Trading Blocs Research Articles

The Burden of Infectious Diseases: A Trend Appraisal in Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Trade Blocs

Purpose: The study aimed at presenting a comparative appraisal of the trends of the two most prevalent infectious diseases bedeviling the region: human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB). Subject & Methods: Data on fourteen ECOWAS member countries and also fourteen member countries of the SADC bloc. This represents about 93.3% and 87.5% membership of the ECOWAS and SADC blocs respectively. Although the choice of sample size is determined largely by the availability of data, the choices were carefully made to maximize available observation. The data were sourced from World Development Indicators online database published by the World Bank. We use two measures of infectious diseases: the prevalence rate of human immunodeficiency virus and the incidence of tuberculosis. Results: The HIV prevalence rates and incidence of TB were uneven in the two selected trade blocs. The magnitude and the severity of the diseases varied. The burden of both diseases was higher for SADC and lesser for ECOWAS. The average prevalence rate of HIV in the SADC bloc over the study period was 600% of the prevalence rate in ECOWAS (SADC = 12.5%, ECOWAS = 2.1%). Likewise, in the same period, the average TB incidence per 100,000 people was 578.8 and 181.7 respectively in the SADC and ECOWAS blocs. Conclusions: The study finds that the magnitude and severity of the diseases vary widely between the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) trade blocs. And, while concerted efforts at curbing the diseases have yielded results, there is still much to be done in both blocs.

Formation of symmetric free-trade blocs, optimal tariff structure, and world welfare

We present a new tariff-game rule and a new numéraire rule in Krugman's celebrated model to form symmetric trading blocs. We hold that to maintain logical consistency in a world of symmetric trading blocs, an individual bloc should act on the actions of other individual external blocs in a one-to-one fashion, rather than to the actions of the rest of the world as a whole as assumed by Krugman, and show that Krugman's seemingly innocuous choice of the world price of a given good as the numéraire will produce asymmetry in the optimum Nash equilibrium tariff. We prove that the optimal tariff schedule is monotonically decreasing in our relative bloc size, and that the world welfare increases with our new relative bloc size as the latter grows beyond the lowest-welfare pessimal number, which is rather small by our simulations. Though confined to symmetric trading blocs, this paper fortifies the analytical foundation of Krugman's model. In some sense, it reinforces Kemp–Wan–Shimomura's and Ohyama–Panagariya–Krishna's results with the provisos that countries are symmetric and interact mutually in a symmetric fashion without a compensation scheme. It strengthens the case of regionalism as a stepping stone (building bloc) toward a complete world economic integration.

Современные исследования социального государства в России

The article presents the modern approaches of Russian authors to the analysis of the concept of welfare state. An analysis of the historiography of the problems of the welfare state allows us to conclude about the interdisciplinary nature of the research object. Each science forms its own subject and research methodology. The welfare state model appears to be a stage in the development of a late industrial society. With the transition to a post-industrial society, the welfare state does not disappear, but transforms. The Russian model of the welfare state is significantly influenced by the historical experience of paternalism of the Soviet and pre-Soviet eras. Global trends in demography, digitalization and inequality appear to be challenges for the existing model of a welfare state not only in Russia, but also in foreign countries. The response to the challenges presupposes the modernization of social policy from above and public initiative from below. The reproduction of human capital and the quality of life of the population are becoming priority goals, and the development of technology, economic growth, trade and military blocs are the means to achieve these goals.

Deepening Ties but Unfulfilled Hopes: The EFTA Dimension of Western Europe’s Relations with Tito’s Yugoslavia

This article examines the evolution of the European Free Trade Association’s (EFTA) relationship with Yugoslavia during the reign of Josip Broz Tito. EFTA has largely been written out of accounts of Western Europe’s ties to Belgrade, despite being one of the two principal economic forums on the continent alongside the European Economic Community (EEC). This article, by contrast, posits that the relationship did matter. Notwithstanding its status as an intergovernmental, purely economic free trade bloc, EFTA’s attitude was in fact shaped by politico-strategic considerations relating to the Cold War – be it concerns about the independence of Yugoslavia vis-a-vis the Soviet bloc or the prospect that ties with Belgrade might act as a stepping-stone towards East-West détente. The cooperation that emerged should therefore act as a reminder of EFTA’s agency during the Cold War and its relevance to post-war European politics. Yet while this relationship pervaded over three decades, its intensity waxed and waned, and EFTA-Yugoslav cooperation often fell short of what both the Yugoslavs and some of EFTA’s own members hoped would materialise. As well as tracing the relationship that did develop, therefore, the article also explores why it did not translate into deeper, more meaningful collaboration.

IMPACT OF THE EGYPTIAN PARTNERSHIP IN ECONOMIC BLOCS AND BILATERAL AGREEMENTS ON Egypt's AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS

The study aimed to answer three questions, the first of which looks at the difference in the volume of Egyptian agricultural exports between countries that enter into economic or bilateral blocs with Egypt from their counterparts that do not share with Egypt.The results were as follows: The average volume of Egypt's exports of oranges, grapes, potatoes, and onions to the countries with which Egypt has agreements reached about 26, 2, 22, 13 thousand tons as an average for the period 1986-2017, respectively. While the average volume of exports of the same crops to countries with which Egypt is not bound by any form of agreements was about 27, 2.5, 62, 27 thousand tons during the same period. The significant differences between the quantities exported of the four crops to different countries were also proven. Moving to the second question, which reflects the effect of activating trade agreements or blocs on the change in the volume of exports of the study crops, the results were as follows:The results of the t-test for the differences between the two averages before and after the agreement showed that all the differences between the average exports of Egyptian oranges after and before activating the agreements between the countries referred to in the research were significant, except for Jordan and Kuwait. In the case of the grape crop, the results showed that all the differences between the average exports of Egyptian grapes were insignificant after and before activating the agreements.All the differences between average exports of potatoes after and before activating the agreements between the aforementioned countries, with the exception of Greece and Germany, were also found to be significant. Finally, regarding the onion crop, the results indicated that all the differences between the average exports of Egyptian onions after and before activating the agreements from the countries referred to in the study were significant, except for the countries of Kuwait and Greece.Finally, regarding the third question, which examines the effect of activating the agreements on the behavior of agricultural exports to the countries participating with Egypt in trade agreements only, it shows that the regression function model is significant in general for the four crops, regardless that this significance was in the function segment only or the slope only or both together.

The Impact of African Continental Free Trade agreement

The birth of African Continental Free Trade agreement which came into effect on the 1st of January 2021, has a huge positive impact on the continent. The implementation has brought about enormous economic growth in African countries. African Continental Free Trade agreement is the World largest trade bloc since the creation of World Trade Organisation in 1994. It has united 1.3billion people and with annual trade potential of over $4trillion. The implementation of AfCFTA has increased the movement of people across the subregion ahead of the planned/envisaged introduction of continental passport. In all paradigms, AfCFTA has unlocked the growth and development potentials tied down for decades. This is a gigantic step toward the actualisation of the four-cardinal principle/pillar laid down by the founding fathers of the African Union, which are: Economic, political, social, and technological integration. The unity of African countries depends solely on their economic integration brought about by the implement of AfCFTA. This is the vehicle that will take African continent out of the abject poverty, under-development, and low standard of living. The free trade agreement is a win-win for all the African countries. It has boosted, trading activities, production capacity, employment aggregate and income gains on the continent.

Foreign aid and economic growth: Do energy consumption, trade openness and CO2 emissions matter? A DSUR heterogeneous evidence from Africa’s trading blocs

The paramount vision of every country or sub-regions is to attain economic growth and sustainable economic growth. The paradigm drift of studies into foreign aid and sustainable economic growth has shown conflicting results that play on researchers to fill the gap of knowledge void. The plurality of studies looked at economic growth and foreign aid in single countries. However, one of the major determinants of sustainable growth such as CO2 emissions and trade goes beyond the boundaries of a country. Deductively, grouped countries or sub-regional studies are needed to ascertain the heterogeneous relationship and cross-sectional dependency among panels grouping. We fill these gaps with the recent empirical methodology to unveil the impact of foreign aid, CO2 emissions, trade openness, and energy consumption on economic growth. Thus a percentage rise in foreign aid corresponds to different significant weights in all panel groupings with exception of Southern African Development Community, which unveiled a non-significant estimate. Whereas trade openness in all panel grouping indicated a significant weight on economic growth. An increase in CO2 emissions has a significant material effect on economic growth in Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Economic Community of West African States, and Community of Sahel-Saharan States. The impact of energy consumption on economic growth across the panel groupings was statistically significant with Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa having the highest weight impact. These results obtained in this study indicate that foreign aid, energy consumption, trade openness, and CO2 emissions are positively correlated with economic growth. Based on the finding, the significant of the policy implications suggested. (a) The need for a paradigm shift from fossil fuel sources to renewables is encouraged in the various trading blocs (b) The need to embrace carbon storage and capturing techniques to decouple pollutant emissions from economic growth on the continent’s growth trajectory.

The Vulnerability Problem of Business Ecosystems under Global Decoupling

[...]the post-Cold War global economic growth era saw the establishment of various regional trading blocs, such as the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, creating a decentralized network structure (see Figure 1b). [...]since the dawn of the 21st century, we have started seeing free trade agreements extended beyond regions, such as the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), characterizing a more distributed network structure (see Figure 1c). According to the World Bank's (2020) analysis on world economies based on purchasing power parity (PPP), the PPP-based GDP's regional portions have become similar to each other (see Figure 2). [...]these populistic programs can be reinforced by social identity like cultural and racial attitudes. [...]the appeals of the populists to the working class that wants to recover their low-skilled jobs in developed countries have provoked global decoupling like Brexit and protectionism.

An Analysis of Determinant Factors in Agricultural Trade between India and ASEAN

Considering the significance of trade relation between India and ASEAN, the present study was conducted to analyze the determinants of India-ASEAN trade in agricultural products. This study incorporated HS 2-digit codes from 01 to 24 chapters, which constituted 85 percent of the total chapter falling under agricultural products. To perceive the significance of ASEAN as a major trading partner, shares of India's trade with ASEAN relative to the world was computed via trade intensity approach. Furthermore, the gravity model was employed to witness the determinants of agriculture trade between the two trading partners. The study found that the GDP of ASEAN and India, the common border between the two trading blocs, was positive and significant. The variable distance and landlocked was observed to be negative and significant, which confirmed that trade would decrease if distance increases and if the country was landlocked, respectively. Interestingly, variables like FTA, GDP of India, common language, and common colony showed no significant effect on the bilateral trade.

EU Country and EFTA Country Export Differences

This research seeks to analyze the export differences facing countries in the EU and EFTA. This is firstly to analyze the effects on international trade of the trade bloc of the European Union (EU), and secondly the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and provide a comparison of these two. This research seeks to analyze exports determinants to answer these two questions. There are two countries selected for this study, the small EFTA country Iceland, and the large EU country UK, before BREXIT. We apply a gravity model in our econometric analysis, with exports dependent on the gross domestic product, population, and geographic distance. We estimate these effects on the exports of both the UK and Iceland in separate equation systems. We conclude that exports from the UK, before BREXIT, are more negatively affected by geographical distance than exports for the EFTA country Iceland, when corrected for gross domestic product and population size.

INDIAS TRADE RELATIONS WITH SAARC - SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SAFTA

India played a proactive role in determining the of South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) due to its economic strength. This study highlights recent trends in Indias total trade relationship with SAFTA economies in general, and with each trade bloc members particularly during the period, from 2010 to 2019.The paper employs the compound annual growth ratetechnique to find out the growth rate of Indias exports and imports. Also, a trend analysis has been made on Indias exports and imports, total tradebalance of trade with south Asian countries. The trend shows that in general both imports and exports were increasing over time except a negative export and total trade balance with Pakistan and import trade balance with Maldives. Bhutan and Bangladesh were the leading trade partners of India in south asian region. However, depending up on the economic and political conditions of the trading countries exhibit a characteristic trend unique to their own country in trading with India.

Agriculture trade policy measures and geopolitics in major regional trading blocs: Policy advocacy

AbstractTrading blocs are usually groups of countries in specific regions that manage and endorse trade activities. The present status of agricultural support, tariff, and non‐tariff measures of WTO members has critical issues for debate on trade policy. The study is a quantitative analysis and framework of geopolitical effects of WTO measures on the most significant regional trading blocs and global agriculture. The study found that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trading blocs were highly supporting the agricultural sector followed by South Asian Free Trade Area in terms of total support estimates, whereas reverse trends in terms of producer support estimates. North American Free Trade Agreement imposed the highest number of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, anti‐dumping, countervailing, and special safeguards. However, ASEAN trading bloc imposed more number of safeguards and quantitative restrictions. European Free Trade Area and Common Market of the South, South American Regional Economic Organization trading blocs imposed higher tariff rate quotas and export subsidies, respectively. India gave more price advantage to domestic goods. The United States and the European Union imposed higher tariffs on both agriculture and non‐agriculture sectors. Globally, most of the countries' Agricultural Orientation Index (AOI) has less than unity indicating not giving priority to agriculture in budget allocation except for South Korea and Switzerland. These findings will have significant impact on world trade negotiations, world trading rules, designing WTO agreements or policies or programs, multilateral agreements.

A Policy Approach towards Achieving Regional Economic Resilience in Developing Countries: Evidence from the SADC

External economic shocks such as the global financial crisis (GFC) affect regional economic growth in developing regions through impacting export demand and capital inflows. Resilience to these economic shocks—i.e., the ability to recover from the initial impact and prolonged effects of said shocks—is influenced by the inherent vulnerability of regional economies to their impact. The research objective is to investigate regional economic resilience policy in the context of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the wider perspective of trading blocs among developing countries. Central hereto is undertaking an equilibrium and econometric analysis to identify endogenous and exogenous factors of the regional economy that influence economic resilience. Analysis findings indicate that economic openness, export market dynamics and sectoral composition may influence economic resilience. SADC vulnerability may be attributed to the dependence on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and exports to higher-income markets, relatively low import tariffs and the comparative importance of tertiary activities to output. A balanced regional policy approach is required: one focused on industrialization, while incorporating elements to support economic resilience. The latter includes increased intra-regional trade anchored in the development of regional supply and value chains which support primary sector activities, and capacitated supranational institutions to oversee regional integration initiatives.

Co-opetition Relationships and Evolution of the World Dairy Trade Network: Implications for Policy-Maker Psychology.

This study conducted a social network analysis of the evolutionary characteristics of the world dairy trade network based on the overall trade pattern. In addition, the evolution of trade blocs and the co-opetition relationships involving dairy products in major countries were analyzed in terms of supply and demand. The results show that continuous and complex changes have taken place in the world’s dairy trade network since 2001. The number of trade entities in dairy products has stabilized since 2012. At present, approximately 94% of countries (regions) are involved in dairy product trade, such that the world dairy trade network exhibits the small-world effect and scale-free property. The world import pattern for dairy products has changed. While export centers have not changed, import centers have shifted from Europe, America, and East Asia to North America, East Asia, and the Middle East. The world dairy trade network consists of the EU trade bloc headed by Germany, the former Soviet Union–Brazil trade bloc, and the Asia–Australia–America trade bloc. The trade blocs have evolved due to geographical positions, historical cultures, and political relations. In a trade bloc, the diversification of import sources is more prominent in demand countries. European and Asian markets have become the main markets of the major exporters. In this study, the evolutionary characteristics of the world dairy trade network and the co-opetition relationships were analyzed to provide scientific support to inform the development of dairy trade policies. The results can provide technical and psychological support to policy-makers in various countries in their dairy trade decision-making.

Critical Success Factors for Data Governance of Cross-border e-Trade Data Among ASEAN Member States

Global trading partners continue to adopt increasingly more multilateral and regional trade agreements amidst an overwhelmingly paperless and digital landscape. This can create useful trade alliances and increased efficiencies of digitization, but world trade is still plagued by the near absence of a uniform, harmonised customs and clearance protocol systems which trading partners accept and adhere to. Historically, customs forms and documentation requirements all differ from one nation to the next, and from one trading bloc to another. Un-uniformity in this area thwarts swift and cost-saving exchange of goods. The EU, North America and the northern Asian nations of Japan, China and South Korea have created various constructs to rectify digital trade dissonance. Southeast Asia famously began construction of the ASW (ASEAN Single Window), a single portal protocol intended to harmonise digital trading throughout the process from origin to destination, and its various successes and continuing challenges will be explored in this article. This research article focuses on and explores critical success factors for better governance of cross-border trade in the ASEAN region by conducting a systematic literature review of data governance related to electronic data exchanges by cross-border trading partners. This study uses a realistic approach while attempting to provide a clear view of the overarching picture of the trade world’s digital exchange challenges.

International health and safety standards after Brexit

Brexit is seen by many in the UK government and the Conservative Party as an opportunity to further undermine workers’ rights and intensify the ‘race to the bottom’ under the guise of improving the UK’s global competitiveness. It looks very likely that workplace health and safety standards in particular will come under renewed attack. At the same time, the advent of new trade agreements with other states and trading blocs will mean that UK compliance with benchmark international standards on regulation generally, and worker health and safety in particular, will come under more intense scrutiny. The ILO is the single most important organisation charged with developing global legal standards for workplace rights. Historically, the UK government has deliberately avoided formal agreement with ILO health and safety standards. It has only ratified 6 of the 36 ‘up-to-date’ and interim health and safety Conventions and Protocols. This puts it on par with the following countries that have also ratified 6: Cameroon, Comoros,El Salvador, Guyana, Libya, Lithuania, Mauritius, Mozambique, North Macedonia, and Saudi Arabia. In a league table of EU states’ ratification of ILO health and safety Conventions and Protocols, the UK is 26th out of 28. Only Romania and Estonia have signed up to less. Despite this appalling record of non-ratification, the UK remains bound by both the European Social Charter and the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Those treaties use ILO health and safety Conventions as the primary source of their evolving standards. This means that ILO standards apply to the UK, albeit indirectly, even if it has not yet ratified the relevant ILO instruments.This will remain the case whether or not the UK continues to be bound by the EU treaties and regardless of the type of trade agreement agreed between the UK and the EU, or any another trading bloc or state.This article argues that the UK trade union movement must take the initiative in demanding that the UK complies with ILO standards. This means ratifying those Conventions and Protocols it is yet to sign up to and ensuring effective implementation of those that it has. UK government compliance with international law will not be achieved easily. Ultimately this is a goal that must be fought for through renewed trade union campaigns at a political level as well as at a workplace level.

The International Energy Trade Pattern Reshaping, Competition and Energy Revolution

Under the global economic slowdown and shale oil and gas technology revolution, the current international energy trade is reshaping, forming a new one whose characteristics are totally different from the old. The energy price fluctuations, the international energy supply and demand structure have been shuffled, and the geopolitical landscape has changed. The energy trade bloc led by the United states realizes self-circulation and high stability. The differentiation of the supply and demand in East Asia-Southeast Asia trade bloc has expanded, the risks increasing. The U.S. geopolitical leadership becomes more and more strong. The energy giants such as Saudi Arabia and Russia competed in production and price are further strengthening this trend. At present, an energy revolution is imperative. It is necessary to focus on improving energy efficiency and energy use structure. There is also have an effect on the global production. The distributions of world's manufacturing industry will readjust due to the costs.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Regional Integration in Asia

In Asia, SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation), ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) and GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) are being considered as an active regional trading blocs although East Asian integration is on primary cooperation stage and BIMSTEC is treated as organised sub-regional trading bloc. The GCC has completed all criterion of economic integration except introduction of a single currency and ASEAN is advancing its optimum stage of monetary integration but the advancement of SAARC is halted by the shock of non-cooperation from Pakistan. Therefore, contribution of GCC in integrating Asian bloc is to scrutinise in a new outlook. In this paper, the author endeavours to show the impact of economic integration of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on the Asian economic integration in the sense that the process of integration of GCC with SAARC and ASEAN can accelerate the criterion of Asian integration process. Therefore, the author used cointegration and vector error correction model among the indicators of trade integration of exports such as Asian export share, intra export share of GCC, export concentration index of GCC, ASEAN’s export with GCC and SAARC’s export with GCC during 1995-2019. Similarly, the author applied same methodology among the trade indicator of imports such as Asian import share, intra import share of GCC, import concentration index of GCC, ASEAN’s import with GCC and SAARC’s import with GCC during the specified period. The findings revealed that Asian export share has long run significant causalities with SAARC and ASEAN export shares to GCC. Intra export share of GCC has long run causalities with SAARC and ASEAN export shares to GCC. The export concentration index of GCC has significant long run causalities with SAARC and ASEAN export shares to GCC respectively. Even, the short run causalities from export concentration index of GCC to intra export share of GCC, export share of ASEAN and SAARC with GCC and the short run causality from ASEAN export share with GCC to export share of Asia and from intra export share of GCC to export share of ASEAN with GCC were strictly observed. Again, the import share of Asia has long run causalities with the import shares of ASEAN and SAARC with GCC. The intra import share of GCC has long run causalities with the import shares of ASEAN and SAARC with GCC and the import concentration index of GCC has long run causalities with the import shares of ASEAN and SAARC with GCC respectively. The intra import share of GCC has short run causalities with import share of Asia, import concentration index of GCC and import share of ASEAN with GCC respectively. The import concentration index has short run causality with the import share of Asia. The import share of SAARC with GCC has short run causality with import share of ASEAN with GCC. The cointegration and vector error correction among Asian GDP, sum of intra export and import shares of GCC, sum of export and import shares of ASEAN with GCC, and sum of export and import shares of SAARC with GCC during 1995-2019 indicated that the GDP of Asia has long run causalities with the sum of intra export and import shares of GCC, the sum of export and import shares of ASEAN with GCC and the sum of export and import shares of SAARC with GCC and even they have short run causalities also. All these observations can justify that GCC has great impact on Asian economic integration process associated with SAARC and ASEAN.

Unequal trade, unequal gains: the heterogeneous impact of MERCOSUR

We estimate the impact of MERCOSUR on trade flows and on gains from trade for its member countries using a standard modern general equilibrium quantitative structural gravity model. We find a highly heterogeneous impact on bilateral trade flows and gains from trade. We estimate that gains from trade attributable to MERCOSUR are equivalent to a 4.0 % increase in per-capita consumption for Argentina. For the other countries, gains from trade are smaller: 0.8 % for Uruguay, 0.5 % for Paraguay, and 0.3 % for Brazil. We study whether Brazil would benefit from withdrawing from MERCOSUR and signing a trade agreement with a different trade bloc but conclude that net gains from such a switch would be small, if any.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ ФУНКЦИОНИРОВАНИЯ МОДЕЛЕЙ ТОРГОВО-ИНВЕСТИЦИОННОГО ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЯ СТРАН В РЕГИОНЕ ЮГО-ВОСТОЧНОЙ АЗИИ И НА ПОСТСОВЕТСКОМ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕ

The article examines the development trends of models of trade, investment and economic integration in the region in Southeast Asia and the post-Soviet space. Particular attention is paid to new trends in the escalation of multilateral trade agreements. Such agreements, which previously used the WTO platform, are increasingly beginning to act as its alternative. In this regard, the issues of mutual influence of participants due to the development of trade, investment activity, the location of production of TNCs, the optimization of economic activities in the light of digitalization, the development of e-commerce, logistics, banking technolo-gies are increasingly regulated by mega-regional agreements. The complex activity of overcoming trade bar-riers by such different countries within the framework of the mega-agreement and their readiness to consist-ently increase the level of trade and investment interaction between the participants are undoubtedly one of the features of modern Asia-Pacific regionalism. As the largest trade and integration bloc in the post-Soviet space, the EAEU is becoming a platform for promoting the geopolitical and economic interests of its members in the foreign policy space. Currently, the EAEU is the only functioning integration association promoting the interests of the union with third countries, including in the East Asian direction.