Open Trading System Research Articles

An intelligent open trading system for on-demand delivery facilitated by deep Q network based reinforcement learning

On-demand delivery in urban areas has been growing rapidly in recent years. Nevertheless, on-demand delivery networks lack an efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly operative strategy. An open trading system equipped with on-line auctions provides an opportunity for increasing the efficiency of on-demand delivery systems. Reinforcement learning techniques that automate decision-making can facilitate the implementation of such complex and dynamic systems. This paper presents an on-line auction-based request trading platform embedded within an open trading system as a new scheme for carriers and shippers to trade on-demand delivery requests. The system is developed based on a multi-agent model, composed of carriers, shippers, and the on-line platform as autonomous agents. Deep Q network enabled reinforcement learning is used in the decision-making processes for the agents to optimise their behaviour in a dynamic environment. Numerical experiments conducted on the Melbourne metropolitan network demonstrate the effectiveness of the open trading system, which can provide benefits for all stakeholders involved in the on-demand delivery market as well as the entire system. The reinforcement learning enabled platform can gain more profit when there are more learning carriers. The results indicate that the intelligent open trading system with on-line auctions is a promising city logistics solution.

‘Returning to Normalcy?’: The United States Now

‘Returning to Normalcy?’: The United States Now David Holloway ‘Returning to normalcy’is a phrase one hears a lot in the United States today. That is understandable, given the continuing, surging Covid-19 pandemic. The prospect of putting that behind us and recovering from its effects is appealing to people everywhere. But for the majority ofAmericans the phrase expresses a different hope as well: that the end of the Trump Administration will mean a return to a more civil politics and more competent government. What are the prospects for such an outcome? American society is deeply divided, as Joe Biden acknowledged in his Inaugural Address. How does that affect the role of the United States in the world? Can there be a ‘return to normalcy?’And should there be? The question of world order There has been a broad sense in recent years that the existing world order is changing, even if it is not clear where that change will lead. The trends to which people point – the rise of populism; the roll-back of democracy; growing trade protectionism; the weakening of international organisations; the rise of China – suggest that something fundamental is under way. This renewed interest in world order pre-dates the election of Donald Trump as US president, but his term in office has deepened the sense of uncertainty and anxiety about the future. The origins of the present world order are commonly traced (in American studies at least) to the Second World War and the Roosevelt Administration’s ideas for avoiding a repetition of the economic and political disasters of the inter-war period. The United States had emerged from the war as the most powerful state in the world, in a stronger position than any other to define the shape of the postwar order. It would engage with the world, not isolate itself, and it would encourage open trade and political democracy. The Atlantic Charter, the United Nations Charter, and the Bretton Woods agreements were among the most important products of this effort to create a new world order. Studies • volume 110 • number 437 17 Before long, however, the two competing models of the Cold War partially supplanted this vision. The United States and the Soviet Union dominated a bipolar world. Both were committed to economic and political principles that they wanted to extend to the whole world, and each was deeply hostile to the principles of the other side. It was not force of arms that brought the Cold War to an end, but the failure of the Soviet system. Its collapse was a milestone in international relations comparable to the end of a world war, though thankfully without bloodshed on the same scale. For many Americans, the period after the Cold War was a ‘unipolar moment’, in which the United States was not only the most powerful state in the world but also embodied the kind of economic and political order that other countries would aspire to emulate. It was the end of history, in the sense that the great ideological struggles of the twentieth century had been decided: fascism and communism had been defeated; liberal democracy was now anointed by history as the best system of government not only for political freedom, but for economic prosperity as well.1 Instead of competing models, there would now be just one model, which would extend eventually to the whole world. Market economies and democratic politics would become the norm. Barriers to globalisation would diminish. The ‘democratic peace’ theory gained popularity: a democratic world would be a peaceful world, because democratic states do not go to war with one another. Programmes to foster democracy and even, in certain circumstances, the imposition of democratic rule, would further the cause of international peace.This world later came to be described, by its supporters, as the liberal or ‘rules-based’international order, in which American dominance would be maintained – but also constrained – by an open trading system, democratic politics, and multinational organisations.2 There was a large element of hubris in this vision, even though events seemed for a while to unfold as predicted. The collapse of communist rule in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe gave a...

India–Vietnam Relations through the Prism of the Indo-Pacific Concept

As influential actors in the regional security architecture, India and Vietnam share common political and security interests and their bilateral cooperation plays a crucial role in contributing towards shaping a safe and secure Indo-Pacific region. Both the countries share an identical value perspective on the Indo-Pacific and hence augmenting their strength in the regional order would facilitate maritime security, reviewing opportunities and challenges in the region, as well as building an equitable and open trade and investment system. Reinforcing and extending cooperation to other countries helps to realise shared objectives and contributes towards better management of pressing regional and global issues.

The Policy Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic: Recommendations for Canada

This article addresses the issue of the suggested trade-off between attenuating the health costs of the corona-virus pandemic and limiting economic damage. It argues that there is no such trade-off because the economic costs are already effectively booked. Accordingly, Canada has to organize an orderly shutdown of non-essential production, retool for essential production, implement a quarantine, organize life support for the population and for Canadian businesses, and plan and execute a Korean-style testing program to hunt down the virus and stamp it out. At the same time, Canada needs to support an open trading system to ensure it has access to global supplies to fight the pandemic and in turn to support its own production for export abroad. The pandemic has put into sharp relief the need for international cooperation. We have seen some positive examples of cooperation in this crisis, particularly in terms of exchange of information and data at the professional level. But for the most part, this has not been matched at the political level – at least in the first instance, institutions were unable to overcome the reflexive impulse to “pull up the drawbridges”. The freedoms that characterized Globalization V2 – the largely unfettered movement of goods, services, ideas, capital, and people – which were increasingly being restricted even before the pandemic, seem now ever more precarious. A reset is needed and is inevitably coming. The pandemic is just the last straw – albeit a very large and heavy one – laden on the back of a system that was no longer representative of, or fit for the governance of, the world under the technological conditions of 2020.

Trade, conflict, and opportunity: taking advantage of others’ protectionism and isolationism – the case of MERCOSUL

ABSTRACT The election of President Trump, Brexit, and the amplifying of isolationist voices have signaled the possible emergence of a new era – one of retreat in the Liberal International Order. While this is one way of defining the present moment, it does not capture the full picture, as uncertainty has opened and/or widened new partnerships. In this scenario, MERCOSUL (Southern Common Market) has both sought and been sought by a growing number of countries and international organizations, recently (re)launching free trade negotiations with many partners, including Canada. This paper explores the empirical aspects of MERCOSUL’s apparently sudden growth in attractiveness, reflecting external and internal factors, with particular attention to Brazil recent negotiations. The case allows an opportunity to reflect if the world is witnessing indeed an “unravelling” of the multilateralist world order or rather a re-adjustment, whereby increasing diversification is pursued through untraditional and overlooked partnerships. The idea is not to minimize the significant worldwide impacts of the US’ inward-looking trade policies and discourse or deny the growth in appeal to isolationism, but to question whether such positions are still exceptions, or if reports on the open trade system’s death have only been greatly exaggerated.

The Role of An Environmental Goods Agreement in the Quest to Improve the Regime Complex for Climate Change

The environment-trade nexus requires action. Environmentalists have claimed that the interests of the trade community, as represented at the WTO, would trump environmental concerns while trade specialists have claimed that an open trading system is key to meet the environmental challenge facing us. After a decade-long negotiation at the WTO on the reduction of tariffs on environmental goods (EGs) failed to produce an agreement, in 2014 a group of 14 countries entered plurilateral negotiations aiming for an Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) that would have substantially reduced or eliminated tariffs on a long list of EGs. This also failed. This paper discusses the hurdles faced by these negotiations, the resulting stalemate, and avenues for reviving the negotiations. We argue that conclusion of the EGA negotiations under the current narrow agenda would help build trust to go further but would produce only very modest gains. Extending the agenda to include non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and environmental services remains the acid test for an EGA to address meaningfully the climate-change challenge.

Road to Paris: The Changed and Unchanged in International Responsibility System

Since the conclusion of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, a number of adjustments have been made in the patterns of international economy, trade, emissions, etc. Developing countries have increased rapidly in their share in global economy, trade as well as emissions, which led to some Parties to the Convention, mainly developed country Parties, faltering on their recognition of the responsibility system of the global response to climate change, and requiring developing countries to undertake responsibility for emission reduction and even financial assistance, intending to transfer obligations and costs in coping with climate change to developing countries. In fact, although the share of developing countries has increased in global economy, trade and emissions, the basic pattern that developed countries account for the absolute majority in cumulative CO2 emissions and control the international financial, trading, technology, and standard systems has not changed. The international responsibility system to deal with climate change has not changed fundamentally, either. Developed countries should continue to lead the global climate initiative, and provide financial and technical assistance to developing countries; developing countries should also take the path of low-carbon development while actively making full use of support from the international community in poverty alleviation and development process. At the Paris Climate Change Conference, Parties should participate in the negotiations with a constructive attitude, actively make planning and implement emission reduction actions, as well as build a fair and efficient financial mechanism, to promote climate-friendly technologies worldwide, establish an open and cooperative international trading system, and jointly facilitate the international cooperation on tackling climate change as a new momentum for global economic growth, so as to protect global climate security.

Impact of World Trade Organization on Indian Textile Industry

<p>No country in the world is self-sufficient. Therefore, there is need to trade with others. Economy was protected from external competition due to licensing system and high level of tariff.</p><p>In early 1990's with the birth of World Trade Organization (WTO) India started the process of liberalization of trade. WTO's objective is to ensure new open world trading system to benefit consumers. The Most Favoured Nation clause of WTO was in clash with the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA), which placed quantitative restrictions on textile exporting countries. Hence MFA was gradually phased out by December 31, 2004.</p><p>The phasing out of Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) was expected to result in an increase in the growth of output, efficiency, productivity and competitiveness of the textile sector.</p><p>The impact of abolition of MFA is studied with regard to export of yarn, fabric, and garments during MFA and Post MFA period. It has been concluded from the observations that the export of textile intermediates (i.e. yarn and fabric) and textiles and clothing have increased substantially after the abolition of MFA.</p>

Forgotten Foundations of Bretton Woods: International Development and the Making of the Postwar Order. By Eric Helleiner (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2014), 304 pp. $39.95

The Bretton Woods negotiations are typically described as an intellectual contest between Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes and their rival plans for postwar monetary order. This framing directs attention to the national priorities that the two statesmen sought to advance—an open trading system based on pegged exchange rates and free capital markets in the case of the United States and a full-employment-friendly international system of adjustable exchange rates and inconvertible currencies in the case of Great Britain. The story reaches a climax with the compromise of pegged but adjustable exchange rates and currencies convertible on current but not capital account. Richard Gardner’s Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy in Current Perspective: The Origins and Prospects of Our International Economic Order (New York, 1956) is an influential case in point; Benn Steil’s Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White and the Making of a New World Order (Princeton, 2013) is another.While acknowledging that thirty-two of the forty-four delegations at Bretton Woods were from what we would now call emerging markets, this narrative dismisses their participation as marginal. As a result, their agenda of finance for development was diminished. The International Monetary Fund, not the World Bank, became the dominant Bretton Woods institution, and the Fund focused on the advanced countries.Drawing on the ample secondary literature but also on such primary sources as the recently rediscovered transcripts of the Bretton Woods conference, Helleiner challenges this conventional view. Developing countries, far from passive, actively sought to advance their interests. The United States and the United Kingdom embraced their arguments for state-led development and official finance. The New Deal rendered American officials sympathetic to arguments in favor of an expanded role for the state. Already, in the second half of the 1930s, these officials had sought a financial partnership with Latin America under the umbrella of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy. U.S. “money doctors” like White, as well as Robert Triffin of the Federal Reserve Board, had headed technical-assistance missions with a strong developmental component to Cuba and Paraguay. Helleiner rejects Gardner’s argument that the developmental agenda, as symbolized by the Point Four Program of technical assistance announced by PresidentTruman in his 1949 inaugural address, if not also the very concept of international development, were products of the Cold War.Helleiner makes a compelling case, although he exaggerates the influence of developing countries at Bretton Woods. They attended, to be sure. They offered ideas. But their mere presence does not mean that they significantly influenced the negotiations or the outcome. There was an asymmetry of power, since the United States held the purse strings. Moreover, as Helleiner recounts, disagreements prevented the developing-country delegations from forming a united front.Nonetheless, development was undoubtedly an important issue at Bretton Woods, and the experience of the preceding decade created fertile soil in which to plant the concept. But this situation raises the question of why earlier historians drew the wrong conclusions. The Cold War, Helleiner suggests, redirected the attention of the United States—and its chroniclers—away from Latin America and toward monetary and economic stability in Europe (he might also have pointed to the Communist takeover of China as further diminishing the salience of the Bretton Woods developmental agenda). Financial interests hostile to the World Bank received a warmer reception from the new Truman administration. Accusations that White was a Soviet fellow traveler diminished the stature of the institutions of which he was an architect. These are intriguing arguments, although at some level they are not entirely satisfactory resolutions of the paradox.Forgotten Foundations is classic interdisciplinary history, drawing on literatures from political science and economics as well as primary sources. Even if he overstates his case, Helleiner has made an important contribution that will permanently re-frame how scholars conceptualize Bretton Woods.

Correspondence: The Profitability of Primacy

Correspondence: The Profitability of Primacy

Identifying Optimum Supply Unit Using an Integrated Fuzzy TOPSIS and MCGP Approach in Apparel Industry Sector

With the inexorability of globalization and open trade system, there has been extension of large business with an increase in the outsourcing of parts and services especially in the apparel sector. Increasing in number, the apparel industries confront dormant competition and need to emphasize on some technical key points to be fortitude. Purchasing and its associated functions are the eminent fields playing important role in this connection as it is most decisive and most of the production cost and time are spent regard to those. As for trading, apparel sector products normally categorize into two - push and pull while pull products are executed in anticipation of the customer order and push products are initiated according to customer order. It engenders dealings with risk and cause more investment which may incur a loss to the industries because of any faltering decision. Appropriate supplier and supply quantity selection triggers the probably of success as other parameters evolve by these and hence they are most important and can reduce risk if it can be handled combined for several products. Using fuzzy-TOPSIS and MCGP, the paper determines the joint (push and pull) amount to take from each supplier based on their performance ranking on selected criteria considering budget, delivery, demand and supply constraints. The result generated solving a LP model formed on the basis of opportunity and threats. The model is solved by LINDO system. The strength of presenting approach is its practical applicability and ability to provide solution under partial or lack of quantitative information and in joint order handling.

Risk Decision Analysis for Power Suppliers under the Carbon Emission Trading Environment

Based on the existing three mechanisms in the Carbon emission trading system, this paper proposes a hybrid carbon trading mechanism which is compatible with the characteristics of all the participants, analyzes the operation modes, benefits and risks of the power suppliers, builds a risk decision model for emission right trading according to the Financial Portfolio Theory, and gives its efficient frontier. This study provides not only theoretical supports for the power supplier’s effective management of emissions risks, but also expands the application scope of the risk management theory. Furthermore, this paper provides a reference for the government to establish an open carbon trading system.

Concilier les politiques commerciales et les politiques climatiques

The outcome of the 15th conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Copenhagen showed a shift from a top-down approach with a collective target favoring environmental objectives to a bottom-up accord favoring political feasibility. There is no meaningful binding agreement in sight, also because the global climate regime and the global trade policy regime appear to be on a collision course. Following a review of the challenges ahead, the paper argues that trade will have a second-order contribution to world-wide CO2 emissions. Evidence shows increasing carbon transfers through trade, but the magnitude of carbon leakage effects may be less than feared in some circles. Trade policy, however, will play a role in implementing climate mitigation policies in three areas: maintaining an open trading system and hence boosting growth and facilitating technology diffusion; leveling the playing field for countries that do not mitigate and as a strategic instrument to bring compliance and participation. The paper concludes that a climate agreement with a few guiding principles and leeway where much initial mitigation would first take place unilaterally or in small groups, as under the early days of the GATT, is the most promising way ahead. This would help preserve an open trading system as well as environmental integrity.

Non-Tariff Measures: Evidence from Selected Developing Countries and Future Research Agenda

This publication is one of the first attempts by the United Nations to address in a comprehensive manner the issues relating to NTMs in this age of current global economic turmoil. One of the principal objectives of this report is to stimulate the discussion on NTMs and subsequent impact assessment of the trade strategies on the developing countries market access opportunities, and to contribute to UNCTAD's overarching mission of upholding an open, equitable, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system, as enshrined in the UN Millennium Declaration, as well as to assuring development gains from international trade and trade negotiations. Part I contains the five country reports (Brazil, Chile, India, Thailand and the Philippines). Part II contains a research paper on the methodological approaches to the NTMs quantification. Part III contains the report by the Group of Eminent Persons on Non-Tariff Barriers (GNTB) to the Secretary-General of UNCTAD which was made available at the meeting held on 5 November 2009 in Geneva. The report highlighted the key issues of the UNCTAD initiative in collaboration with international partners in United Nations organizations and agencies, regional organizations and national governments and other partners, and provided policy and technical guidance and recommendations on the implementation of a possible multi-year programme to raise the profile of NTMs activities.

The Role of International Law in Monetary Affairs

Monetary affairs have been a stronghold of national sovereignty, and international law is poorly developed in this field, which has been characterized by informal coordination. This article explores the theoretical underpinnings of monetary competition and the potential role of international law in framing such competition beyond institutional arrangements. We argue that, so far, the most important contribution of international law to financial stability has been made by an open and rule-based trading system of the World Trade Organization and the legal protection of investment. As to monetary cooperation, different models are discussed, ranging from harmonization and formal cooperation to predominantly informal, asymmetrical arrangements. While affirming the need for monopoly powers in the field, we argue that international monetary competition is the main tool in preventing and remedying the risks of abuse of monopoly powers inherent to national currencies. It should be framed accordingly within a system of multilayered governance. The article asks what can be learned from principles of competition and trade policies. It argues that principles of non-discrimination, in particular, national treatment and conditional most-favored nation, offer an important starting point in achieving a rule-based regulatory framework for stable monetary competition. Oxford University Press 2010, all rights reserved, Oxford University Press.

A Study on De-Unionisation Problem in India

The trade unions are considered to be a motivating as well a check factor for the management of an organisation. The freedom struggle of India was coupled with the trade union movement and great leaders of the past were senior trade union leaders. Due to modernisation and global open economy and trade system, there is a fear that MNCs and other foreign-based trade organisations drop a culture of mutual relationship between the organisation and the individual compared to collective relations through a trade union or association. This paper deals with some salient features of the status of Indian unions and the effect of de–unionisation that played an important role in the American and western countries.

Global warming and the world trading system

In 2006, a team led by the English economist Sir Nicholas Stern issued a striking report that analyzed the economic dimensions of global climate change and called for immediate collective action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This seminal report poses the critical question of how much emissions should be reduced within specific time frames. To answer the challenge of finding a best-practices approach, Global Warming and the World Trading System looks at the economic aspects of GHG emissions and seeks a policy method to reduce them without adversely affecting global trade. The book begins with a survey of relevant data - such as emissions reports per sector - and evaluates current US climate policy options, focusing on the intricacies of specific Congressional bills. In this vein, this study examines whether the competitiveness provisions now under consideration are compatible with the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and explores the pragmatic opportunities the WTO should capitalize on in order to accomplish two goals simultaneously: ensure 'policy space' for countries to limit national GHG emissions without sacrificing the competitive position of their own industries; and preserve an open trading system relatively free of discrimination and opportunistic protectionist measures. Should governments use trade measures to encourage other countries to cooperate in the adoption of environmental policies? The authors anticipate the potential negative environmental and economic outcomes as well as the disputes over violation of GATT articles. This book addresses how to avoid serious setbacks in an effort to reduce emissions without compromising the status of both domestic and international carbon-intensive industries. Most importantly, the book considers what can be done by environmental organizations to head off conflict with the WTO.

On the design of optimal grandfathering schemes for emission allowances

This paper derives optimal schemes for the free allocation of emission allowances in a dynamic context. We consider emissions- and output-based allocation rules which allow for updating of the basis of allocation over time and thereby do not rely on historical data only. We show that such dynamic schemes do not necessarily induce inefficient outcomes. In closed trading systems with an absolute cap on emissions, grandfathering schemes which allocate allowances proportionally to past emissions are first-best. However, in open trading systems where allowances can be traded with outsiders, first-best allocation schemes must not depend on firm-specific decisions while second-best schemes correspond to a Ramsey rule of optimal tax differentiation and are generally based on both past emission and output levels.

On the Design of Optimal Grandfathering Schemes for Emission Allowances

To meet its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol, the EU plans to implement an emissions trading system with grandfathering of allowances. Besides having distributional impacts, the choice of the grandfathering scheme may affect efficiency if firms anticipate how future allocations depend on upcoming decisions. In this paper, we determine central design rules for optimal grandfathering within a simple two-period model. We find that for (small) open trading systems, where allowance prices are exogenous, first-best second-period grandfathering schemes must not depend on firm-specific decisions in the first period. Second-best schemes correspond to a Ramsey rule of optimal tax differentiation and are generally based on both previous emissions and output. However, for closed emissions trading systems, i.e. endogeneous allowance prices, firstand second-best rules coincide and must not depend on previous output levels. They consist of an assignment proportional to the emissions in the first period plus a term which does not depend on firm-specific decisions in either of the two periods.

Creating sustainable competitive advantage through internetworked communities

Examining the effects of transforming the Hong Kong Stock Exchange from a closed to an open trading system.