Value Of World Trade Research Articles

Robots responding to care needs? A multitasking care robot pursued for 25\xa0years, available products offer simple entertainment and instrumental assistance

Twenty-five years ago, robotics guru Joseph Engelberger had a mission to motivate research teams all over the world to design the ‘Elderly Care Giver’, a multitasking personal robot assistant for everyday care needs in old age. In this article, we discuss how this vision of omnipotent care robots has influenced the design strategies of care robotics, the development of R&D initiatives and ethics research on use of care robots. Despite the expectations of robots revolutionizing care of older people, the role of robots in human care has remained marginal. The value of world trade in service robots, including care robots, is rather small. We argue that the implementation of robots in care is not primarily due to negative user attitudes or ethical problems, but to problems in R&D and manufacturing. The care robots currently available on the market are capable of simple, repetitive tasks or colloquial interaction. Thus far, also research on care robots is mostly conducted using imaginary scenarios or small-scale tests built up for research purposes. To develop useful and affordable robot solutions that are ethically, socially and ecologically sustainable, we suggest that robot initiatives should be evaluated within the framework of care ecosystems. This implies that attention has to be paid to the social, emotional and practical contexts in which care is given and received. Also, the political, economic and ecological realities of organizing care and producing technological commodities have to be acknowledged. It is time to openly discuss the drivers behind care robot initiatives to outline the bigger picture of organizing care under conditions of limited resources.

A New Approach to Sea Transportation

This study has been conducted to detect the strengths and the improvement requiring areas of sea transportation in Turkey via SWOT analysis, and the opportunities this sector brings to Turkey and the threats that might appear have been put forward in several aspects. When the necessary advances have been made considering the outcomes of this study, it can be foreseen that Turkish navigation can make a swift progress and assume its place in the top 5 mercantile fleets of the World Trade Fleet. Moreover, this new approach that can be developed through the example of Turkey, especially in the context of SWOT analysis methodology, can get to be seen as a role model before the other developing countries.Sea transportation is not merely a transportation sector. Along with goods and human transportation, ship building industry, port services, sea insurance and sea tourism are among the many naval activities. Because of all these, sea transportation has a significant place in international trade. The overall commercial value of world trade mounting up to 15 trillion US dollars, 9 trillion dollars of this has been conducted via sea transportation. In other words, 60 percent of world commerce has been done through sea transportation (GISBIR, 2013). Furthermore, the volume of the dry bulk market via sea transportation is expected to grow by 6 percent between the years 2014 and 2018 (GISBIR, 2013).

World chicken meat market - its development and current status

The global meat market and primarily the chicken meat market represents a very dynamically developing area. The objective of the present article is the analysis of the chicken meat market in the world in order to identify the basic development trends associated with the development of production of and trade in chicken meat, and also in order to identify the individual entities controlling the global chicken meat market. In methodological terms, the article analyzes the development of production of, consumption of and trade (export and import) in chicken meat in the years 1961-2009. The main sources of data necessary for the processing of the individual analyses are the FAOSTAT and UN COMTRADE databases. The results of the conducted analysis show the following findings. World production of poultry meat increased from 7.5 million tons to more than 86 million tons. The global market reacted in a flexible manner, in which there was an increase in volumes of executed trade from 271 thousand tons/year in the year 1961 to more than 10.7 million tons/year in the year 2010. Further, the value of world trade in chicken meat within the analyzed period increased from approximately USD 169 million to approximately USD 16 billion. If we analyze the global chicken meat market, it may be stated that it is very concentrated. The analysis of the global market further shows that Brazil, the USA and China represent, in terms of global production, consumption and trade, the main driving force on the chicken meat market. These three countries have a share in global production of approximately 46%, their share in global consumption ranges at a level of over 40%. The share of these countries in global export ranges at a level exceeding 50%.

The impacts of the global economic crisis on selected segments of the world trade in commodities

This paper deals with the impacts of the economic crisis on the world trade in order to highlight the mutual interdependence of the development of the world output and trade. The paper observes mutual correlation in development of the world trade and output. The results of the analysis indicate that changes in the value of world GDP and world trade are correlated by more than 90%. It is important to mention that in the years 2000–2009, the value of world trade and world output increased significantly (although in 2009, a significant decline in both value and volume of global production and trade was recorded due to the crisis). In relation to the world trade, it should be noted that its commodity structure is dominated by trade in manufactures. The crisis that occurred in the period 2008–2009 greatly affected the world economy and trade in particular. In this respect it should be pointed out that the crisis mainly affected trade in manufactures and then trade in fuels and mining outputs in terms of both absolute and relative indicators. Agrarian trade dealt with the crisis the best and the impact of the crisis on development of its values and volume was the least significant. This verifies the fact that agrarian and food products tend to be the most resistant to the crisis (on contrary, in times of global economic growth or reconstruction, the trade in agrarian and food products shows lower degree of elasticity in relation to the global GDP growth in comparison to other segments of commodities trade).

Trends in alcohol production, trade and consumption

This paper is a survey of the structure and significance of international trade in alcoholic beverages in the contemporary world economy. It presents data on the level of trade in the main alcoholic beverages for the period since 1970. The constant-dollar value of this trade grew by a factor of 2.1 between 1975 and 1992. It represents approximately one half of the one per cent of the value of world trade in all commodities. This proportion has remained very stable over the past 20 years. International trade in beer, wine and spirits has greatly extended the range of alcoholic beverages available around the world and reduced their cost. It has played a large part in the tendency for convergence in the patterns of alcohol consumption, as countries diversify away from their dependence on locally produced beverages. Traditional spirits-drinking and beer-drinking countries have witnessed very rapid increases in the consumption of wine, while heavy wine drinking countries have seen rapid growth of the consumption of beer. While imported beverages remain relatively unimportant in total consumption of alcoholic beverages, they have played a significant role in the growth and diversification of alcohol consumption in many countries.

Chapter II. The World Economy

Our view of the world economy has on the whole changed very little since February. Fuller information tends to confirm our main estimates for 1971, in particular that real economic growth in the OECD countries was around 3¼ per cent and that the dollar value of world trade increased by just over 11 per cent (of which price changes accounted for rather less than half). And we still expect OECD growth in 1972 to be close to 5 per cent and the rise in dollar value of trade around 17 per cent, with prices and volume contributing fairly equally. It is, however, hard to say whether or not this assessment is supported by developments so far this year, as the course of both output and trade has been affected by strikes, and the relatively mild weather in Western Europe in the early months appears to have mitigated the normal seasonal fall on the Continent in output and employment.

Chapter V. World Economy

Last February we suggested that the aggregate volume of national output (GNP) of the member countries of OECD would rise in 1970 by 3 per cent and the dollar value of world trade by about 9 per cent. We now estimate that the rise in output was appreciably below our forecast, at about 2½ per cent, but that the rise in the value of world trade was probably as high as 15 per cent, which would mean that it was the biggest since the Korean War 20 years ago.

Chapter 2. The World Economy

Fuller information confirms the estimates which we made six months ago and repeated in February that the total real national output of the industrial countries increased in 1967 by about 3 per cent and the value of world trade by 5 per cent. But, though the errors were not big in relation to the aggregate for the year, it has now become clear that our assessment of trends in the later months was not entirely accurate. The resumption of fairly rapid economic growth in North America of which we were already aware was in fact accompanied to a significantly greater extent than we previously realised by a parallel acceleration in continental Western Europe.

Chapter II. The World Economy

Developments prior to devaluation had not greatly altered the position as it appeared to us in August. The fuller information now available confirms that there was little change in the second quarter either in industrial production or in the value of world trade. The check to the growth of trade, which continued into the early part of the third quarter, was, however, rather more severe than we had supposed, particularly in the case of industrial countries' trade with one another.

Chapter IV. The World Overseas

1963 was a good year for world production and a very good year for world trade. Most industrial economies expanded quite strongly, and for the free world as a whole industrial production rose by about 5 per cent—not quite such a big rise as in 1962, but bigger than in 1961. The value of world trade increased very sharply, particularly in primary products : in the third quarter of 1963 trade was running at a level about 10 per cent higher than a year before, and there was probably another big rise in the fourth quarter.

International Monetary Fund

The eighteenth annual report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the fiscal year ending April 30, 1963, was transmitted to the Board of Governors on July 11, 1963, by the Acting Chairman of the Executive Board, Mr. Frank A. Southard, Jr. Summarizing the world payments situation, the report indicated that economic activity continued during 1962 to expand in most industrial countries. Exceptions to this general upward trend were recorded in the United Kingdom and Japan and were seen partly as the result of policies directed toward strengthening the balance of payments. In both 1961 and 1962 the value of world trade was some 5 percent higher than in the preceding year, and in 1962 the increase in the value of exports of primary producing countries as a group almost kept pace with that of the manufacturing countries, although declines in the prices of certain products adversely affected some nations.

International Monetary Fund

The sixteenth annual report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ending April 30, 1961, was transmitted to the Chairman of the Board of Governors on June 23, 1961, by Mr. Per Jacobsson, Chairman of the Executive Board. The report stated that in contrast to the year 1959, when virtually all countries had participated in world-wide expansion, the year 1960 and early part of 1961 had presented a less unified picture. For the world as a whole, the expansionary elements had considerably outweighed the contractionary elements. World industrial production, excluding the countries of the Soviet area, had been almost 6 percent greater in 1960 than in 1959, having grown by 10 percent; and the value of world trade had increased by 12 percent, compared with 6 percent in 1959. The stimulus for the rise in world trade had come predominantly from the booming European industrial countries and from Japan, which had increased their imports by nearly 20 percent; there had been a slight decline in imports from the United States and Canada. The imports of the less-industrialized countries had also increased considerably, by some 10 percent. Trade developments during 1960 had improved the basic international payments situation in some respects. Rising exports and slightly declining imports caused an increase in the surplus of private goods and services account in the United States. West Germany's surplus also increased, while France's remained stationary; decreases had been noted in several other industrial countries, in particular Japan and Italy, where the rate of economic expansion had been exceptionally high, and in the United Kingdom, mainly due to the sharp growth of imports associated with their high level of economic activity.

International Liquidity: Ends and Means

COUNTRY'S external liquidity consists of such resources as are readily available to its monetary authorities for the purpose of financing deficits in its balance of payments and defending the stability of its rate of exchange. These resources may take the form of liquid assets, such as gold and foreign exchange, or of facilities for borrowing such assets from abroad. The first part of this paper sets forth criteria for determining, in principle, the most desirable aggregate amount, composition, and, to a lesser extent, country distribution of external liquidity in the world. The second part deals with the instrumentalities that are, or might conceivably be, used to attain or approach these optima. Much that has been written in the postwar period about the adequacy of world reserves or world liquidity would appear to rest on uncertain logical foundations. One frequent approach is to estimate a figure for required or optimal reserves, by starting from some past date when total reserves are supposed to have been roughly satisfactory and adjusting this total for the growth in the value of world trade between the base date and the present time. While the value of world trade is, admittedly, a relevant consideration, there are many other dynamic factors affecting the need for reserves. This is emphasized in many of the writings in which such historical comparisons appear.' It is not surprising, therefore, that calculations starting from different base dates, at each of which reserves may have been roughly satisfactory, yield enormously different results. Moreover, if it is possible to say that reserves were or were not adequate at the base date, one wonders if it is not possible to apply the same criteria

International Monetary Fund

The annual report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1960, was transmitted to the Chairman of the Board of Governors on July 8, 1960. In its discussion of the world economy in 1959–1960 the report noted that the year which ended April 30 had been marked by a continual upswing in world industrial activity and an increase in world trade, with industrial production up 10 percent over the recession year of 1958 and the value of world trade increased by 6 percent. During this period of business expansion the leading industrial countries had achieved remarkable success in the delicate task of maintaining a high degree of economic stability, without having to place severe restraint on the forces which helped to sustain the expansion of output and real income. The prices of many industrial materials, especially metals, recovered, but the market for primary products remained weak, and the prices of foodstuffs declined. It became evident that, given the mildness of the postwar recessions, the most pressing problem for primary producing countries was not that of finding compensatory finance in connection with short-run fluctuations in export proceeds, but rather that of establishing a satisfactory long-run trend in the volume and prices of exports and of preventing inflationary pressures from causing imports to expand beyond the available resources of foreign exchange. During the year under consideration the lessening of inflationary pressures and the marked strengthening of the payments structure of the world, along with the increasing supplies of both primary and manufactured products, created a situation in which international competition made itself felt more and more strongly.

International Monetary Fund

The annual report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ending April 30, 1953, was transmitted to the Chairman of the Board of Governors on July 1, 1953. By the beginning of 1953, the report noted, the foreign exchange imbalance and the internal inflationary pressures, which had been engendered by the outbreak of the Korean war and the subsequent speculative inflationary boom, were being successfully combatted in most countries. The widespread payments crisis of early 1952 had affected the raw materials producing countries most severely; falling raw materials prices, resulting in reduced income, had been coupled with increased demands for imports, resulting from higher domestic incomes and the requirements of development projects. Export countries, especially those which relied on raw materials producers for dollar earnings, were also affected by the price fluctuations. Measures adopted in the various affected countries to combat the payments imbalances and the reduction of excessive inventories led to a sharp contraction in the volume of world trade in 1952; by the third quarter, the value of world imports was 10 percent less than the previous year. The United States did not contribute markedly to this decline; in fact, for the year as a whole the volume of United States imports was 5 percent greater than in 1951, although this was primarily due to a great increase in the last quarter of the year. Declines in the volume and value of world trade, it was feared, might lead to further progressive deterioration; however, by the beginning of 1953, the greater part of the distortions initiated by the outbreak of Korean hostilities had been eliminated.