This thesis focuses on different aspects of trade theory and policy. One of the main objections to the theory of strategic trade policy is that it presumes too much knowledge on the part of governments. The design of an optimal tariff in the presence of incomplete information is analysed in Chapter 2. In a Cournot duopoly model of international competition between a domestic and a foreign firm, it is shown that when the domestic firm and government have incomplete information about the marginal cost of a foreign firm, trade policy can be effectively designed. It is shown that when the foreign firm's output signals costs, there is a unique separating sequential equilibrium. There is a distortion in output due to signalling which is costly in terms of welfare. So, the optimal import tariff when signalling is lower than when the firm does not signal its costs through output. Expected foreign production is lower when signalling, and domestic firm's output and profits are higher. Incomplete information lessens the rent extracting and profit shifting argument for a tariff. An area of conflicting views in trade policy is that of antidumping (AD). In Chapter 3, a descriptive analysis of the use of AD worldwide and in Europe is presented, including an explanation of AD laws and of the implementation of these laws in Europe. An analysis of European antidumping decisions made by the European Commission between 1985 and 2003 is presented in Chapter 4. Using data on legal AD investigations, industry, imports and political influences, the Commission decision-making on dumping and injury is modelled weighing the relative impact of economic and political factors in predicting policy outcomes. Two hypotheses are formulated. The empirical findings confirm that Europe is operating a double track antidumping mechanism. Mainly economic variables are associated with a positive decision on dumping whereas only political variables are positively associated with affirmative decisions on injury. Besides, antidumping laws allow countries to settle antidumping actions either by levying duties or by demanding price undertakings from the foreign exporting (or importing) firms. A price undertaking is an agreement by the foreign exporter to eliminate injury by increasing its price or ceasing exports. However, countries have considerable discretion in allowing price undertakings. An empirical analysis of the acceptance of price undertaking decisions in Europe is presented in Chapter 5. A number of hypotheses are formulated. The econometric analysis indicates that the share of European exports to the country of the defendant; indicators of political pressure as well as the country of origin of certain defendants (non-market economies) are positively associated with the decision to refuse price undertakings. The research hypotheses in chapters 4 and 5 are examined using a legal database containing information about 805 antidumping investigations initiated in Europe published in the Official Journal of the European Communities and associated trade and industrial statistics. An overview of the thesis with a summary of conclusions and contributions is presented in Chapter 1. A summary of the main findings of the thesis is presented in Chapter 6.

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The articles in this thesis reflect my work at the Centre for Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation in Warwick, centred around two EU-funded projects: one relating globalisation to social exclusion, and the second looking at the re-integration of the Central and Eastern European transition economies into the main European economy. The papers in this thesis are seen as new contributions. Chapter 1 is introductory, consisting of a brief literature survey outlining a number of important debates. This is followed by a summary of the contributions of the papers in subsequent chapters. Chapter 2, written with John Whalley, is a general equilibrium decomposition of the widening wage gap in the United Kingdom, utilising novel techniques of double calibration. The underlying question is the degree to which widening inequality reflects a change in world traded prices following liberalisation. Chapters 3 and 4 refer to regional integration. In Chapter 3 I look specifically at the likely effects of admitting several new Central and Eastern European countries to the European Single Market, using a general equilibrium model combining the new trade theory and the gravity model approach. Chapter 4 is more theoretical, examining the perceived misuse of regulatory protection in determining national product standards - in this case, in a cross-hauling duopoly. It is shown that several conclusions of the recent literature regarding the trade volume effects of regulation and the welfare effects of mutual recognition agreements, may be misleading. In Chapter 5 I delve into a new issue in trade theory: namely the implications of imperfect information, matching, search and networking. This chapter indicates a possible direction in which trade theory needs to move to better understand the growing outsourcing trade, and also draws important theoretical and policy implications. Chapter 6 draws brief conclusions.

La Bretagne (et en particulier le Finistère) est, depuis les années 1920, une importante région d’importations maritime et de consommation de vins d’Algérie. Au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, le passage du transport maritime en fûts au transport en vrac bouleverse les conditions de transport et de distribution. Les vins sont transportés dans des navires-citernes, débarqués par pompage dans des chais portuaires modernes et livrés par poids-lourds. Cette évolution préfigure l’essor de l’organisation du transport de marchandises en chaîne logistique. Elle reconfigure les hiérarchies portuaires et permet à de nouveaux acteurs de s’établir sur ce marché de l’importation des vins d’Algérie. La recherche est fondée sur l’exploitation d’un fonds d’archives original, le fonds Hervé Nader fondateur en 1951 d’une entreprise d’importations de vins d’Algérie au port du Corniguel à Quimper et d’exportation de produits bretons vers l’Afrique du Nord. Il fonde aussi un armement maritime et exploite trois navires-citernes. Au début des années 1960, Quimper devient le premier port d’entrée de vins d’Algérie de Bretagne, et l’un des plus importants du littoral atlantique. Après l’indépendance de l’Algérie, l’activité s’étend à l’ensemble du bassin méditerranéen, jusqu’à la vente de l’entreprise en 1973. Les archives de Nader, sont composées de sa correspondance commerciale, des documents relatifs à l’exploitation des navires (journaux de bord, manifestes de chargements), mais aussi de correspondances privées et à caractère politiques. Elles ont permis l’étude des trajectoires de l’entrepreneur et de l’entreprise, dans le contexte des mutations économiques et de l’émergence d’un modèle industriel en Bretagne, caractérisé par le rôle des PME familiales et l’importance du commerce agro-alimentaire dans les systèmes productifs locaux. La recherche participe aussi à l’histoire des évolutions de la marine marchande, et à celle des enjeux politique et symboliques des vins d’Algérie. / By the 1920’s Brittany, and especially Finistère, had grown to become an important hub for maritime imports and a significant market for Algerian wine. After WWII, the shift operated from transporting wine in barrels to bulk shipping in tanker ships upsets the transport and distribution environment. Wine is now transported in wine tankers, pumped ashore to modern port wineries and delivered by truck. This evolution announces the development of transport and distribution as a supply chain. It causes a reshuffling in the maritime pecking order and allows new players to enter the Algerian wine import business. The research is based on the exploitation of original archives, those kept by Hervé Nader who founded an Algerian wine import business at the Port du Corniguel in Quimper along with a company dedicated to the export of Breton goods to North Africa. He also founds a shipping company and operates three tanker ships. In the early 1960’s, Quimper becomes the first port of entry of Algerian wine in Brittany and one of the most important on the Atlantic coast. After Algeria gained its independence, his activities develop over the entire Mediterranean basin until the sale of the company in 1973. Nader’s archives include his commercial correspondance, documents pertaining to the operation of the ships (log books, load manifests), but also private correspondance and letters of a more political nature. These archives have allowed to study the career path of an entrepreneur and the development of his business in a context of economic change and the rise of a Breton industrial model characterized by the role of family-run small businesses and the early developments of agribusiness in local productive systems. This research also offers historical perspective on the evolution merchant shipping as wells the political and symbolical aspects associated with Algerian wine.