The purpose of this thesis is to reform customs valuation law and VAT on importation of goods under trends in trade globalisation, using Thailand as the example. To achieve this purpose, a number of related topics (e.g. the 'notional' and 'positive' concepts of value, international customs valuation systems - the Brussels Definition of Value and the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement the destination and origin principles, VAT on importation, and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)) are brought to analysis in a comprehensive way. The research findings indicate that the existing system of customs valuation in Thailand is arbitrary and constitutes a significant barrier to trade. Such problems will be reduced (or eliminated) under the new customs valuation legislation, based on the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement. However, the system of the WTO customs valuation is complicated, creating some difficulties for developing countries like Thailand to apply. In this connection, co-operation among ASEAN customs administrations should be enhanced. The 'regional minimum values' should also be applied for determining the customs value where the transactions within the ASEAN region are between related parties. With regard to VAT on importation, it is found that, in the two countries (the UK and Thailand) surveyed, there is no particular problem inherent in the destination-based VAT. Most problems relate to the administration as well as the base of VAT on importation in Thailand. Reforms on these matters have to be undertaken unilaterally and voluntarily to improve prospects for attracting foreign investment and increasing trade. This thesis is based upon law and agreements in force at 31 December 1999.

After many years of domination by the Soviet Union, 1989 brought great changes in Eastern Europe. The collapse of the communist system has led to the beginning of a new era in which Eastern European countries are being required both to develop a democratic system and adapt to a market economy. Left with a legacy of massive unproductive factories and immense co-operative farms, the beginning of the transition towards the market economy has been difficult. One of the factors associated with the emerging market economy is argued to be the increasing importance of the consumer. In Romania, some sectors of the economy declined more than others and compared to other sectors, agriculture and horticulture in particular, have declined less. However, land reform, loss of former markets and poor inputs due to financial constraints have left their mark on Romanian horticulture. Once named by the Soviet Union "the breadbasket of Eastern Europe", Romania and Romanian horticulture are required to adapt presently to the new market conditions. Within the horticultural sector, the apple industry is one of the areas in urgent need of revitalisation. Reaching its peak under the communist centralised command system, the industry has to be rebuilt to new standards which recognise, perhaps for the first time, the role of the consumer. This research examines the Romanian apple industry (fresh apples and apple juices), in order to analyse the expectations of consumers and to determine whether the Romanian apple industry is able to adapt and respond to those key expectations in the foreseeable future. Additionally, Romanian consumers and the country's apple industry arc contrasted with those in the UK and Germany, countries with traditional market economies which also represent potential export markets for Romanian produce. Focusing on the consumer in relation to the Romanian apple industry, the work reports on the findings and discusses some obstacles to, and proposed actions for, the revitalisation of the Romanian apple industry. In order to achieve the various objectives a multiple methodology was developed, including both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The expectations and preferences of consumers were identified by means of questionnaires and focus groups, involving the four domestic apple varieties selected as reference products. The information collected was presented to the apple industry and in-depth interviews were conductedi n order to assess the industry's difficulties and its capacity to respond the consumer requirements which had been determined.

Since the end of the 2nd World War, we have witnessed a tremendous amount of world trade expansion. This has been in part caused by the favourable international trading environment provided by the public good, the GATT, aided by the politico-economic hegemony of the United States of America. Korea took advantage of this favourable situation by pursuing an economic development strategy of export-led growth. As the US hegemony began to decline, the formation of a multipolar system based upon regional blocs, has given a new dimension to Korea's international trade. In EU-ROK economic relations, regionalism and globalization of world trade has brought Korea both challenges and opportunities. The case study of Korea's leading electronics firms clearly suggests the requirement for the maintenance of a physical presence through FDI to conduct business successfully in the European market. The new international, politico-economic order obliges firms outside a regional body to locate marketing, manufacturing or even product development within the territories of a regional economic group to avoid NTBS such as anti-dumping. Economic interaction between the European Union, a giant of regionalism with potential economic power and the Republic of Korea, a forerunner among newly industrialized nations, highly vulnerable to outer setting, seems to be regulated by rules and norms, like the pendulum moving between the two extremes of protectionism and a free, liberal trading environment. The study attempts to show that Korea's exports to the EU market will increase more and more as the pendulum moves toward the free trade logic based upon multilateralism. In order accurately to analyse the EU-Korean economic relationship, a better understanding of regionalism and globalization of World trade should be added to the existing literature on the international political economy (Realism, Liberalism, Marxism). The general assumption of the study is based upon economic liberalism which puts much focus on economic efficiency. As a model of deep economic integration, whether the European Union is strongly committed to multilateralism or resorts to protectionist trade regimes such as anti-dumping, quantitative restrictions, or local content rules, will be a major determinant of EU-Korea trade interaction in the future because Korea will continually pursue economic development with export-oriented characteristics. The maximization of EU-ROK economic exchanges will be achieved only when the world trading system is committed to multilateralism under the WTO in general, and the EU's pursuit of open regionalism to reduce NTBs against the ROK in particular. Of course, Korea should make reciprocal efforts further to liberalize and deregulate its trade regimes by opening more markets to foreign products. Korea's active pursuit of globalization and localization strategies to penetrate into the EU market is a prerequisite for a continuous rapid growth of the Korean economy.

The main objectives of this study are: Firstly, to provide a clear picture of the Saudi money market in terms of its main characteristics, its financial institutions and the obstacles facing the market and its financial institutions. Secondly, to determine appropriate money demand functions for different money definitions in Saudi Arabia, using quarterly data which run from 1976:1 to 1986:4, and to test the stability and forcasting power of these functions. Thirdly, to determine theoretically and empirically the factors affecting the money supply in Saudi Arabia using annual data which run from 1967 to 1987. Finally, to determine empirically the factors affecting the Riyal market interest rate (domestic interest rate), using quarterly data which run from 1979:1 to 1988:2.

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Desires to gain access to new markets, minimise production cost, take advantage of regional investment incentives and enhance technological development have prompted many companies to study the feasibility of globalising their manufacturing activities. They need evaluation tools which will provide structured and systematic methodologies to study and facilitate global manufacturing decisions. Past work by numerous academics and researchers in comparing the manufacturing competitiveness between different nations provide valuable insight into the advantages and disadvantages of locating manufacturing facilities in different countries. In an operational point of view, however, companies require more specific information about a changing industry and its sub-industries with the view of evaluating their capabilities within the context of global socio-economic and technological trends. This thesis proposes a conceptual model that will assist companies to measure, compare and project their manufacturing performances when supplying to a particular market using products manufactured in different locations. This Manufacturing Capabilities Model is conceptually represented by a cuboid, the three axis of which relates to manufacturing process, performance and potential respectively. Manufacturing processes and performance measures are organised in a hierarchical matrix under major stages of the production process and four main performance criteria of cost, quality, delivery and flexibility. The relative importance of these four performance criteria to a company varies according to the structure of the industry in a particular region. Potential represents the changes in performance in response to changes in the business environment. The validity of the model is demonstrated based on its implementation on the steel industry. The Manufacturing Capabilities Model adopts Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique to evaluate global manufacturing competitiveness. This model enables a company to compare the competitiveness of different production route configurations encompassing different plants in different countries. It analyses the multiple-attribute problems by decomposing them to hierarchies. It provides pairwise comparison of criteria and generates an integrated overall score based on which alternative decisions can be ranked and compared. Software built on Expert Choice, a software package based on AHP, facilitates the implementation of the model in the steel industry. User interface is provided by Microsoft Excel with Visual Basic for Applications. Several options are available for the users to analyse performance results. The model validation is supported by a comprehensive questionnaire which facilitates data collection in the steel industry. Two industrial case studies based on the Chinese steel industry are used to validate the overall modelling methodology.

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There is a growing recognition that the composition and behaviour of exports matter for development. However, empirical studies examining these issues focus primarily on develop countries and larger emerging economies. We therefore seek to fill a gap in the literature by examining the extent and the factors explaining export specialization, the dynamics of export growth and the duration of export relationships from the perspective of a small developing country, Trinidad and Tobago, for the period, 1996-2009. These issues are particularly important for trade policy formulation and export promotion. To examine the factors explaining export specialization, we use HS 4-digit export data and conduct our estimation using mainly Fractional Logit Generalized Linear Model (GLM). To explore the factors explaining the dynamics of export growth, we use HS 6-digit manufacturing export data and estimate our model using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood Estimation (PPML). Finally, to explain to factors influencing export duration, we also use HS 6-digit manufacturing export data and employ Stratified Cox Estimation. We find several important results pertaining to Trinidad and Tobago’s exports. First and foremost, we find Trinidad and Tobago exports are highly specialized; the extensive margin contributes substantially to export growth (for manufactured goods) and the duration of export relationships is extremely short. We also find strong evidence that Trinidad and Tobago’s exports to larger markets is less specialized, increases both the intensive and the extensive margins of export growth and increases export duration. Further, we unearth strong evidence that greater distance from export markets increases export specialization, dampens both the intensive and extensive margins and reduces export duration. In addition, we find cogent evidence that regional integration with trade partners through CARICOM membership reduces export specialization, increases both the intensive and extensive margins and increases export duration. Moreover, we find some evidence that higher average tariffs of trading partners increases export specialization, reduce the extensive margin and increase export duration. Also, we discover evidence that WTO membership of trade partners increases the intensive margin and increases export duration. We also find substantial evidence that better institutional quality and governance in export destinations reduces export specialization, dampens the intensive margin but reduces export duration. Finally, our results show that the presence of Diplomatic Missions and Consulates in export markets increases the intensive margin and dampens the extensive margin. Relatedly, we find robust evidence that Trinidad and Tobago’s export duration is longer, the greater the expenditure per capita on trade promotion in export markets. Our research points to the need for the implementation of several trade policy measures to stimulate favourable changes to the composition and behaviour of exports. These measures require collaborative actions both at the regional and international to simulate more beneficial trade. They suggest the need to improve capacity among CARICOM countries to negotiate trade agreements with developed countries as well as the WTO to enable more beneficial trade to member countries. Our results also point to the need for increase spending on trade promotions and the engagement of more specialist staff to assist in trade promotions by Trinidad and Tobago’s diplomatic agencies in foreign markets. In addition, our findings suggest the need for added incentives for product discovery and innovation by Trinidad and Tobago’s manufacturers. Our findings could be of interest to policy makers in other small export dependent economies with economic structures very similar to Trinidad and Tobago.

A small body of mostly anecdotal evidence suggests that governments have undertaken legal, policy, institutional, and regulatory reforms to enhance their chances of becoming eligible for assistance from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). But we know little about the strength and scope of the so-called "MCC Effect”—in particular, why it seems to exert varying levels of influence across time, space, and policy domains. I collect two novel sources of data on the MCC Effect in order to explain the conditions under which the MCC eligibility standards have influenced the reform efforts of developing country governments. Through formal coding of archival data, I construct a database of more than 14,000 country policy-domain-year observations that measures whether and how governments change their policy behavior in order to achieve or maintain MCC eligibility. I then employ logit, rare event logit, and three-level random intercept modeling techniques as well as propensity score matching methods to explain the policy responses and non-responses of governments to the MCC eligibility criteria. I also draw on data from a first-of-its-kind survey of 640 development policymakers and practitioners in 100 low income and lower-middle income countries to "ground truth" inferences drawn from analysis of the archival data. My findings suggest that a range of factors influence the probability that a government will pursue reform ctivities in response to the MCC eligibility criteria. However, the central contribution of this thesis is the theoretical and empirical argument that the network positions of change management teams shape whether, when, and how externally inspired reforms get adopted and implemented. In this regard, I call attention an underappreciated factor that shapes the adoption and implementation of externally-influenced reforms: the presence of a policymaking team that has sufficient autonomy to introduce disruptive changes to the status quo, but also sufficient embeddednesss to overcome domestic political opposition.