Goods and services are bundled together in economic analysis, which largely considers them to be similar despite contrary empirical evidence. Services have been largely absent from international political economy literature, so current explanations of international trade in services liberalisation and integration leave a lot to be desired. Using the WTO framework of the four modes of service supply, this thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of international trade in both healthcare and accountancy services. This empirical investigation sheds light on services' patterns of internationalisation and the relationships between different modes of trade. It finds that services differing from each other in many aspects are nevertheless intemationahsing following similar patterns and particularly through commercial presence. The empirical findings of this study are supported by an enquiry into the nature of services. They form the basis of the development of the theory of services coproduction, whereby the services output is jointly created by producers and consumers and/ or goods under their control. Co-production creates an inherent proximity constraint between producers and consumers, which is explained through the Services Production Trap (SPT). Co-production and the SPT have significant consequences for international political economy. Examination of firms' response to the SPT shows that accountancy firms developed a particular organisational model based on a network of partnerships that has been highly successful for internationalisation. In addition, this model furthered accountancy firms' economic and political influence in shaping and leading the exceptional case of an international private governance regime in financial and reporting standards. Further political economy implications which are considered in this study include international trade in services liberalisation and protection, multilateralism and preferential trade, as well as European integration.

This thesis concerns the interaction of imperfections in product and labour markets. In the first three chapters we examine the implications of this analysis for the normative side of international trade theory. In chapter one we focus on export policy in the old and new school of international trade theory when there is an imperfection in product markets. We outline the product market rent creation motives for intervention in the different schools. In chapters two and three we incorporate labour market imperfections into the analysis of chapter one. We look at the interaction of product and labour market rent creation motives for trade policy in the two schools of trade theory. Chapter two deals with unionised intra-industry competition and trade policy (export and domestic). Chapter three looks at intra-industry competition, efficiency wage payments and export policy. In chapter four we develop the theory of vertical spillovers under imperfect competition in the product and labour market. The theory tracks vertical spillovers from the upstream labour market to the downstream product market and vice versa. Using U.K. panel data, we find evidence for the presence of these spillovers.

This thesis focuses on recent disputes between Canada and the United States about appropriate policies for free trade in cultural goods. It argues that the Canadian and American positions on free trade and culture can best be understood as normative positions, stemming from different perceptions of the nature of culture, the role of culture in social relations, the appropriate criteria for 'good' public policy, and the ideal relationship between culture and free trade. In this context, the relative validity of the different approaches to trade and culture is presented as a choice between competing values, the analysis of which is most appropriately located within the broad tradition of political theories of justice. On this basis, the thesis critically engages with the two positions (free trade and cultural protectionism), drawing out their ethics and showing the ways in which they can only partially comprehend the moral relevance of culture. The thesis takes the position that a normatively justifiable approach to culture and trade is one that begins from the ontological primacy of culture in the constitution of identity. This starting point is developed by drawing on the work of Charles Taylor. He rejects an atomist social ontology and develops instead a theory of identity as inseparable from qualitative judgements of worth. In turn, such judgements make no sense outside of a 'background language' that itself can only be developed in dialogue. As the thesis notes, Taylor's work presents numerous problems. However, his ontology can nonetheless be taken as a starting point for an analysis of culture and trade. Building on Taylor's theory, the thesis draws on Iris Marion Young's work on social justice to develop an ethics which is founded in respect for other cultural forms. This ethics stresses social equality, but broadens it beyond distributive concerns to include primarily the 'full participation and inclusion of everyone in society's major institutions, and the socially supported substantive opportunity for all to develop and exercise their capacities and realize their choices' (1990, p. 173). On this basis, the thesis makes specific suggestions for the revision of Canadian magazines policy.

This thesis analyses the effect of retaliation with countervailing tariffs and/or production subsidies on the strategic argument for export subsidies, and also proves the existence and uniqueness of equilibrium in the standard model of international trade under oligopoly. Retaliation will be modelled as a multistage game. At the first stage, the foreign country sets its export subsidy to maximise national welfare. Then, at the second stage, the domestic country sets its trade policy, import tariff and/or production subsidy, to maximise national welfare in response to the foreign export subsidy. The solution concept employed is the subgame perfect equilibrium. When the domestic country uses a tariff in response to a foreign export subsidy, then the optimal domestic response is a partially countervailing tariff, and the foreign country does not usually gain from an export subsidy. There is usually no profit shifting argument for an export subsidy when the foreign country faces retaliation with countervailing tariffs. When the domestic country uses a tariff and a production subsidy in response to a foreign export subsidy, then the surprising result is that an export subsidy may increase foreign welfare. In this case, the foreign export subsidy increases both foreign and domestic welfare. The domestic country will always gain from a foreign export subsidy when it sets its trade policy optimally.

The thesis represents a contribution to the debate on the regulation of inter-state fiscal competition. The study coincides with the mounting scepticism expressed towards the regulatory frameworks devised and implemented by the EU and OECD. This thesis offers a new and comprehensive approach to the regulatory dilemma. It looks at tax competition from a legal perspective and aspires at laying down the foundations of a balanced regulatory framework by sharing the burden of regulation amongst all parties involved in the process of fiscal competition. It also investigates the validity of the traditional arguments in the light of recent developments. Moreover, it tackles the one issue that is common to any regulatory framework, that is, the identification of tax incentives. The thesis contends that unless a common understanding is reached on what is meant by tax incentives, one may not seriously contemplate the regulation of inter-state fiscal competition.

International tax planning lies in the borderline between legal and policy focus. Whilst its legal dimension is rather straightforward, policy elements may stem from various economic, political or even moral sources and, therefore, require some common ground for evaluation. In this respect, the fundamental principles of equity (or fairness) and neutrality (or efficiency) may assist in filtering all relevant ideas into a consistent and integral conceptual environment. It is exactly in this conceptual environment that the improper and/or abusive use of tax treaties, commonly referred to as "treaty shopping", is examined. The current study represents a modest contribution to the debate on treaty shopping, which is deemed to be one of the sharpest edges of modern international tax planning. The study. principally, attempts to supplement the reader with a consistent legal and policy framework of the most highly acclaimed anti-treaty shopping approaches both in a treaty and a domestic context. Moreover, this study extends to peripheral aspects of tax treaty abuse, such as its possible linkages with international trade imperatives or its compatibility with regional trading blocs' objectives and policies. In the latter case, tax coordination policies in the European Union serve as an example. The basic purpose of the thesis is to arrive at effective and pragmatic solutions to well-defined treaty abuse problems, as they might stem from general research. Any proposed solution must conform, to the extent possible, to equity and neutrality concerns.

The purpose of this study is to examine and explain the impact of British business interests, outside of China, on Anglo-Japanese foreign relations and whether these business pressures contributed to the destablisation or amelioration of political tensions. Between 1933 and 1937 there were a series of major commercial disputes between Britain and Japan, in the cotton and shipping industries and over the Japanese treatment of British oil interests in Japan and Manchukuo, which following Japan's pursuit of an aggressive and unilateral policy in East Asia complicated an already strained Anglo-Japanese relationship. Thus the scale of Anglo-Japanese commercial friction offered substantial scope for political repercussions. In order to assess the impact of business pressure this study will focus upon the relationship between business groups and the British government, which provides the basis for determining the impact of business interests upon British policy towards Japan. By detailing the interaction between government and business this study hopes to establish which factors were most prominent in shaping the government's response to the demands of business and the needs of Anglo-Japanese relations. This requires the examination of the economic and political factors that motivated business demands for government support, and the economic, political and foreign policy factors that guided the response of the British government. However, it also requires the examination of relationships within business groups and the government as a means of establishing the constraints upon business and government's response to Anglo-Japanese commercial friction. Conclusions are drawn which indicate that because of an ingrained 'conservatism' to commercial questions both the business community and government avoided exacerbating commercial tensions with Japan, and consequently business interests had only a limited impact upon Anglo-Japanese relations.

This thesis investigates the role of regional and bilateral trade and investment agreements in rule-making. Rule-making at the regional and bilateral levels has become more important, but there are at present no general criteria for assessing its impact. The thesis discusses the existing literature on preferential trade agreements and argues that there is a gap in terms of how rule-making in RTAs and FTAs might be assessed. An analytical framework is then developed that provides the basis for a qualitative assessment of the role of RTAs and FTAs. This framework is then applied to four horizontal case studies; technical barriers to trade, public procurement, investment and competition policy. These, together with secondary literature describing other case studies, show that rule-making is and has always been a multilevel process. The issue to be addressed in terms of the rule-making aspects of preferential agreements should therefore be what role RTAs and FTAs play in rule-making rather than whether preferential agreements undermine multilateral rules or not. The thesis argues that RTAs had a broadly positive effect during the period from the early 1980s to the mid 1990s, but that subsequent developments give rise to a more nuanced assessment. The thesis also makes a comparison of two dominant European Union and US approaches to regional and bilateral agreements. This shows the US approach to be more uniform and more assertive compared to the EU approach to negotiating FTAs. The thesis concludes with a discussion of how criteria developed from the analytical framework could be used as the basis for qualitative assessments of the role and impact of the rule-making aspects of regional and bilateral trade and investment agreements.

This thesis contributes to the literature on microeconomic linkage between globalization, economic growth and welfare. First, we study the impact of input trade liberalization on firm efficiency, aggregate productivity and welfare. We extend the Melitz (2003)'s framework to incorporate: a) trade in both intermediate inputs and final goods between similar countries, b) firm's decision to import intermediate inputs in addition to the decision to export the final output. This model shows different effects from reducing input tariffs, according to whether intermediates are assumed to be imported directly by final good firms or indirectly through an efficient wholesale system. Second, using data from Chinese manufacturing firms over the period 2002- 2006, we investigate empirically the effect of trade liberalization in intermediate inputs on firm's total factor productivity (TFP), considering the relevant role played by trade wholesalers. We document that direct-importers enjoy larger productivity gains from reducing input tariffs respect to other firms. But, the non-importers also benefit because they can access to foreign inputs through trade intermediaries. In sectors where input trade intermediation was relatively low, firms not directly involved in imports suffer efficiency losses. Finally, we also explore the effectiveness of different trade policy instruments on product-level Chinese imports over the period 2000-2006. More specifically, in addition to the declines in tariffs, we investigate the impact on imports of the gradual removal of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) as agreed within WTO's accession protocol in 2001 (such as import quotas, licenses and tendering). Overall, the results show that while manufacturing imports increased due to tariff cuts, agricultural imports grew thanks to the elimination of import licenses. We also find some complementarity between tariffs and NTBs.

This thesis investigates the relationship between multilateral and preferential trade liberalisation, and also provides new empirical insights into the relationship between different trade policy instruments by analysing detailed HS 8-digit tariff and antidumping data. The first chapter provides a general introduction and motivation, as well as a brief outline of the thesis. Chapter two includes a short literature review of the current 'stumbling block' versus 'building block' debate, and introduces the reader to the theoretical and empirical work on external tariff setting in the presence of trade preferences. Chapter two is followed by four self-contained studies, which represent the core of this research project. Using micro-level trade and tariff data, we revisit in Chapter three existing empirical evidence in favour of the 'stumbling block' hypothesis, namely the hypothesis that regionalism discourages multilateral liberalisation. Analysing bound MFN tariff changes agreed upon during the Uruguay Round, Limao and Karacaovali (2008) find that the European Union's trade preferences have prevented larger external tariff cuts and thus represent a 'stumbling block' to global free trade. When considering different definitions of preferentially traded products, sector-level agreements, as well as initial tariff rates, our sensitivity analysis points to less robust support for the hypothesis in a European context.