This study discusses the validity of one of the central claims of the Lome Conventions, that of creating a model of relations between developed and developing countries. This is examined with particular reference to two groups of Caribbean rum producing countries. The principal aim is to analyse the main arguments that account for the limited success of the Lome agreement in substantially improving the development prospects of the West Indies Rum and Spirits Producers' Association (WIRSPA) specifically and the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries generally. The study contends that some of the reasons for the limited success of Lome, as well as much of the disappointments of the WIRSPA and the rest of the ACP countries, were due to their level of initial and exaggerated expectations during the mid 1970s. Despite their complaints and criticisms to the contrary, this study concludes that the main provisions of the Lome Conventions and the Rum Protocols were entirely in keeping with the spirit of the Convention, part of which was to enhance trade expansion and diversification for all ACP states.

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This thesis concerns the analysis of implicature in discourse, with the aim of furthering the investigation of the role of implicature in the discursive formation of world views. Two small corpora of AU and EU speeches on the topic of free-trade agreements are used to exemplify the theory and methodology. From a theoretical point of view, I draw on work on context configuration and inferencing in Cognitive Pragmatics, as well as on work concerning syntactic and semantic frames in Cognitive Linguistics. In this approach clauses are parsed, following FrameNet, according to a target and a frame as a syntactic governor, in addition to semantic frames in the sense of an organisation of knowledge in the mind. The aim is first to find out how the two text producers frame the proposed free-trade contract, as well as the institutions involved, including themselves and the WTO. Using these results, we secondly examine how they discursively construct their respective knowledge on free trade, and with those slot-filler relations in mind, we consider, thirdly, which implicatures each discursive participant may be intending to generate about their view of the proposed free-trade contracts. The findings from the overall analysis show an almost entirely overlapping set of semantic frames, e.g. FREE TRADE, FREE-TRADE CONTRACT, AID and EU, found in both the AU and EU corpora. The corresponding slots for the frames, however, are filled very differently by the respective discursive participants. This, in turn, means that the resulting implicatures all contrast, so that essentially the ‘take- home’ message of the AU and EU speeches is ‘don’t sign the free-trade contract!’ and 'sign...!' respectively.

Improving connectivity is increasingly a topic at the centre of the international trade and transport policy agendas. An examination on available documents and studies in both the policy-making and the academic fields shows that the concept of connectivity has often been defined in different ways, and thus has taken a variety of meanings. This poses the questions: what is freight connectivity?; what are its determinants in the context of international trade? The researcher is not aware of any study that has analysed, in a comprehensive and systematic way, the different perspectives, determinants and measures of connectivity to international markets. Using a mixed-methods approach that includes a systematic literature review encompassing literature in the fields of Transport Engineering and Economics, International Economics, Supply Chain Management, Physics and Transport Geography; a survey and in-depth interviews in three countries; comparative analysis of connectivity metrics in a variety of fields; and network analysis of over 100 networks, this Dissertation contributes to fill this gap by providing: (i) a complex systems approach to connectivity to international markets; (ii) a comprehensive definition of connectivity to international markets which encompasses the different factors that influence it; and (iii) a novel method to assess connectivity to international markets using network analysis. Further contributions of this research include insights on the multi-layered characteristics of both international trade flows and its support system; the perspective of emerging economies; and the study of a region – the Americas – mostly overlooked by the literature on complex systems applied to trade and transport networks. It is expected that a multi-disciplinary, comprehensive and more precise understanding and assessment of the determinants of connectivity will contribute to identify and design more effective policies to address barriers impeding the fast, smooth access to international markets, as well as guide future multi-disciplinary research and analysis in academia and policy-making.

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In the 1980s, Mexico utilised trade liberalisation policies as part of an overarching globalisation policy initiative, which has extended to their policies through the 1990s and 2000s. Nevertheless, there lacks a comprehensive and long term discussion of the effect these policies have had on the Mexican economy over the last thirty years, especially in relation to their performance pre- liberalisation and the intersection of multiple economic crises. Therefore, this thesis studies the impact of the trade liberalisation policies on different aspects of the Mexican economy, in order to provide a robust discussion and understanding of how these policies can impact a developing country. Given the previous policies, what was the impact of these policies on not only economic trade, but also income inequality and the agriculture sector? Chapter 1 provides an introduction with a discussion on the introduction and motivation of the thesis. Chapter 2 utilises an augmented gravity model of trade to evaluate the changes in trade determinants in Mexico over 50 years. The importance of Chapter 2 is to understand how trade agreements and trade policy changed their trade flows, before and after the trade liberalisation period. The chapter builds an augmented gravity model to apply cultural, geographic, and historical factors to study the impact of changing determinants of trade while utilising a Heckman Sample Selection method in addition to OLS via robust standard errors. This chapter’s main contribution to the literature and research question is that while cultural variables and NAFTA were important to Mexico’s exports in the 1990s, this impact has waned in recent years. Chapter 3 evaluates the effect that these trade changes have had on their income determinants, for both GDP per capita and manufacturing wages in Mexico. Chapter 3 is also a necessary discussion, given the link between trade policy and income changes, as discussed in the literature (Rodriquez and Rodrik, 2000; Redding and Venables, 2004; Head and Mayer, 2007; Hanson, 2005) The chapter applies a market access measure from Redding and Venables (2004) in addition to recommended variables from the literature representing health, education, skills, social infrastructure, and physical geography. The main results from this chapter are that while foreign market access is important for multiple other countries, for Mexico it is only a significant indicator after trade liberalisation and there exhibits a significant distributional difference in the effect of these policies on income in Mexico. Chapter 4 utilises propensity score matching to analyse the effect of PROCAMPO, an agricultural subsidy enacted to compensate farmers for the negative effects of NAFTA, over three waves (2002, 2005, and 2009). PROCAMPO was enacted in 1994, to partially compensate farmers adversely affected by NAFTA, which liberalised agricultural trade after decades of state protection. The main result from this chapter is that there is an even greater distributional difference in the effect of the subsidy, with the majority of the positive treatment effects being experienced by larger farms, while small farms did not experience a substantial treatment effect in consumption, investment, or income. Chapter 5 concludes with policy recommendations and proposed further research.

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The CARIFORUM States in signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Community on the 15the October, 2008 in Bridgetown Barbados have demonstrated a bold step by a group of Small Developing Island States (SIDS) on the trail of the emerging global trade regime because, notwithstanding the levels of economic disparity between the two sides, the Caribbean accepted the unequal nature of the partnership in a pragmatic and constructive sense. The region’s negotiators skilfully used the asymmetry of power dynamics of the European Community and the global trade inertia to craft a deal and carved a way forward for themselves which gave practical application to the realist theory of International relations in the context of international bargaining with domestic constraints. They have illuminated a paradigm shift towards a new era in which small vulnerable developing states can become proactive in order to protect their vital commercial interests. The CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership is one of the most innovative and farreaching Free Trade Agreement ever entered into in the context of North-South relations. So unique and innovative are the arrangements that they now evidenced the new paradigm and a model for future Free Trade Agreement, not just between Europe and the rest of the developing world but, among developing countries themselves. It also has implications for the multilateral system in the context of the Doha Round of negotiation. The research contributes to knowledge by illustrating the application of an adapted combination of the classical co-operative and non- cooperative models of coalition bargaining developed by John Nash and the Thomas Schelling’s model analyzed in the context of Robert Putman’s games theory are very relevant in explaining the Paradigms in Caribbean trade diplomacy and how the regions succeeded in leveraging concessions in negotiating the CARIFORUM–EC Free Trade Agreement. The work places the asymmetric problems of the CARIFORUM States in the context of their need for a specific outcome in light of their national interests and the EC’s desire to negotiate a new trade arrangement in keeping with the demands of its own domestic constituents and their wider international trade agenda. Finally, the work challenges the assertions that the EC in International Trade Negotiations uses its superior negotiating machinery and strength of its markets as secured vehicles to influence and impose its external trade policies on developing countries and further that the ACP States are reactive in character.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the impact of the “meso model” on Ghana’s cocoa sector in general and the practices and opportunities for smallholder cocoa farmers in particular. Additionally, Ghana’s efforts to embrace globalisation are examined. The theoretical framework of this thesis is the neo-structuralism paradigm out of which an analytical framework was distilled to assess the impact of the 1993 reforms. The qualitative methodology was mainly used to collect data but some quantitative techniques were also used to enhance the collection and analysis of the data. Ghana was adjudged the “Star Pupil” of Africa by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank after implementing bold economic reforms in 1983 and the cocoa sector reforms in 1993. But ironically Ghana stood up to the IMF and the Bank by refusing to dismantle its cocoa marketing board (COCOBOD) as was recommended by them under the Washington Consensus and rather adopted a” meso model” of partial liberalisation of the cocoa sector after skilful negotiations. The thesis makes a significant, original contribution to knowledge in the field of economic development through the following key findings: Firstly, the output of cocoa farmers in general is a function of not only the price paid to them but also the overall environment created for production. Secondly, the” meso model” Ghana adopted challenges the “One Size Fits All” Washington Consensus development model because it enhanced cocoa farmers’ output and income, and Ghana’s cocoa export and foreign revenue enabling it to attain economic growth and development. Thirdly, the use of mobile phones by cocoa farmers contributes to the reduction in their transport cost and transforms their mode of operations. Finally, Ghana’s efforts to embrace globalisation and to integrate into the global economy have been impressive albeit urban bias.