This work deals with the specifics of relations between entities in the negotiation and implementation of international transport of goods. Since he is currently the most common way of transport of goods in Central Europe freight road transport of goods, the text is mainly dedicated to this issue. The underlying code for the obligations in this respect, the Convention CMR, which is devoted to a large part of the work. In other parts of the work is also introduced to the TIR Convention, the ADR Agreement concerning the international carriage of dangerous goods and the ATP Agreement, which defines the requirements for the transport of perishable foodstuffs. In the end, understand that INCOTERMS clauses with international trade and international transport of goods is closely related.

The member states of European Union (EU) and a group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states are currently negotiating for new trading agreements compatible with World Trade Organization‘s (WTO) rules. Whereas both the EU and the ACP states are in agreement that the new trading arrangements must be WTO compatible, there is no consensus on the format of the new trading agreements. The EU has insisted that the new trading arrangements should be in the form of free trade agreements, established under Article XXIV of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Unlike the previous EU – ACP trade agreements which were non – reciprocal, Article XXIV requires that the new trading agreements should be reciprocal. Consequently the EU has gone ahead to negotiate for reciprocal Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with some of the ACP states. Some ACP countries which are opposed to reciprocity have proposed that the new trading arrangements should be established under the provisions of Enabling Clause. Others have suggested that EU should attempt to apply for a WTO waiver. The Cotonou Agreement, under which the new trading agreements are being negotiated, provides that in case of those countries which are not ready to negotiate for EPAs, the EU should examine alternative possibilities, in order to provide these countries with a new framework for trade which is equivalent to their existing situation and in conformity with WTO rules. So far no alternative trading arrangements have been proposed. Although some ACP countries have agreed to negotiate for Economic Partnership Agreements under article XXIV of GAAT, there is no consensus on the interpretation of key provisions of Article XXIV. Under Article XXIV, the parties are required to remove substantially all trade barriers between themselves within reasonable time. The meaning of the phrases 'substantially all' and 'reasonable time‘ has remained controversial with each party giving an interpretation that favours its interests. Lack of consensus on the meaning of these phrases has hindered the conclusion of negotiations for EPAs. In a nutshell, the question of WTO compatibility presents the biggest hurdle to the conclusion of the new trading arrangements between the EU and the ACP group. This paper is an evaluation of the options available to the ACP countries to conclude WTO compatible trading arrangements with the EU. Chapter one of this paper is an introductory chapter which offers an overview of the entire paper. Chapter two sets out in details the historical background of the economic relationship between the EU and the ACP states. This chapter illustrates the historical background from which the new trading agreements have evolved to help the reader understand certain key features of the current economic partnership agreements. Chapter three looks at the GATT/WTO provisions relevant to the establishment of WTO compatible trading arrangements between EU and ACP countries. Particular emphasis is placed on Article XXIV, the Enabling Clause and the WTO waiver. Chapter four is the main chapter in which the paper explores the possibilities of concluding WTO compatible trading agreements under Article XXIV, Enabling clause and the WTO waiver. Chapter five draws the conclusions of this paper. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

After years of intense negotiations between member states of the East African Community (EAC) and the European Union, an interim Economic Partnership Agreement was finally initialled on the 27 November 2007. This interim agreement is intended to be an instrument for development by furthering poverty reduction, sustainable development, regional integration and integration of EAC countries into the world economy. However provisions contained in the interim agreement have raised legitimate concerns as to their ability to address these development issues. The African ministers of trade identified nine contentious provisions which are regarded as both legally and developmentally problematic. One of these issues is the most favoured nation (MFN) clause under which parties are required to extend to each other any better or more favourable treatment granted to other countries, which are either developed countries or major trading economies. The urgency behind the negotiation of Economic partnership agreements between the EU and the African Caribbean and Pacific Countries (within which category fall the EAC member states) was the requirement for a WTO compliant legal regime to govern the relationship between both parties. Previous trade regimes were challenged by other WTO members for being discriminatory. However provisions in the interim agreement such as the contentious MFN clause are more than what is required for WTO compatible regional trade agreements. The inclusion of the MFN clause poses major challenges to the trade and development needs of the EAC countries especially the least developed among them. This dissertation will attempt to critically analyze the potential implications of the MFN clause to the East African countries particularly Uganda as one of the least developed member states in the region. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

In the Internet of Services (IoS) providers and consumers of services engage in business interactions on service marketplaces. Provisioning and consumption of services are regulated by service level agreements (SLA), which are negotiated between providers and consumers. Trading composite services requires the providers to manage the SLAs that are negotiated with the providers of atomic services and the consumers of the composition. The management of SLAs involves the negotiation and renegotiation of SLAs as well as their monitoring during service provisioning. The complexity of this task arises due to the fact that dependencies exist between the different services in a composition. Dependencies between services occur because the complex task of a composition is distributed between atomic services. Thus, the successful provisioning of the composite service depends on its atomic building blocks. At the same time, atomic services depend on other atomic services, e.g. because of data or resource requirements, or time relationships. These dependencies need to be considered for the management of composite service SLAs. This thesis aims at developing a management approach for dependencies between services in service compositions to support SLA management. Information about service dependencies is not explicitly available. Instead it is implicitly contained in the workflow description of a composite service, the negotiated SLAs of the composite service, and as application domain knowledge of experts, which makes the handling of this information more complex. Thus, the dependency management approach needs to capture this dependency information in an explicit way. The dependency information is then used to support SLA management in three ways. First of all dependency information is used during SLA negotiation the to ensure that the different SLAs enable the successful collaboration of the services to achieve the composite service goal. Secondly, during SLA renegotiation dependency information is used to determine which effects the renegotiation has on other SLAs. Finally, dependency information is used during SLA monitoring to determine the effects of detected violations on other services. Based on a literature study and two use cases from the logistics and healthcare domains different types of dependencies were analyzed and classified. The results from this analysis were used as a basis for the development of an approach to analyze and represent dependency information according to the different dependency properties. Furthermore, a lifecycle and architecture for managing dependency information was developed. In an iterative approach the different artifacts were implemented, tested based on two use cases, and refined according to the test results Finally, the prototype was evaluated with regard to detailed test cases and performance measurements were executed. The resulting dependency management approach has four main contributions. Firstly, it represents a holistic approach for managing service dependencies with regard to composite SLA management. It extends existing work by supporting the handling of dependencies between atomic services as well as atomic and composite services at design time and during service provisioning. Secondly, a semi-automatic approach to capturing dependency information is provided. It helps to achieve a higher degree of automation as compared to other approaches. Thirdly, a metamodel for representing dependency information for SLA management is shown. Dependency information is kept separately from SLA information to achieve a better separation of concerns. This facilitates the utilization of the dependency management functionality with different SLA management approaches. Fourthly, a dependency management architecture is presented. The design of the architecture ensures that the components can be integrated with different SLA management approaches. The test case based evaluation of the dependency management approach showed its feasibility and correct functioning in two different application domains. Furthermore, the performance evaluation showed that the automated dependency management tasks are executed within the range of milliseconds for both use cases. The dependency management approach is suited to support the different SLA management tasks. It supports the work of composite service providers by facilitating the SLA management of complex service compositions.

Transfer pricing compliance related issues continue to pose challenges to leaders of multinational entities (MNEs) and tax regulators. MNE leaders strive to mitigate the risks of non-compliance violations and double taxation, while tax regulators seek to minimize profit shifting and revenue losses. This multiple case study explored strategies for managing transfer pricing risks against the backdrop of various risks MNE leaders face for non-compliance violations. The cost contribution agreement theory served as the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected from organizational documents and semistructured interviews conducted with 6 finance executives representing 2 multinational entities in the midwest and southwest regions of the United States who have implemented successful strategies to manage transfer pricing risks. Data were analyzed using Yin's multiple-step thematic analysis process. Following the thematic data analysis 5 themes emerged, including commitment to tax compliance, tax minimization, advance pricing agreement (APA), comparable uncontrolled price method (CUP), and cost plus method (CPM). MNE leaders favor commitment to tax compliance as an effective strategy as penalties for non-compliance increases risks to business functionality. The findings of this study may help business leaders to follow compliance procedures and adopt risk mitigation strategies, while also informing regulators to update tax regulations to reflect current economic realities. The findings of this study could result in positive social change through an enhanced governmental revenue that stimulates economic growth, improves productivity, and promotes technological innovations.

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L’opera analizza i fenomeni di frammentazione del ciclo produttivo dal punto di vista delle relazioni collettive, ponendosi l’obiettivo di verificare l’efficacia degli strumenti contrattuali per “governare” tali processi. Si muove dall’ipotesi per cui sia opportuno valorizzare la contrattazione di secondo livello, stante i minori problemi di applicazione generalizzata e la maggiore sensibilità rispetto agli interessi coinvolti. La parte più rilevante dell’indagine ruota attorno al tema degli appalti, dalle clausole di divieto agli obblighi di informazione e consultazione, sino alle previsioni volte a garantire determinati trattamenti contrattuali o la continuità occupazionale ai lavoratori coinvolti; esperienze apprezzabili che richiedono, tuttavia, uno sviluppo a livello decentrato, anche territoriale o interaziendale. Ci si sofferma altresì sul trasferimento d’azienda, evidenziandosi il fondamentale compito della contrattazione decentrata nel cercare un bilanciamento tra competitività e protezione sociale, oltre che nel vigilare sulla genuinità delle operazioni realizzate. Si passa, poi, agli interventi in tema di somministrazione di lavoro, auspicandosi la realizzazione di un sistema di rappresentanza e contrattazione aziendale integrata, che coinvolga anche i lavoratori somministrati. Da ultimo si guarda al lavoro parasubordinato, con riferimento al quale la contrattazione collettiva è chiamata a sviluppare un sistema di sostegno e protezione che trascenda la tutela dei soli occupati. / The work analyses the outsourcing processes on the point of view of industrial relations, with the purpose to verify the effectiveness of the collective bargaining provisions to “manage” these processes. The dissertation moves from the assumption that the second-level agreements should be implemented, considering the applicability to all employees and the greater proximity to the interests concerned. The major part of the analysis revolves around the service contracts and the heterogeneous related provisions of the national collective labour agreements (such as the ban on outsourcing, the information to trade unions, the entitlement to certain treatments or to hold down the employment relationship), which should be developed by company or territorial level agreements. Then the dissertation focuses on the transfer of business, highlighting the role of the second-level bargaining, which could be able to find a compromise between competitiveness and social protection, as well as to control the compliance of the transactions. The work also considers the staff leasing contract, hoping for a system of collective representation and negotiation which includes the temporary workers. Finally, with reference to the so called “working project consulting agreements”, the author observes that the trade unions should give to the consultants a major collective protection.

<p>The rapid growth in the number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has led to concern about the weakening of the multilateral trading system. This thesis examines the spread of such agreement and the extent to which they pose a threat to the multilateral system. Regionalism and multilateralism are complimentary as shown in the case study of the East African Community. The current regional trade agreement management rules are weak and ambiguous and possible amendments for these rules are proposed</p>

<p>The rapid growth in the number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has led to concern about the weakening of the multilateral trading system. This thesis examines the spread of such agreement and the extent to which they pose a threat to the multilateral system. Regionalism and multilateralism are complimentary as shown in the case study of the East African Community. The current regional trade agreement management rules are weak and ambiguous and possible amendments for these rules are proposed</p>

Magister Legum - LLM / The rapid growth in the number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has led to concern about the weakening of the multilateral trading system. This thesis examines the spread of such agreement and the extent to which they pose a threat to the multilateral system. Regionalism and multilateralism are complimentary as shown in the case study of the East African Community. The current regional trade agreement management rules are weak and ambiguous and possible amendments for these rules are proposed. / South Africa