Trade Promotion Research Articles

Counteracting Globalization's Skeptics: How Diasporas Influence the Internationalization Preferences of Minority Entrepreneurs' Firms

AbstractResearch SummaryWe argue that the anti‐immigrant backlash sparked by globalization's skeptics isolates U.S. minority entrepreneurs as outsiders, which constrains their domestic business opportunities. In response, these entrepreneurs leverage their shared ethnic identities as insiders within diaspora networks to pursue international expansion opportunities focused on their countries or regions of origin. We hypothesize that diasporas imprint minority entrepreneurs with risk preferences that reduce their skepticism about globalization, while increasing their caution about overcommitting resources. Analyzing over 20,000 U.S. small businesses, we find evidence that minority entrepreneurs' firms prefer to leapfrog into markets, mitigate risks via contractual and bounded commitments, and target countries that are more ethnically and linguistically fractionalized. We extend internationalization process research with theory and evidence about how diasporas influence firm‐level strategic risk management decisions.Managerial SummaryIncreased skepticism about globalization is fueling an anti‐immigrant backlash in multi‐ethnic societies such as the U.S. This backlash may limit opportunities for immigrant entrepreneurs from ethnic minority communities to expand domestically, potentially motivating them to expand internationally. We investigate diaspora networks as a source of competitive advantage for minority entrepreneurs' firms. We find evidence that diasporas positively influence minority entrepreneurs' risk perceptions and attitudes toward globalization, leading their firms to prefer internationalizing faster, committing earlier, and targeting more fragmented markets than other firms. Diasporas counteract skepticism about globalization. We recommend that managers utilize diasporas' access to resources, knowledge, and relationships to reduce their firms' risks of internationalizing and that policymakers tailor government trade promotion programs to leverage diasporas to reduce transaction costs and increase exports.

Foreign Direct Investment on Agricultural Industry in India

Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 58 per cent of India’s population. Gross Value Added by agriculture, forestry and fishing is estimated at Rs 18.53 trillion (US$ 271.00 billion) in FY18. According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the Indian food processing industry has cumulatively attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) equity inflow of about USD 9.08 billion between April 2000 and March 2019. The agriculture sector in Asian country is anticipated to come up with higher momentum within the next few years thanks to accrued investments in agricultural infrastructure like irrigation facilities, deposit and cold storage. What is more, the growing use of genetically changed crops can probably improve the yield for Indian farmers. India is anticipated to be self-sustaining in pulses within the returning few years because of conjunctive efforts of scientists to urge early-maturing types of pulses and therefore the increase in minimum support value. FDI works as a way of integration developing countries into the world market place and increasing the capital accessible for investment, so resulting in inflated economic process required to cut back financial condition and lift living standards. India is expected to achieve the ambitious goal of doubling farm income by 2022. This study main objective is analyzing Indian agricultural manufacturing and allied industries are qualified for the future expansion of agriculture sector through its modernization of agro based machineries industries. This study centered solely the chances of the allied industries (R& D, equipments, and machineries up gradation.

Chile's Export Diversification since 1960: A Free Market Miracle or Mirage?

ABSTRACTConventional wisdom has proclaimed Chile's recent economic development a ‘free market miracle’. In an examination of Chile's export diversification experience, this article departs from that view. By analysing the dynamics underlying the emergence of the salmon, fruit, forestry and wine sectors in Chile's export basket since the 1960s, the study sheds light on the crucial role of industrial policy in the process of capability accumulation that shapes new industries. The article undertakes a qualitative historical analysis of the scope and nature of policy interventions in each of the four sectors and conducts a quantitative policy evaluation using the difference‐in‐difference method. It finds that public institutions are essential in overcoming market failures inhibiting the emergence of new industries. Specifically, it shows that the government has a key role to play as a catalyst of human capital accumulation, as a venture capitalist, in trade promotion, and in ensuring ‘national’ sector reputation through a strong regulatory and quality control role. By elaborating on the dynamic process of structural transformation and capability accumulation, this article contributes to theoretical debates on the role of vertical policies in the emergence of new competitive sectors, and debates relating to static versus dynamic approaches to comparative advantage.

Trade-off between India’s Trade Promotion and its Environmental Sustainability

The concept of sustainable development involves three components namely economic, social and environmental. In a developing economy like that of India, the economic sustainability demands higher growth of key economic indicators such as National income, employment generation, production, consumption and even the foreign trade. The growth of foreign trade and that of the exports are very critical for the foreign exchange reserves essential to pay for the imports in India. Trade as an engine of the economic growth thus fulfils the essential implication for economic sustainability. But in achieving this growth, economy’s environmental sustainability is at stake. This is because, the top export products of India still comprise of petroleum products (18%) , agricultural products (12%), textiles and yarns together at 11 % and chemicals (10%). All these exports in their production have immensely contributed towards environmental pollution in one way or the other. Mining for gold, silver and diamonds resulted in water pollution, Green House Gas emission, and soil erosion. Petroleum refineries are a major source of hazardous and toxic air pollutants such as particulate matter (PM).Though India’s contribution to the total world trade is yet negligible, while promoting the major exports as mentioned above the natural resources are exploited too much and thus create a threat to India’s environmental sustainability. This paper therefore advocates the need for the Green products’ exports to make India’s growth story even environmentally sustainable. Keywords: Sustainable development, Green products, Exports, Imports, Environmental Pollution

National eCommerce Policy: What India’s new (Draft) eCommerce Policy outlines for Online Retailers and its Regulatory aspects

The India Draft National eCommerce Policy is a high-level policy document proposed by India's Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in February 2019. It sketches out a series of policy recommendations that range from useful consumer protections to non-constructive protectionist industry regimes that would likely backfire and hurt businesses, entrepreneurs and consumers alike. The best of these recommendations would institute stricter consumer protections against annoying, unsolicited phone calls and emails. But the worst of them would make data transfers difficult, impose onerous liability on third party platforms, and institute data localization that would reduce business and consumer choices.Within India, the draft policy boosts the government‟s schemes/ programmes, such as Digital India, Skill India, Make in India and Startup India, which rely on eCommerce and its components. For instance, it has introduced norms for consumer protection, recognized the importance of data, its protection and storage, granted infrastructure status to data centers and server farms, integrated different systems to track imports and introduced anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy measures.It is also in sync with the recently updated industrial policy which reflects the underlying brick-and-mortar economy. However, the stakeholders, including industry, its associations and the independent policy community, point out that in the government‟s enthusiasm to address all these many aspects of eCommerce, the Draft Policy has become ambiguous, raising questions about whether it is intended to be an internet policy or a specific eCommerce policy. (1)The National eCommerce Policy is aimed to address concerns which go beyond the sale and purchase of products by electronic means. For example, environmentally sustainable growth by outlining regulatory aspects on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, suitable policy will be devised to promote “reduce, reuse and recycle” practices by stakeholders. In the era of Industrial Revolution 4.0, economic development is based on data which is generated, stored, transmitted or processed in large volumes. The increasing importance of data warrants treating it at par with other resources on which a country would have sovereign right. The Policy recognizes the importance of data while enabling the domestic industry to benefit from the advantages and opportunities created by electronic commerce. (2)

Alternative technological learning paths of Taiwanese firms

ABSTRACTThe OEM–ODM–OBM paths of technological learning of late-comer firms are well documented in previous studies. Taiwan is one of the leading countries taking this traditional path. By using five cases of Taiwanese firms in mature industries like machinery, electronics parts, food processing and furniture, and in an emerging industry like 3D camera, explore alternative technological learning paths. It aims to explain how alternative paths happened and evolved overtime. Four alternative learning strategies were found: independent suppliers, startups, path breakers and specialization in high-valued activities. Government financial incentives for R&D and new product/system development beyond existing activities under OEM/ODM arrangement; supports from universities, public research institutes to develop sophisticated technological and innovative capabilities; and assistance from international trade promotion agencies, and government-sponsored industrial associations for accessing new and niche markets in advanced countries are important for firms to pursue these alternative technological learning paths.

Enforcement Practice Under Preferential Trade Agreements: Environmental Consultations and Submissions on Environmental Enforcement Matters in the US-Peru TPA

The US-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA), in force since 2009 contains an environment chapter and a particular Annex on Forest Sector Governance with strong provisions to tackle trade associated with illegal logging and to promote legal trade in timber products. Both the Chapter and the Annex are subject to governmental environmental consultations, linked to the Dispute Settlement Mechanism of the TPA. Additionally, the treaty grants the right to file a submission to any person when a Party is failing to effectively enforce its environmental laws, with a Secretariat created just in 2015. As a result, three files have been already submitted against Peru seeking the implementation of (1) an international environmental agreement, (2) the national environmental law and, (3) a provision of the Annex of the TPA. On the latest, furthermore, the US Government requesting in January 2019 the first consultations on environmental matters involving forest issues under a TPA.

Venturing to Distant Markets - Polish Firms in Latin America

The objective of this paper is to shed light on the understudied phenomenon of expansion of Polish firms to distant markets. Authors ask the following questions: (1) What is the current state of internationalisation of Polish firms in Latin America, in both quantitative (i.e. value of exports and FDI) and qualitative terms (i.e. characteristics of key exporters and investors); (2) What are the main distance-related barriers to internationalisation of Polish firms in Latin America. In order to describe the scale, scope and characteristics of Polish exports and investments in Latin America, authors analyse publicly available information, macro-level data and micro-level data, collected from the press and finan- cial statements of Polish firms present in Latin America, combined with the information received from the Trade and Investment Promotion Sections of the Polish Embassies. In order to assess the distance between Poland and Latin America, thus indicating the major barriers to internationalisation of Polish firms in this region, the psychic distance measures elaborated by Hakanson and Ambos and the CAGE framework offered by Ghemawat are employed. This paper contributes to the discussion on whether the ‘go global’ strategy is viable for Polish firms and whether it should be supported by the State.

Global value chains and the fragmentation of trade policy coalitions

Recent decades have seen the emergence of global value chain (GVC) production arrangements in which firms fine-slice production processes and disperse activities over multiple countries. This paper analyses how the rise of GVCs affects trade politics in developed countries. Our theoretical model shows that GVCs drive a wedge between the interests of workers and of managers in unskilled-labourintensive industries, upsetting a traditional coalition that has favoured protectionism against competing imports. Managers of GVC firms switch towards favouring trade promotion since they can substitute foreign for local unskilled workers. The loss of their management ally further weakens the position of low-skilled workers, whose jobs and income are threatened by foreign competition. This new trend may help to explain the recent surge in anti-trade sentiment, while indicating the importance of an active policy response to deal with the economic challenges for affected

How do European trade promotion organisations manage their stakeholders?

Trade Promotion Organisations (TPOs) exert significant influence on the internationalisation potential of domestic firms and improving the indigenous country’s trade balance. However, TPOs’ strategies to uphold their impact as to the relationship vis-à-vis their stakeholders are largely unknown. This is an important gap in the literature considering that effective stakeholder management can enhance TPOs’ performance and the value they develop for three primary stakeholder groups, namely home country government, domestic firms and foreign trade offices. In this study, we employ the stakeholder theory and draw upon in-depth case studies of 14 European TPOs to address this gap. We advance six related propositions on how funding sourcing, services to domestic firms and functions of foreign trade offices can be effectively associated with TPOs’ relationship management towards these stakeholder groups. The contribution of the study lies on the application of stakeholder theory in trade promotion and the derivation of related sets of strategies.

The United States Resolves Its Request for Consultations Regarding Peru's Environmental Obligations Under Bilateral Trade Agreement

On April 9, 2019, the United States and Peru reached a resolution regarding concerns about Peru's forest sector obligations under the 2007 United States–Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA). At issue was Peru's relocation of the Agency for the Supervision of Forest Resources and Wildlife (OSINFOR) to a “subordinate position” in its Ministry of Environment in December 2018. The United States requested consultations under the PTPA on the ground that this relocation conflicted with a provision in the Environment Chapter's “Annex on Forest Sector Governance” (Forest Annex), which states that “OSINFOR shall be an independent and separate agency.” Following the consultations, Peru agreed to restore OSINFOR to its original location within the Peruvian government.

ASEAN(‘S) WAY OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT: ACTIVE AND EFFECTIVE ROLE

ASEAN is widely praised for its establishing regional cooperation among countries of Southeast Asia and attracting countries from rest of the world too because of its core objective of bringing peace and stability in the region. Promotion of regional trade and investment followed by unprecedented economic growth is the major credit of ASEAN which is widely appreciated. Nevertheless, despite 50 years of its age, it hasn’t been fully successful in managing internal conflicts among its member states and conflicts with external states. Its ineffectiveness to manage conflicts have raised concerns over the relevance of ASEAN in 21st century where Asian continent is said to be playground for major powers because of shifting of epicenter of International Politics from America and Europe to Asia. ASEAN’s role is limited by its charter of Non-interference into the internal affairs of its member states. This article looks into the basic weaknesses in ASEAN as an organization thus providing recommendation to overcome its shortcomings and improve its performance. The article concludes that ASEAN, because of increasing demands of amendments in conflict management techniques due to changes in the nature of conflict, needs to transform from its modest goals and principles to deal with conflict to new trends of conflict management, perhaps from soft mediation to hard mediation in near future.

STRATEGY OF INDONESIA GOVERNMENT TO MANTAINS PALM OIL MARKET IN INDIA

This study aims to determine the factors cause a decrease market share of Indonesia palm oil in India and its implications, and to know the Indonesia government’s strategy maintains the palm oil market in India. The method used is descriptive analysis using theory of competitive adventage diamond model of Michael Porter and Development state theory. The scope of study between 2010 and 2015. The results showed that cause of the decline in the market share of Indonesia palm oil in India due to the application of duty Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is higher than its derivative products in Indonesia, Increased demand for Malaysia palm oil by India and development of palm oil industry in India. The implications of this decline include the loss of potential tax revenue and export volume of palm oil as well as disrupt the Indonesia palm oil industry. Strategy by the Indonesia government is implementing Crude Palm Oil (CPO) Supporting Fund (CSF), Indonesia Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) Chennai (India) and Palm Oil Industrial Cluster. Strategy Indonesia government maintains the palm oil market in India has shown a positive effect. Although some parts are not running perfectly. The government as a stimulant to increase competitiveness of Indonesia palm oil is felt has done its job as it should. Futhermore, this strategy can be continued with evaluation and continuous improvement. Keyword: India, Export Palm Oil, Competitive Advantage, Development State, Crude Palm Oil (CPO) Supporting Fund (CSF). Indonesian Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) Chennai, Oil Palm Industry Cluster (KIKS)

Conditions for the development of Vietnamese business and entrepreneurship in Poland

This paper outlines the history of the development of Vietnamese business and Vietnamese businessmen and entrepreneurs community in Poland. This special period of history of development was to be divided into two main phases. In addition, this article has analyzed the factors affecting international entrepreneurship spirit and international entrepreneurship capacity of this Vietnamese business community here in Poland. These factors are well identified in the overview part of international startups and international entrepreneurship study. The study showed that these factors include: foreign market appeal, government policies, compatibility of business practices, and adaptability to foreign markets. In the research part of this article, these factors were taken to be reanalyzed for the Vietnamese business community in Poland and showed why Vietnamese people choose Poland to be a good place for family settlement and for doing long-term business. Moreover, the success factors and success barriers behind their business development compared to the community of Chinese businessmen and entrepreneurs who came to Poland just only several years later have also been clearly identified. The research results show that, to strengthen the position and to raise the business awareness of Vietnamese business community in Poland, to strengthen it into a more developed and unified community for the purpose of future sustainable development, Vietnamese embassy in Poland with all of its networks of partnership, Vietnam's foreign trade promotion and trade representative agencies, and the diverse Vietnamese associations in Poland, both for profit and non-profit, need to play an interactive role to support Vietnamese businessmen and entrepreneurs to understand indigenous business practices, to overcome language and culture barriers in a bid to better integrate with the Polish business and social environment.

Impact of Regional Public Agencies on Firms’ Internationalization Processes: Evidence from Case Studies

To achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the support for the internationalization of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) for inclusive and sustainable growth needs improvement. Decided to accomplish these global goals, many regional governments have established regional public agencies aiming at increasing MSME competitiveness. In the area of internationalization, regional governments have created Regional Export Promotion Agencies (REPA), which are a type of Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) that has been implemented, for instance, in all Spanish regions. However, we found a gap in the literature since there is not enough evidence on the utility of the services provided by TPOs. Thus, the aim of this paper is to explore how a REPA interacts with firms when they internationalize and cooperates with the corresponding Regional Development Agency (RDA) during this process. The preliminary findings suggest that a better coordination between both Regional Agencies is required. In addition, further financial measures to support firms in the first stages of the internationalization processes as well as an improvement of communication activities to increase awareness of the services offered are demanded by the firms.

Effect of vitamin A supplementation on performance and blood constituents of Saidi ewes and their offspring.

Forty pregnant ewes of more than two successive lambing seasons, at the second half of gestation period, were used to evaluate the effects of supplemented vitamin A on growth performance, blood constituents, levels of vitamin A and β˗carotene of Saidi ewes and their offspring. Pregnant ewes (48.48 ± 0.09 kg B. W.) were assigned to 4 treatment groups of 10 ewes each in the Farm of Animal Production Department, the Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.. Vitamin A was drenched in the form of pale yellow to brown granular powder as vitamin A acetate content ≥ 1,000,000 IU/g which had been certified by china council for the promotion of international trade.

Externally constrained growth: Testing the applicability of Thirlwall’s law in South Africa

ABSTRACTThis study tests whether the performance of South Africa’s trade balance, that is, the country’s export and import performance, can effectively explain the economy’s growth rate. Formally, the study tests the applicability of Thirlwall’s law to the South African economy. The law states that the estimated growth rate of an economy is proportional to the growth rate of exports divided by the income elasticity of imports. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) quarterly data from 1960 to 2009 for exports, imports, the exchange rate, export prices, import prices, and the economic growth rate is used for regression. The study runs an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model in the presence of structural breaks and after adjusting for structural breaks and finds that growth in the South African economy can be shown to be trade balance constrained. This finding has policy implications with regard to trade promotion and strategies and strategies to enhance growth performance by increasing the overall competitiveness of the South African economy.

Evolving language of environmental protection in bilateral investment treaties, free trade agreements, and trade promotion agreements

In this paper we focus on the use of the word 'environmental' in the context of two Free Trade Agreements between the US and Oman (2009), and Peru (2009). Since mention of the word 'environmental' in the Preambles of Bilateral Investment Treaties dating back to the early 1990s, references to environmental concerns have increasingly been incorporated into the articles of trade treaties and agreements. In the Bilateral Investment Treaties dating back to 1994 between the United States and the countries of Georgia and Trinidad and Tobago, mention of environmental concerns only appears in the Preamble. Although not strictly identified as the Preamble, but nevertheless preambular in nature, the BIT between the United States and Bolivia (1998) begins with a series of '-ing' clauses indicating the intentions of the two parties to the treaty. The penultimate clause repeats the trinity of concerns which one finds at the close of other BIT preambles to which the United States was a party: 'health, safety, and environmental measures'. With the turn of the century BITs began to give far greater attention to environmental concerns. The Preambles of the Chile-United States Free Trade Agreement (2003), the Dominican Republic-Central America- United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), as well as Trade Promotion agreements between the United States and Colombia, Peru, and Panama all state very similar intentions with respect to environmental concerns. Noteworthy are recent FTAs between the United States and Oman (2009) and Peru (2009). In both agreements, one chapter is completely devoted to the Environment. In this paper, we investigate the language used in these chapters and explore the implications for securing improved environmental protection.This chapter surveys the use of the word 'environmental' in BITs, FTAs (other than NAFTA), and TPAs, not only in terms of how and where mention occurs in the treaty/agreement text, but also identifying those disputes whose tribunal deliberation specifically took into account references to environmental concerns in a particular treaty/agreement, thereby providing some basis for assessing the impact these treaty/agreement references to environmental concerns may have had on tribunal decision making.The first part of this chapter looks at references to 'environmental' in BITs, followedby similar discussion of FTAs and TPAs. The sequencing in each part is chronological, showing how treaty/agreement provisions have been evolving. Since mention of the word 'environmental' in the Preambles of Bilateral Investment Treaties dating back to the early 1990s, references to environmental concerns have increasingly been incorporated into the articles of the treaties and agreements. The inclusion here of information about relevant disputes and tribunal deliberations and awards is highly relevant to making a realistic assessment of the impact of the inclusion of treaty/agreement language concerning environmental issues.There are indications that the pendulum is swinging away from Tribunal rulings favoring investments at the expense of environmental protection to more balanced rulings which take note of greater mention of environmental concerns in treaties and agreements.

“You Cannot Trade What Is Not Yours”: Indigenous Governance and the NAFTA Negotiations

ABSTRACT Contemporary International Relations scholars and practitioners generally recognize that substate governments affect the state’s international affairs; however, there is less acceptance of Indigenous governments as global actors that meaningfully impact the state. After all, the expectation would be that central governments, with considerably more resources and power, would be unlikely to face a challenge from an Indigenous government. However, Indigenous governments are negotiating new relationships with foreign and domestic governments, forming economic development corporations, hiring private firms to raise capital, funding trade missions, and even opening offices in key international locales such as Beijing to engage in trade promotion and push investment opportunities in projects such as resource extraction. Applying paradiplomacy theory, which argues that International Relations cannot be properly explained absent the global affairs of substate governments, this article analyzes the effect of Indigenous peoples and governance in the Canada–US trade relationship. It specifically considers how Indigenous engagement in the global economy affects the bilateral trade regime, foreign direct investment, and cross-border trade. The driver for these analysis centers on demands for the inclusion of a so-called “Indigenous chapter” in the North American Free Trade Agreement renegotiations in 2017 and 2018.

United States Requests Consultations Regarding Peru's Environmental Obligations Under Bilateral Trade Agreement

On January 4, 2019, the United States requested consultations with Peru with respect to its forest governance obligations under the 2007 United States – Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA). The PTPA has an environmental chapter with robust terms that were included largely at the insistence of members of Congress, reflecting concerns that a free trade agreement with Peru could increase the country's export of illegally logged wood to the United States. The request for consultations focused on Peru's decision to relocate its Agency for the Supervision of Forest Resources and Wildlife (OSINFOR) to within Peru's Ministry of Environment—a change that, in the view of the United States, “appears to conflict” with a PTPA obligation that “‘OSINFOR shall be an independent and separate agency.’”