Trade Bodies Research Articles

Flexibility in Action: The Temporary Staffing Industry in the Czech Republic and Poland

Since the 1990s the largest transnational temporary staffing agencies have progressively expanded the geographical extent of their operations. Moving beyond the established Dutch, French, UK, and US markets in which the majority are headquartered, and encouraged by supportive supranational and national reregulation, they have entered a number of countries in Southeast Asia, Southern Europe, and Latin America. Moreover, in the run-up to, and since, the accession often new member states to the EU on 1 May 2004, the leading transnational agencies have turned their attentions to establishing and expanding operations in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper offers an initial assessment of the state of temporary staffing and its regulation in two leading markets in the region, the Czech Republic and Poland. It explores how temporary staffing markets are being forged through the interactions between regulators, transnational agencies, local agencies, trade bodies, and inward investors. Both countries legalized temporary staffing in 2004, having begun the legalization process prior to accession. Rather than these developments heralding the start of a period of sustained growth, however, our research suggests that there are still significant constraints on expansion in markets where the pressure to neoliberalize labour markets intersects with postsocialist expectations, norms, and economic structures.

Can trade make a sovereign? Taiwan–China–EU relations in the WTO

In 2002 Taiwan became a member of the World Trade Organization. Although its accession process was guided by pragmatism, once it had entered the trade body sovereignty concerns came to the fore. This article analyses the relationship in the Taiwan–China–EU triangle during Taiwan’s accession to and membership of the WTO. While Taiwan is now more ready to use the WTO as a platform in its quest for international status, the behaviour patterns of the EU and China have largely remained static. The EU is interested in the economic benefits of improved relations with Taiwan, but avoids getting involved in the sovereignty conflict. China, meanwhile, tries to prevent a status gain by Taiwan in the international community.

Irresponsible Lending? A Case Study of a U.K. Credit Industry Reform Initiative

There are major concerns about the level of personal borrowing, particularly sourced from credit cards. This paper charts the progress of an initiative to create a Responsible Lending Index (RLI) for the credit industry. The RLI proposed to voluntarily benchmark lending standards and promote best practice within the credit industry by involving suppliers of credit, customer representatives and regulators. However, despite initial support from some banks, consumer bodies and the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, it failed to gain sufficient support from financial institutions in its original format. The primary reasons for this were related to the complexity of building such a robust index and the banks trade body’s fear of exposing its members to public scrutiny. A revised alternative, the Responsible Lending Initiative, was proposed which took into account these concerns. However, the Association of Payment Clearing Service (APACS), the trade body of the credit industry, then effectively destroyed the proposal. This article describes an attempt to address the challenges in the credit card industry with the initiation of the RLI, reflected in stakeholder discourse and in the context of a wider concern expressed by the involved stakeholders in terms of the need for greater responsibility in the banking industry’s lending practices.

The Contribution of Business Associations to SMEs

This article assesses the motives for membership of associations by established SMEs with one or more employee. The article concludes that membership motives span a complex ‘bundle’ of services, ranging from individual supports to collective lobbying. Bundling gives advantages of scale and scope to specialist providers, but also combines individual and collective benefits in order to mitigate the effects of free riding. Established SMEs also seem to look on associations, as a whole, as a bundle, belonging to an average of 1.85 associations per firm. There is some size segmentation of the association market, but, in general, size variation appears less important than the target markets which associations cover: the sector (trade and professional bodies), the locality (chambers of commerce), the specificness of the SME (such as FSB, FPB), or the role of the SME owner as director (such as IoD).

Saudi Arabia's Accession to WTO: Future Challenges

The membership is supposed to help access to markets in other countries under more beneficial conditions, serve as an important signal to foreign investors regarding stability and predictability of the economic system, decrease risk factors for potential investors, develop trade economy, modernize industry and reform the economic legislation. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and one of the world's largest 20 economies acceded to World Trade Organization (WTO) on December 11, 2005 as 149th Member after 12 years of strenuous negotiations and multilateral trade agreements. For the Kingdom, which is unique in its socio-economic-religious fabric from the remaining 148 members of World Trade body, the accession is considered to be a significant move, though the Kingdom is not new to international trade, which accounts for 70% of the country's GDP. The article reviews the objectives behind the accession, reforms undertaken, the experiences of China and India which acceded to WTO during the last five and ten years respectively. Further, the article identifies the future challenges and develops broad strategies to realize the objectives of accession in the coming years.

Metrology in chemistry: Rapid developments in the global metrological infrastructure, the CIPM MRA and its economic and social impact

Over the last decade, significant developments in metrology in chemistry have been observed, triggered by rapidly increasing demands by industry, trade, society, regulators, and accreditation bodies. Internal markets like the European Union, and trade agreements, like those agreed between the EU and the United States, Australia, Japan, and others will only really work when technical barriers to trade caused by non-harmonized measurement and testing systems and lack of international recognition of national measurement standards and certificates issued by the National Metrology Institutes have been taken away. Food safety test results and nutritional values, clinical and environmental measurements have to be comparable and reliable worldwide. Food products from all continents are traded year round on a global basis. Individuals are traveling everywhere. The environment and climate influences all of us.

Getting to grips with grid (grid computing)

The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) put #1m in into project run by trade body intellect to promote grid computing to companies, maintaining that there is 'huge potential' for it in UK business. The money is being used to build a knowledge transfer network (KTN) called IFCnet, which will provide advice on grid computing and point to applications. The RealityGrid project pioneered the concept of computational steering.

Electronics KTN is critical to industry's future prosperity, says hi-tech trade body

Electronics KTN is critical to industry's future prosperity, says hi-tech trade body

Creating a profession: suggestions for the licensed trade

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study some of the business and legal problems experienced by the licensed trade and to explore the need for greater control for entry to the industry.Design/methodology/approachThe approach taken has been to use an overview of the function of professional and trade bodies together with a detailed analysis relevant to the licensed trade.FindingsThe findings are that the dangers of anti‐social behaviour resulting from alcohol consumption, coupled with the activities of some licensees, suggest that a more professional group of licensees could benefit employees and consumers.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited by being desk‐based.Originality/valueThe extra demands to gain a licence could be unpopular but, if the proposals led to fewer examples of business failure, a greater proficiency in dealing with customers and a greater awareness of the dangers of alcohol, then it would be of real benefit to the public. Is a Licence to Trade the way forward?

“If we can just ‘stall’ new unfriendly legislations, the scoreboard is already in our favour”: transnational tobacco companies and ingredients disclosure in Thailand

Objectives: To review the strategies employed by overseas cigarette manufacturers operating in Thailand to obstruct the passage and subsequent enforcement of national public health legislation, specifically the ingredients disclosure provision...

APEC, globalization, and 9/11

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) has, in the main, been based on attempts to advance neoliberal ideas about economic governance, although this has stimulated a great deal of controversy and resistance. Having failed—despite much effort—to entrench neoliberalism within APEC the United States and other “Western” members of APEC are now “securitizing” economic policy in an effort to reconfigure the Asia Pacific along lines favored by major capitalist players in the region. Critics argue that this securitization of economics is simply a tactical effort to bring in through the back door policies that APEC members have resisted in the past. Faced with the prospect of not getting its own way through straight trade negotiations within APEC, Washington appears to be promoting measures — “urgently needed in the name of security”—that might never have been accepted otherwise. At the same time, a twin strategy of pursuing bilateral trade negotiations with key APEC states is threatening the multilateral nature of the body, further emasculating APEC's position as a serious trade body.

Obesity in children and young people: a crisis in public health.

Ten per cent of the world’s school-aged children are estimated to be carrying excess body fat (Fig. 1), with an increased risk for developing chronic disease. Of these overweight children, a quarter are obese, with a significant likelihood of some having multiple risk factors for type 2 diabetes, heart disease and a variety of other co-morbidities before or during early adulthood. The prevalence of overweight is dramatically higher in economically developed regions, but is rising significantly in most parts of the world. In many countries the problem of childhood obesity is worsening at a dramatic rate. Surveys during the 1990s show that in Brazil and the USA, an additional 0.5% of the entire child population became overweight each year. In Canada, Australia and parts of Europe the rates were higher, with an additional 1% of all children becoming overweight each year. The burden upon the health services cannot yet be estimated. Although childhood obesity brings a number of additional problems in its train – hyperinsulinaemia, poor glucose tolerance and a raised risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnoea, social exclusion and depression – the greatest health problems will be seen in the next generation of adults as the present childhood obesity epidemic passes through to adulthood. Greatly increased rates of heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis, endocrine disorders and other obesityrelated conditions will be found in young adult populations, and their need for medical treatment may last for their remaining life-times. The costs to the health services, the losses to society and the burdens carried by the individuals involved will be great. The present report has been written to focus attention on the issue and to urge policy-makers to consider taking action before it is too late. Specifically, the report:

A dictionary of travel and tourism terminology

This dictionary provides over 7000 definitions of travel and tourism terminology used throughout the world, highlighting the many differences between US and British usage. It covers the operating language of the industry and associated acronyms, including those for organizations, trade bodies, IT terms and brand names. The book covers all aspects of the tourism industry, including hospitality, transport - road, rail, air and sea, and ancillary services such as car rental, insurance, passport and visa services, and foreign currency. Entries vary from one-line definitions to a 3000 word article, supplemented by some extensive appendices. References are provided for further reading, and where possible website addresses are given for organizations.

TScheme — voluntary approval for certificate authority services

This paper describes tScheme, the independent, industry-led, co-regulatory scheme for electronic trust services. A broad coalition of organisations representing users, service providers and technology suppliers from industry, trade bodies, consumer interest groups, government and elsewhere actively supports tScheme through their membership contributions and by sending delegates to its expert working groups. tScheme operates as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and owned by its members. Its governance ensures its openness, transparency and independence. It is self-funding from annual membership contributions, service approval fees and licence payments for the permitted use of its materials. tScheme creates definitive documents — known as approval profiles — containing the criteria to which electronic trust services must operate if they are to adhere to known best practice. tScheme publishes these criteria and offers electronic trust service providers the opportunity to have their individual services assessed against the appropriate profiles. Services that meet the criteria and gain approval are able to indicate this by displaying the tScheme Approved Service mark, thereby encouraging user confidence. Service providers using the mark are bound by contractual terms covering continuing performance, redress and sanctions to ensure that good practice is maintained. tScheme provides the co-regulatory environment that avoids the need for the UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to invoke his powers under Part I of the Electronic Communications Act 2000. tScheme also enables the UK government to fulfil certain obligations under the European Directive for a Community Framework on Electronic Signatures. Through tScheme, the UK is demonstrating its leadership in creating an ideal environment for the growth of electronic commerce.

The Yes Men

The Yes Men

Ebusiness barriers to growth within the SME sector

The development of Ecommerce within Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Wales is restricted by a number of barriers. Various projects initiated by government and academic bodies exist to assist SMEs overcome these barriers. However, whether these projects represent the needs of SMEs is debatable. The opportunity for SMEs to exploit information communication technology has increased due to the improved affordability and sophistication of computing equipment, along with the development and utilisation of the Internet. This progress has seen the emergence of Ebusiness and Ecommerce, whereby SMEs can operate, communicate and trade in global markets. Recent surveys by academia, government and trade bodies have identified Wales as the worst performing region for Ebusiness in the UK with sceptical attitudes towards its increased adoption. This paper reports on a quantitative study investigating Ebusiness utilisation within SMEs in Wales. Specifically this paper focuses on the key barriers influencing the adoption of Ebusiness within SMEs in Wales. The survey of the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce (CCC) membership was undertaken in 2001. The CCC is a trade body of approximately 1000 SMEs encompassing a geographical area covering Cardiff, Bridgend, Newport and the Valleys areas. The postal survey and telephone follow up achieved a response rate of 100 SME classified enterprises, a response rate of approximately 10%. Academic research has identified these barriers as deficiencies in financial resources, time, information and skills; concerns over security, legal issues and competition and doubts over the applicability of Ebusiness to their business practices and cultural and infrastructure issues. These barriers are a major influence as to how Ebusiness will develop within SMEs and this paper identifies the significance of each factor in constraining growth. The paper concludes by investigating the assistance for SMEs from academia, government and trade to develop Ebusiness activities and questioning whether these are representative and effective mechanisms for this sector. This paper contributes to knowledge by appraising and contrasting existing barriers to Ebusiness literature and comparing it with the relevant SOGM literature. Secondly it classifies barriers in two ways by type and time of occurrence. Finally the paper recognises that the support mechanisms for Ebusiness within SMEs remain unproven and require further investigation to verify their effectiveness.

New Bill to extend Legal Deposit to Non-Print Materials

A campaign to bring the law up-to-date with the current world of publishing has been led by the British Library, on behalf of all the legal deposit libraries and the publisher trade bodies. If the move is successful, new generic legislation will ensure that non-print formats are included within legal deposit – allowing UK businesses and education to benefit from access to the widest possible collections of research material, now and in the future.

Can the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism Resolve Trade Disputes between China and Taiwan?

Following China's accession to the WTO, Taiwan joined the trading body smoothly. This was believed to present a bright prospect for the trade relations between China and Taiwan, because, inter alia, the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism is supposed to facilitate and resolve trade disputes among members. However, the reality does not permit to unfold such a rosy picture. As illustrated by what both Beijing and Taipei have done since their accession, they seem unprepared to treat each other in a way as required by the WTO Agreement, which suggests prospective disputes across the Taiwan Straits. Moreover, the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism might be helpless or, at least, not as effective as it should be when it comes to the cross-straits trade disputes. As Beijing and Taipei appear to be constantly obsessed with political concerns that override trade considerations, both parties are likely to politicize the use of the Dispute Settlement Mechanism at the cost of effectiveness as well as the credibility of the procedures. The international trade community should advisably help both Beijing and Taipei foster a common approach to the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism. Copyright Oxford University Press 2002, Oxford University Press.

Die Lassersche Wahlrechtsreform. Der Kampf um die Einführung der Volkswahl des cisleithanischen Abgeordnetenhauses 1871–1873

SUMMARY After the creation of the Dual Monarchy of Austro-Hungary in 1867, the 17 kingdoms and provinces with a population of over 20 million gathered in the (Cisleithanian) Austrian half comprised a multitude of nationalities. Since 1861 they had been represented in the imperial council (Reichsrat) consisting of an aristocratic upper house and a lower house of representatives from the 17 local diets. The local diets were a modified form of Estates, with a first house of large landlords, a second house elected by those entitled to vote in urban elections, in some cases a third house for trade and craft bodies, and another house for rural communities. Many of these elections were also indirect and based on a property qualification, and bishops and others sat by right in the local diets. Deputies from the local diets to the imperial council were chosen in a variety of ways. Despite previous demands for direct elections, this remained only to a limited extent a constitutional monarchy. The non-German nationalities had an overall majority in the population but were severely underrepresented in the House of Deputies (Abgeordnetenhaus) and divided among themselves. The self-imposed absence of several of them from its sessions gave force to the demands for electoral reform and put pressure on the Emperor to grant concessions. Complex negotiations with the parties and changes of government led to the ministry in 1871 of Adolph Fürst Auersperg, who appointed Joseph Freiherr Lasser von Zollheim as Interior Minister with the task of completing the electoral reform. Thomas Olechowski proposes in this article that the measures eventually introduced in 1873, hitherto ‘nameless’, be named the Lasser Electoral Reform, on the analogy of later reforms named in the literature after their progenitors. Lasser resisted pressure for a more open constitution from the liberals who held an effective majority in the newly elected House of Deputies, but not the required two-thirds for constitutional change. It also proved difficult to satisfy the national elements in the Empire, especially Czechs and Poles, and hard-fought local elections accompanied the stages in introducing reform. Among many detailed plans publicly aired was one by Eduard Herbst which would have reduced the electoral advantage of the richest elements, but Lasser was able to recruit Herbst to help formulate his own more conservative proposals. Lasser's concern was to take the election of deputies away from the local diets, not to broaden the franchise nor alter the existing balance of power between countries and classes, and the Emperor too wanted minimal reform. Where popular unrest broke out, military force soon suppressed it. The withdrawal of a large Galician contingent from the debate in the House of Deputies failed to stop the legislation. The end result was only a small change in the balance between the provinces and a modest reduction in the representation of large landlords. Only 6 per cent of the population received the vote, with that of a large landlord counting 140 times that of a member of a rural community. Even so, the now directly elected imperial council proved less compliant than its predecessor, and new electoral reforms were to broaden the franchise in 1882, 1895 and 1907.

The Decision to Discontinue Exporting: SMEs in Two U.K. Trade Sectors

A wide body of knowledge exists on the perceptions and activities of managers of both exporting and non-exporting firms. Furthermore, models have been proposed to categorize firms in various stages of internationalization exhibiting different export behavior and assistance requirements. Issues discussed in the literature have involved factors associated with managers' motives for undertaking overseas activities, perceived and actual problems, firms' competitiveness, and information and assistance requirements (Bilkey 1978; Miesenbock 1988; Aaby and Slater 1989; Andersen 1993; Leonidou and Katsikeas 1996). This study focuses on managers' perceptions within one group of small firms that has arguably received very little attention, namely, firms that have discontinued exporting (Pauwels and Matthyssens 1999). It appears that to date, studies have been largely restricted to classifying non-exporters as a homogeneous group. This observation is important since no account is taken of potential differences among firms exhibiting varying levels of previous export experience. Of those that do have previous experience, some managers may not want to reconsider exporting since their domestic market is perceived as a preferable alternative, whereas others may wish to recommence exporting at some stage. Seringhaus (1987) points out that export withdrawal has largely been viewed as a failure. In contrast, and from a strategy perspective, Welch and Wiedersheim-Paul (1980) highlight the scenario of some firms that have a low level of commitment towards new export activities and are poorly prepared to undertake such initiatives. It follows logically that the lack of strategic planning, including the mobilization of internal resources, may have a direct influence on firms' performance overseas and consequently on the decision to withdraw from export markets. This can be contrasted with a broader external perspective from which it might be suggested that a whole host of environmental issues--ranging from the economic strength of a currency to the imposition of tariffs--may affect a manager's decision to discontinue exporting. As such, the decision to discontinue exporting should not always be viewed as a failure. Indeed, such a decision could be seen as a move to gain a strategic advantage, for example, to concen trate on the domestic market if this was perceived as having an advantageous result for the firm. This strategy may have been brought about by a change in a firm's key decision-maker and thus be unrelated to a firm's environmental influences. A number of studies have examined barriers that are both internal and external to firms. Moreover, studies have described barriers faced by both exporting and non-exporting firms, and recommendations have been proposed to policy makers for helping managers overcome the obstacles (for example, Katsikeas and Morgan 1994; Leonidou 1995; and Bell 1997). In short, however, the decision to discontinue exporting as a result of these barriers should not necessarily be viewed as a marketing failure under all circumstances. In some cases, managers may have circumvented the problems by having undertaken the appropriate planning and information-gathering activities. In other cases, the decision may have been a result of environmental circumstances that were difficult to forecast. This consideration becomes important when determining the support needed by managers of firms with different levels of export experience to help them avoid discontinuing their export activities. While a wide body of knowledge exists on export assistance needs, policy-makers are hampered by both regulatory issues and budgetary constraints. Furthermore, managers have perceived some trade bodies as more effective than others in implementing support programs to help overcome obstacles to exporting (Seringhaus and Rosson 1990; Nothdurft 1992; Kotabe and Czinkota 1993; Naidu and Rao 1993). A specific study relevant to this investigation was undertaken by Crick (1995), which found that the U. …