Contemporary Foreign Trade Policy of China in the Region of Central and Northeast Asia

China is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. To ensure a continual increase in trade, China's contemporary policies are aimed at the creation of new market opportunities for China's companies abroad. The chapter addresses the major challenges of collaboration between China and the countries of Central and Northeast Asia, reviews the milestones of China's trade policies in Eurasia, analyses China's recent trade and development initiative (One Belt One Road project) and its convergence with other integration initiatives in the region, and reviews trade flows between China and the countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and Northeast Asia (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and the Republic of Korea) during 2015. The chapter is concluded with an analysis of how China can pursue shaping an inter-regional market by looking across national boundaries and with the discussion of structural changes needed for China to ensure its competitiveness in the markets of the studied country.

Trade Competitiveness in Developing Countries

This chapter explores the various dimensions of trade competitiveness in developing countries. After discussing various definitions of competitiveness, the importance of trade competitiveness is discussed in the context of developing countries with reference to the existing literature. Subsequently, major constraints that affect trade competitiveness, particularly macroeconomic conditions, institutional and business environments, and infrastructure, are discussed. Finally, recent empirical findings on trade competitiveness are summarized.

Who Benefits From Regional Economic Integration?

This chapter analyses ASEAN as an example of regional economic integration throughout the decades. ASEAN was founded as a means of stability in a region with great threats to regional security. Its member states could hardly vary more in terms of economic impact, political systems, and culture. Nonetheless, ASEAN became one of the most vibrant economic regions in the world following its own ASEAN Way. This chapter analyzes the shift from a security-focused functional community toward a successful economic cooperation. Since its formation, ASEAN's development was driven by its rhetorical strength rather than the actual implementation of measures. Nonetheless, as of today, ASEAN managed to partly overcome this rhetoric dilemma, becoming the third largest market worldwide.

Analyzing the Impact of Oil Price Fluctuations on Vietnam Stock Market

This chapter covers a study that was conducted to find out the impact of crude oil prices on the Vietnam stock market in the period from March 2006 to June 2015 by using the autoregressive-distributed lag (ARDL) model with dummy variables of the economic crisis. The results revealed that the crude oil prices had positive impacts on VN-Index and HNX-Index in short-run, but negatively in long-run. In addition, the study also found that the economic crisis has affected the relationship between the crude oil prices and the stock market index in the short-run. During the crisis period, the crude oil prices related to the VN-Index and HNX-index more closely than the other stages. However, in the long-run the relationship between oil prices and stock market index was not affected by the economic crisis.

Relationship Between Non-Performing Loans, Industry, and Economic Growth of the African Economies and Policy Recommendations for Global Growth

The main purpose of this chapter is to evaluate the causality relationship between non-performing loans, industry volume, and economic growth and to provide some policy recommendations for global growth. Within this context, annual data of 16 African countries for the periods between 2001 and 2015 was taken into the consideration. Additionally, Dumitrescu Hurlin panel causality test was used to reach the objective. According to the result of this analysis, it was identified that there is a causality relationship between industry volume and economic growth. In addition to this situation, it was also defined that a decrease in economic growth is the main cause of the non-performing loans ratio in African countries. This chapter makes an important contribution to the literature. While considering these results, it can be said that to increase global trade economies of the countries should be improved and banking sectors should work more effectively. As a result, it will be possible to increase the living standards of the people and provide global growth.

The Status of Foreign Trades Under Globalization in Developing and Developed Countries With Turkey

In Turkey, the volume of foreign trade, which was very small in the first years of the republic, raised due to the increasing population and the reviving economy. Imports and exports for Turkey, the proportion of equipment, investment goods, and raw materials that would have been used for industrialization has increased. Another type of trade that is desired to be implemented in Turkey in recent years is free trade. The implementations for free trade also bring the question together with themselves. Does globalization always affect developing countries in a positive correlation with their economies? The data taken from KOF Index of Globalization from ETH Zurich are going to be used to see the relationship with the data coming from imports and exports. Then for all developing countries a classification study is done and the relation of developing countries and Turkey is examined. The purpose of the chapter is to examine the number of imports and exports due to globalization indexes to understand the real impact and the direction of globalization from the perspective of Turkey.

Importance of Market Diversification in Foreign Trade

It is of great importance for developing countries to diversify their markets and products in their exports and imports in order to achieve stable foreign trade and economic growth. This chapter presents lessons that developing countries need to learn from the foreign trade experiences of Turkey. In this context, the foreign trade experiences of Turkey in the 1970-2016 period, the good practices that Turkey has implemented in this respect, topics that Turkey has made mistakes, and the issues that Turkey has suffered are examined with the help of tables and graphs. The most remarkable point in the chapter is the necessity of diversifying countries and markets in the foreign trade because foreign trade has close interaction with political and economic developments and it is always possible that existing markets are being lost or difficulties arise in existing supply sources.

An Analysis of Trade of the Eurasian Economic Union

After the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union in 2015, the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space between Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan represented two of the most important regional integration projects launched in the post-Soviet era. However, even though institutions, customs unions, and a common economic space have been established, it has become a matter of debate whether this union is effective in developing trade between the member countries. Russia has enormous power in terms of its share of the trade within the EEU. This shows Russia has economic dominance in the union. This is also the subject of debate about whether the union's members, except Russia, benefit from the customs union. In this chapter, the answers to these questions have been investigated by evaluating the commercial activities and macroeconomic variables of the member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The Eurasian Economic Union in the Context of Transformation of the International Trade System

The EEU was created to strengthen the national economies and capabilities of the member states in global economy by creating the so-called “four freedoms”: the free movement of goods, services, capital, and persons. At this stage, the EEU is involved in the creation of free trade zones with countries outside the borders of the Eurasian post-Soviet space that was a reaction of the Eurasian Economic Union on new trends in international trade and the crisis of the WTO. The aim of this chapter is to analyze the internal and external contours of the Eurasian integration in economic and trade cooperation. The first part is devoted to analyzing of the historical background of the EEU creation. The second part evaluates the economic cooperation among the EEU countries. In the third part, the author focuses on the crisis of the WTO and new tendencies in international trade cooperation. And the final part examines the prospects of creation of free-trades zones between the EEU states and other countries.

Effects of Trade Liberalisation in the SEE Countries

A key factor for countries in transition is improving their export competitiveness in order to improve the economic performance of the country. The aim of this chapter is an insight into the influence of trade liberalisation within CEFTA 2006 to the member countries. Correlation analysis was used, and bilateral flows between member countries were analysed. The results show a significant influence of trade liberalisation to GDP growth, unemployment rate, public debt, and budget deficit. The results of correlation analysis are not the same for all the member countries. Greater participation in an exchange with other member countries surely would improve poor economic performances of the countries from South-East Europe. Possibilities are present for improving CEFTA 2006 through the further elimination of trade barriers and increase of total trade. The process of the accession to the EU and access to the single market is also determined by the success of CEFTA 2006.