Foreign Trade Research Articles

Container Management System in Batumi Port

Currently, the maritime economy of Georgia is developing quite rapidly. The special geopolitical position of our country in the Eurasian region, in the neighborhood of countries on the path of market reforms, forces the Georgian government to restore the infrastructure of the national economy to effectively use our territorial traditional advantages: mineral resources, free agricultural areas, a large coast, to create convenient port complexes. All this contributes to the development of modern marine transport, cargo, passenger, as well as mixed cargo-passenger complexes. Sea transport is used to transport goods between the country's ports, as well as to develop and ensure Georgia's foreign economic relations with foreign countries. As of 2015, maritime transport accounted for more than 86% of the country's export-import traffic. In 2021, sea vessels entered the ports of Georgia 370 times from 65 foreign countries, which provided more than 86% of the country's needs in foreign trade transportation. In recent years, major technical retooling of seaports has been carried out, tonnage has significantly increased, and the capacity of ships has increased. The capacity of the ships' power plants has increased, automation of several production processes on ships has been introduced, and new transport technologies have been introduced, which ensure safer and more trouble-free navigation of the fleet. The modern port system is a complex hierarchical structure that combines ship companies and fleets, navigation and information support systems, computer systems, and computer-related means of land transportation of goods. Keywords: Container management system, Batumi port, container platform, computer system.

¿Qué textos escritos se usan en el ejercicio profesional de comercio exterior en China? Análisis de necesidades para la enseñanza-aprendizaje de ELE

This article aims to identify what type of written texts are produced or translated in the professional practice of foreign trade between China and Spanish-speaking countries. Based on a needs analysis approach to teaching, a qualitative study is carried out in which, based on semi-structured interviews, information is collected from 29 participants from three groups: Spanish teachers; foreign trade teachers, and businessmen or employees dedicated to the commercial sector. The results provide a detailed image of the diversity and complexity of written uses in Spanish in this professional context: commercial, financial, legal-administrative and other protocol-type texts. These findings are essential for their implications in the teaching-learning of Spanish for specific purposes in foreign trade in the Chinese context.

Enseñanza y aprendizaje del español en las universidades japonesas

Since the Japanese people’s first encounter with the Spanish language in the 16th century, the teaching and learning of Spanish has been evolving in response to the needs of each era. Despite numerous historical challenges, interest in the Spanish language and everything related to it has increased over the years. This article examines the situations of differing historical periods to better understand the objectives for which Spanish has been studied, as well as the numerous types of teachers, students, and commonly used methodologies. To do this, various academic articles and books offering testimonies from people who lived through those periods are examined. The corpus developed by this article’s author, which includes textbooks published since the early 20th century, will also be analyzed in this article. The initial contact with the Spanish language in the 16th century was through missionary work. After a stagnation in language studies due to a period of isolationism, the need to pursue Spanish as a language resumed in the 20th century for the purposes of foreign trade and migration. The idea of learning a foreign language to enrich general culture also became important in the 20th century. The change in the type of students greatly influenced learning objectives and methodologies. We are now in a transitional period with the emergence of new technologies. However, it is important to know our history in order to reflect on the direction which Spanish teaching and learning should take in the future.

Does the service trade network impact on technological complexity of exports?——New perspective based on social network approach

ABSTRACT In the context of the digital economy, digital service trade has gradually become a new driving force for the high-quality development of foreign trade in various countries. Based on the bilateral data of digital service trade between 56 countries from 2005 to 2021, this paper constructs the global digital service trade network through social network analysis method. Also, this study examines the impact of the network characteristics on its export technology complexity. According to our research findings, first, in terms of the overall characteristics, the number of participating countries in digital service trade is increasing, and the density is overall low but showing an upward trend. Second, in terms of individual characteristics, the ranking is relatively stable, developed countries such as Europe and the United States with higher centrality, connectedness and heterogeneity are the dominant players in the digital service trade. But the indicators of each characteristic are decreasing over time, verifying the fact that the global digital service trade has become more open and inclusive. Third, we examined that centrality, connectedness, and heterogeneity all contribute significantly to export technological complexity. Technological innovation is the main path of action. The results still hold after performing a series of robustness tests.

The Impact of Economic Factors on Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Trade with BRICS Countries: A Gravity Model Approach

Our investigation, bolstered by the robust gravity trade model and panel data econometric technique, underscores the pivotal factors that influence trade interactions between Saudi Arabia and the BRICS nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The study, spanning from 1998 to 2023, delves into key economic metrics such as the gross domestic product, exchange rate fluctuations, inflationary trends, political conditions, and trade deals. We employ a range of econometric strategies, including pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and fixed effects models, to reveal that the GDP of BRICS states consistently and significantly impacts trade volumes. Specifically, a 1% increase in the GDP of partner countries correlates with a 0.37% rise in trade volume within the pooled OLS model. This effect amplifies to 1.43% when adjusting for temporal and country-specific factors in the fixed effects, underscoring the importance of accommodating unobserved heterogeneity, which refers to the unmeasured factors that can influence the relationship between GDP and trade volume. The political stability of BRICS nations mitigates transactional risks and promotes more stable trade relationships, thereby enhancing trade flows. Fluctuations in exchange rates exert positive and significant effects. This indicates that a more robust Saudi Riyal, an essential policy instrument, can enhance trade by increasing the competitiveness of Saudi exports. This study demonstrates that economic magnitude, political stability, and exchange rates affect Saudi Arabia’s trade with BRICS nations. These results bolster the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 objectives for economic diversification. This research advocates for stable political climates and strategic trade agreements to enhance trade relations. This study asserts that this approach will guarantee sustainable growth and diminish the Kingdom’s reliance on oil exports, instilling optimism in the Saudi economy.

Military conflicts and the performance of state-owned enterprises: a study of Ukraine’s aerospace, defense, and electro-engineering industries before and after the 2014 Crimea and Donbas occupation

Abstract This study addresses the under-researched role of state-owned-enterprises (SOEs) in global value chains/production networks (GVCs/GPNs). It examines how the economic performance, foreign trade, and value capture of Ukrainian firms – classified by ownership, position in GVCs/GPNs, size, and diversification of their customer base – have evolved following the Russia’s occupation of Crimea and parts of Donbas in 2014. The study reveals significant differences in the distribution of SOEs, private, and foreign enterprises between the aerospace/defence and electro-engineering industries. Overall, since the Russian aggression in 2014, the aerospace and defence industries have outperformed electro-engineering firms, largely due to strong state support. The study concludes with broader observations that while even intensive mutual trade could not prevent the war, the war does not necessarily lead to a complete cessation of mutual trade.

Influence of Socio-Economic Indicators on the Volume of Foreign Trade in the Regions

The presented paper addresses the principles of forming foreign trade volume in the regions of Russia. During the study, based on open statistical data from reports of the Federal State Statistics Service and using a data analysis tool embedded in the Excel spreadsheet program, the authors developed a regression model that includes seven factor indicators describing socio-economic criteria that are presumed to significantly influence the foreign trade volume in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. In building and evaluating the regression model, standard econometric analysis procedures were applied, including the stage of model quality assessment, during which insignificant variables were excluded based on criteria such as P-value and standard error. After performing all necessary adjustments to the obtained model, the authors conclude that the foreign trade volume of a region directly depends on its attractiveness to international migrants, the level of education development, and the volume of natural resources. The paper also highlights the limitations of the proposed model, which lie in the limited consideration of the education factor, represented only in quantitative terms and through accessibility, without accounting for the quality of education. Thus, the proposed model identifies key drivers of regional foreign trade potential growth, perceived as foreign trade volume, but requires further refinement, especially in terms of incorporating the quality of education, which will allow for more accurate determination of priority areas in regional economic policy.

Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on Global Trade and Economic Growth Amid China’s Slowing Growth

Since the inception of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s trade relations with participating nations have experienced substantial growth. This study utilises data from the World Trade Organization (WTO) covering the years 2003 to 2021 to explore the dynamics of China’s foreign trade and assess the impact of the BRI on trade interactions with China. One of the central objectives of our research is to determine whether participation in the BRI has significantly contributed to trade growth with China, thereby strengthening economic ties and fostering bilateral cooperation. Another important objective is to analyse the changes in the BRI’s role in driving global economic growth amid China’s slowing growth. Through empirical analysis using data from over 180 countries, we evaluate the heterogeneous effects of the BRI across different continents. Our findings indicate that the BRI has had the most pronounced trade-stimulating impact on the continents of America, Europe and Africa, while trade volumes with Asian countries have seen only marginal increases. The relatively smaller trade growth in Asian countries can be attributed to the already high volume of trade activities due to their geographical proximity to China, which diminishes the marginal impact of the BRI. Additionally, the significant infrastructure investments under the BRI have been predominantly directed towards Africa and Europe, further explaining the smaller trade-enhancing effects observed in Asia compared to other continents. Furthermore, we identified the spillover effects of the BRI on non-participating countries. Moreover, significant differences in the BRI’s impact on global economic growth were observed before and after China’s economic slowdown. This article offers actionable policy recommendations to inform future decisions based on these findings.

Navigating Carbon Peaking and Neutrality in MENA: The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment and Trade Openness Using Panel PCSE and FGLS Techniques

ABSTRACTIn response to the global challenge of climate change and the drive towards carbon neutrality, this study investigates the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade openness (TO) on carbon emissions (CEM) within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The research spans 18 countries from 1990 to 2022, focusing on Sustainable Development Goal 13. Utilizing Porter's hypothesis and the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory, the study applies quantitative methods including panel corrected standard errors (PCSE) and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) to ensure robustness. To address potential endogeneity, two‐stage least squares and lagged effect estimations are employed. The findings reveal that both FDI and TO are associated with reduced CEM, indicating positive environmental impacts. Also, the pairwise causality tests show bidirectional causality between FDI, TO, and CEM, while a unidirectional causality is found from industrialization (IND) and energy consumption (EC) to CEM. These results underscore the importance of integrating FDI and TO into strategies for achieving carbon neutrality and advancing sustainable development goals, offering actionable insights for policymakers.

Does China’s innovation-driven policy affect enterprises’ import performance of intermediate goods?

Based on a theoretical analysis of the impact of the innovative city pilot policy on manufacturing enterprises’ import behavior of intermediate goods, this paper performs a quasi-natural experiment via a multi-period differences-in-differences (DID) model with China’s innovative city pilot policy as the object. This study systematically evaluates the impact of the innovative city pilot policy on importing intermediate goods by local manufacturing enterprises. The empirical results show that implementing the innovative city pilot policy significantly increases the quantity, variety and quality of intermediate goods imported by local manufacturing enterprises. These conclusions remain valid even after a series of robustness tests. Impact mechanism tests indicate that obtaining government subsidies, alleviating financing constraints and reducing institutional transaction costs are three important channels through which the innovative city pilot policy promotes the import of intermediate goods by manufacturing enterprises. Furthermore, additional research reveals that the impact of the innovative city pilot policy on intermediate goods imports exhibits significant heterogeneity in enterprise size, age, ownership and trade mode. This study’s findings provide a new perspective for evaluating and exploring the performance of the innovative city policy and China’s foreign trade transformation and upgrading.

Study on the Practice of Ideological and Political Education in Foreign Trade Correspondence on Teaching in English- Taking the 7C Principleas an Example

In the new era, integrating ideological and political elements into professional courses, strengthening the shaping of students' values, and actively guiding college students to establish correct values. This article analyzes the practice of ideological and political education based on the 7C principles of foreign trade correspondence by English teaching. Starting from the advantages of ideological and political construction in foreign trade correspondence courses, the socialist core values are compared with the "7P principles" of writing in foreign trade correspondence courses. It is found that their content is consistent with the "7C principles", especially the basic moral norms of citizens, namely "patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendliness", which can be combined with the content of the 7C principles for teaching. During the teaching process, classroom discussion, case analysis, and vivid deduction methods can be used to effectively carry out ideological and political education on foreign trade correspondence by English teaching.

Dollarization in Ecuador: 2000–2024

AbstractThis paper adopts a Markowitz inspired treatment of uncertainty in inflation and the exchange rate in analyzing the dollarization of Ecuador in 2000. The adoption of the U.S. dollar set a fixed price of foreign (and domestic) currency of one, with zero nominal return and zero variance. Dollarization thus stabilized inflation, guaranteed convertibility in foreign trade and resuscitated the stock exchange in Quito. The dollar served the role of the risk-free asset, save for the risk of U.S. inflation. However, in over 20 years, Ecuador has paid seigniorage to the U.S. Treasury of an accumulated $20 billion in outside money, dollar currency and coin. In 2023, we estimate an operational expense in terms of new seigniorage and the inflationary tax of slightly more than 1% of its GDP. Yet Ecuador has stabilized prices and grown more rapidly, coincidently, by 1.2%.

Era of uncertain events: Swedish foreign trade in 2010–2023

International trade has experienced since Global Financial Crisis (GFC) numerous uncertainties and risks. There are some countries that have successfully navigated in this challenging environment, like Sweden. In this research, we analyze the changes in trade between 2010–2023. For imports, the role of Russia, United Kingdom (UK) and Denmark has declined, while the importance of the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland show increase. For exports, a diminishing role of UK and Russia could be detected, while the role of the USA, Poland, Germany and China has increased. Our interpretation is that these trade changes are due to global geopolitical, i.e. macro-level shifts. Both Brexit (2016 onwards) and Russian invasion of Ukraine (2014 onwards) show long-term trade effects. Prior both UK and Russia held high importance; however, in the recent years, especially exports to USA have played more important role, and it is providing growth and surplus. Despite the export growth to Poland, Germany, and China, the trade to these countries remains to show trade deficit. We also analyze the impact of trade changes on maritime trade. Although, the overall handling at sea ports has declined, but container based trade demonstrates clear growth. Direct container connections to UK and Russia have declined substantially in the observation period as Chinese show significant increase.

Effect of green trade barriers on export enterprise green technological innovation from the perspective of the low-carbon city pilot policy

The low-carbon city pilot policy (LCCPP) is an important part of achieving “dual carbon” goals and promoting green technology innovation (GTI) in Chinese export enterprises. This study integrates Green Technical Barriers to Trade (GTBTs), LCCPP, and the GTI of exporting enterprises into a unified framework based on data from A-share market Chinese non-financial export enterprises from 2007 to 2021 and discusses how export enterprises should optimize green innovation resource structure with support from LCCPP to facilitate enterprise GTI when facing GTBTs. Several findings are uncovered: (1) GTBTs have a significant negative impact on the GTI of Chinese export enterprises, and the LCCPP significantly mitigates the negative impact of GTBTs on export enterprises’ GTI. (2) After distinguishing the heterogeneous characteristics of export enterprises, the moderating effect of the LCCPP becomes even more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, general trade enterprises, and enterprises whose export destinations are high-income countries. (3) Further exploration of the moderating effect of the LCCPP with different policy instruments and intensities is needed. We found the best moderating effect on export enterprises’ GTI under high policy intensity, and only market-based policy instruments had a significant moderating effect. These findings provide direction for policymakers expanding the pilot scope of low-carbon cities as well as theoretical support for realizing foreign trade growth for sustainable development.

Revisiting the determinants of tax revenue: an integrative model with conventional, economic policy and institutional factors

PurposeThe Indian government is grappling in generating sufficient revenue resources through taxation to meet their expenditure on public goods and services. Therefore, the government authorities must possess adequate information on factors affecting the taxation revenue of the country to craft and execute policies effectively. Hence, this study endeavors to explore the determinants of tax revenue by incorporating conventional, economic policy and institutional factors.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) modeling by using the data set from 1991 to 2022 according to the availability of the data.FindingsThe findings illustrate that trade openness, life expectancy, value added by the manufacturing sector and per capita GDP (Gross domestic Product) positively affect the tax efforts of the government in the conventional determinants. Similarly, in economic policy factors, the financial deepening also exhibits a favorable effect. Conversely, the inflation rate positively boosts the tax efforts in the short run, but it ultimately erodes the tax effort of the government in the long run. In the institutional factors, the official development assistance also illustrates a positive effect.Practical implicationsThe findings assert that the Indian government should devise better macro-economic and foreign trade policies with expediting the economic restructuring and bolstering their ability to manage and utilize the foreign aid assistance to boost the tax revenue of the country.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to incorporate these factors in the Indian context.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2024-0314

Measurement and Analysis of the Relationship between General Revenues and Imbalance in Iraq's Export Structure For duration (2004-2021)

The Iraqi economy relies primarily on oil exports to achieve necessary financial surpluses in order to finance economic and social development plans. Capital imports also contribute to improving the productive capacity of all sectors that directly or indirectly contribute to the country's economic growth if they actually exist. These imports, represented by the equipment and machinery necessary for building and developing infrastructure in Iraq, which cannot be provided except through foreign trade, make Iraq closely connected to broad economic relationships with most of the developed world economies. Oil revenues have had a positive impact on the general budget situation. However, on the other hand, the lack of a productive base has led to the leakage of revenues towards imports to meet domestic demand, resulting in an imbalance in the overall export structure. Moreover the research objective was to identify the relative importance of total exports in Iraq and how they are affected by oil revenues during the period 2004-2021. The hypothesis is fiscal policy has led to a disruption in the structure of Iraq's exports. And one of the most important result that appeared general revenues depend to a large extent on oil revenues compared to other revenues (non-oil), which means that the Iraqi economy is considered one-sided. With the weakness of revenues achieved from productive sectors (industry and agriculture) as well as weak tax revenues, this leads to an imbalance in the structure of the trade balance, evident through the dominance of oil exports over total exports in the country. Paper type: Research paper.

Business Intelligence for Agricultural Foreign Trade: Design and Application of Power BI Dashboard

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, data analytics has become a critical tool for organizations striving to remain competitive and make informed decisions. Although technology facilitates data analysis, many decision-makers need more technical knowledge to use these tools. This project focuses on developing a business intelligence system in Power BI to analyze agricultural exports from Mexico as part of the Agro-logistics Observatory, aiming to bridge this gap and make data more accessible for non-technical users. The objective is to create an interactive panel that would allow users to visualize and compare export and import data, thereby supporting decision-making for both business and academic purposes. The methodology involved collecting and cleaning data from various sources, such as public institutions, and a modeling process that integrates geospatial data and economic classifications. Key performance indicators (KPIs), such as trade balance and the export share by-product, were designed and calculated to identify critical products and trade patterns. Although similar approaches have been presented in the literature, the novelty of this research lies in the detailed presentation of its methodology, which provides a step-by-step guide for its replication that is often lacking in other studies. In addition, it offers a dashboard that integrates data from various sources, presenting them through easy-to-interpret visualizations so that stakeholders can quickly and efficiently access valuable information beyond traditional data visualization. Furthermore, the project highlights opportunities for improvements in data visualization, including integrating more specific product data and enhancing the dashboard’s capabilities through predictive analysis.

The Role of the Merchant Class in Japanese History: A Case Study of the Mitsui Family (1639-1895)

The birth of the Mitsui family was a necessity in the historical development of Japan in the context of changes in social classes, in particular, the role of the merchant class is increasingly recognized by the government through the contributions of merchants to the economic development of the country, onward, the unstable political situation and complicated financial and monetary confusion when there are two types of money, old and new, circulating at the same time. The Mitsui family which specialized in foreign trade and monetary finance, was born to promptly meet the changing and developing needs of Japan at that time. The main research methods are historical and logical. Using historical methods, we began to research the origins of the Mitsui family and the process of development and transformation of the business model from feudal society to capitalism. The logical method is used to determine the characteristics and nature of the relationship between economics and political values when analyzing the role of the Mitsui family according to a system. This study clarifies the formation conditions, ownership characteristics, form of management, and fields of activity of the Mitsui family as well as analyzes the role of this family in the development of Japan during the period of capitalism.

Asymmetric Effects of Real Exchange Rate on Turkey's Imports: Threshold Value Regression Model

Determinants of imports are one of the most discussed topics in the foreign trade literature. This study explores the asymmetric relationship between the real exchange rate and imports for Turkey example. The paper employs monthly data spanning from 2013:01 to 2023:06, estimating classical least square estimation and Threshold Regression Models, subsequently comparing their outcomes. The findings highlighted that the relations between imports and real exchange rate are asymmetric. According to the least square estimation model, it was noted that the real exchange rate had a negative impact on imports, aligning with anticipated outcomes. In the threshold regression model, it was seen that movements in the real exchange rate positively affected imports in the model below the threshold, while exerting a negative effect in the model above the threshold. This finding was interpreted as increasing imports by buying the expectation that the exchange rate increases, which are below the internalizable level, may increase further. It is considered essential for policymakers to take into account asymmetric relationships when analyzing the relationships between imports and the exchange rate.

The Place of World Economy Research in the Heterodox Analytics of Eurasian Integration

Aim. The article shows the increased productivity of heterodox approaches in the part of economics that studies the problems of the world economy, including regional integration.Methods. Illustrations of the apparent paradoxicity (for representatives of the economic mainstream) of geopolitical and world economic dynamics after 2022 are used to explain the importance of analyzing economic processes in the world economy, taking into account approaches of related social disciplines. The connection of some important scientific results of Russian scholars in the field of economics with the achievements of historians, orientalists and cultural scientists, representatives of economic and political geography and studies of international relations is shown.Results. The article describes the boundaries of the mathematization of the considered segment of heterodox analysis related to the unreliability of world economic statistics, with examples of the successful application of approximate (in a broad sense relative to mathematical terminology) calculations to assess shifts in foreign trade and foreign direct investment in contemporary Russia. The author demonstrates that the heterodox approach reveals the absence of contradiction between Russia’s intensification of Eurasian economic integration (including within the narrow limits of the EAEU) and our country’s efforts to build a more equitable polycentric world order, including strengthening the BRICS format. Greater interdisciplinary transparency for heterodox economists against the background of representatives of the mainstream, among other things, makes it possible to intensify fruitful cooperation between scientists and practical analysts representing analytical centers — think tanks of the post-Soviet space and neighboring countries in the interests of developing integration projects.Conclusions. The proposed methodological framework can enhance the effectiveness of the work of the analytical community of Russia and its friendly countries in obtaining new applied conclusions in the economic sphere, especially in terms of enhancing the effectiveness of integration efforts in Greater Eurasia. At the same time, heterodox economists are more receptive to cooperation with historians, political scientists and other analysts who have focused on Eurasian economic integration.