trade ties to fulfil their political, security and economic interests.

Ukrainian rebels gain leverage from illicit coal sales

Subject Coal exports from eastern Ukraine. Significance Ukraine's rebel regions began exporting coal eastwards to Russia after Kyiv imposed a ban on trade with them in March. Now coal exports are being routed via Russia and Belarus to EU member states, although Poland has promised to stop buying illicit coal after the Ukrainian government complained. Impacts The loss of the coal trade is reducing Kyiv's economic and hence political leverage over the DNR and LNR. Kyiv's trade embargo has backfired and created economic difficulties for Ukraine. Enriched by the coal trade, the DNR and LNR are likely to become more independent from both Ukraine and Russia.