With the multiple globalization processes more and deeper Economic Integration in the world is being undertaken. The Asia-Pacific region has become the most dynamic and fast growing region in the world due to the rise of China, changing dramatically the way economic and political relations are conceived across the Pacific Ocean. Beijing’s new economic moves towards integration processes are sustained by the fact that China’s economy has become significantly intertwined with other regional economies over the past two decades. From this fact also arises the motivation of this research, which tries to analyze how China’s strategy regarding economic integration across the Pacific Ocean is being planned and developed, considering not only its economic, but especially its political implications and possible strategic motives. This last aspect constitutes the main purpose of this study. The hypothesis for this paper is based on the assumption that China is using its economic might as a means to enhance and expand its traditional sphere of influence in the Asia-Pacific region by achieving different kinds of trade arrangements. The ASEAN plus China FTA, together with the agreements between China and Australia, New Zealand and Chile are taken into account specifically; while some other possible future pacts are outlined as well. The methodological standpoint for the analysis is mainly built upon what is known as Political Economy, particularly its international or global strand, which helps to connect the world of politics and economics. The outcome for the question whether China is taking a leading role in regionalism just because of its growing need to coordinate and cooperate with other economies in order to keep its growth rate, or if it is also doing so because of its desire to enhance and further its traditional sphere of influence as a regional power; contemplates elements of both scenarios. The structure of this thesis consists of five chapters: (1) Scope of the Study, (2) Literature Review and Theoretical Framework, (3) A Political Analysis of an Economic Issue, (4) Main Outcomes and (5) Conclusions.

<p>This study was on the anticipated impact of GATS on the financial services industry in Africa. The paper examined the possible positive and negative impact of the GATS agreement on the financial services industry in the African countries. The research focused on the banking sector and the insurance sector as the main financial sectors under investigation.</p>

Scholars often address the process of enlargement as one-sided argument. This work provides a general theory of organizational expansion by including strategies and actions of both, applicant states and members of international organizations. It is argued that dependent on the domestic characteristics of states an organization strategically implement a set of conditions to avoid the application and admission of states, which are either not able to conform with the rules or not willing to pay the costs of membership. This process incorporates two stages. I test this theory by utilizing a Heckman-Probit-Selection Model, which accounts for this two-stage procedure. The results confirm that conditions are important to avoid costs in the process of expansion.

The eastward enlargement of the European Union will be the fifth enlargement since establishing the European Community in 1957. This paper gives an overview of the most recent undertakings to estimate the costs and benefits of EU enlargement in the framework of model analysis. This field of research is relatively young. Therefore only a few model simulations have been made so far. They can be classified into world models covering several world regions, and in single country models. In both cases, one finds computable general equilibrium - CGE - models as well as macro models. The major findings of world models are that the CE-ECs will be the winners whereas the EU incumbents can expect only small gains from enlargement. Taking into account the costs of enlargement the big question, is how the int e-gration gains are distributed among EU incumbents. As a rule, those countries will benefit the most which have already strong trade relations with the CEECs. In the case of the single country models, Austria is one of those countries with the longest tradition in making model simulations in the case of enlargement. A comparison of CGE model approaches with macro model simulations for Austria shows that the benefits of EU enlargement may be lower than those of the opening-up of Eastern Europe since 1989. (author's abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

EU's 2007 enlargement by Bulgaria and Romania is evaluated by applying a simple macroeconomic integration model able to encompass as many of the theoretically predicted integration effects possible. The direct integration effects of Bulgaria and Romania spill-over to EU15, including Austria and the 10 new member states of the 2004 EU enlargement. The pattern of the integration effects is qualitatively similar to those of EU's 2004 enlargement by 10 new member states. Bulgaria and Romania gain much more from EU accession than the incumbents in the proportion of 20:1. In the medium-run up to 2020, Bulgaria and Romania can expect a sizable overall integration gain, amounting to additional ½ percentage point real GDP growth per annum. Within the incumbent EU member states Austria will gain somewhat more (+0.05%) than the average of EU15 (+0.02%) and the 10 new EU member states (+0.01%), which joined the EU in 2004. (author's abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Die onafhanklike lande van die Suider-Afrikaanse streek het, sedert hul respektiewelike onafhanklikwording, besluit om geen politieke bande of verhoudinge met hul kragtige, suidelike buurman, Suid-Afrika, aan te knoop nie. Al hierdie lande het op politieke gebied daarin geslaag, behalwe Malawi. Op ekonomiese gebied, egter, en veral op die gebied van handelsverhoudinge, was hierdie frontlinie state nie suksesvol nie. In ‘n poging om Suid-Afrika te isoleer, is ‘n ekonomiese blok, die SADCC, op die been gebring. Met die stigting van die SADCC in 1980, het die groep die vermindering van ekonomiese afhanklikheid van die Republiek van Suid-Afrika as hoofdoelwit gestel. Hierdie studie is ‘n poging om die SADCC se suksesse en mislukkings in hierdie verband te evalueer. Verder word probeer om die probleme wat die organisasie ondervind het in hul pogings ter bereiking van hierdie doelwit, binne die Suider-Afrikaanse geo-politieke omgewing, te ondersoek, veral in die lig van Suid-Afrika se vasbeslotenheid om regionale ekonomiese en politieke heerskappy te behou. Terselfdertyd poog die navorser om klem te lê op die deursettingsvermoë van SADCC lede om hul afhanklikheid van die Republiek te verminder – al was die resultaat in meeste gevalle gering. Hierdie studie toon dat die ekonomiese realiteit van die Suider-Afrikaanse streek die politieke retoriek aan beide kante van die politieke spektrum ten volle oorheers het. Die aard van die handelsverhoudinge tussen die RSA en die SADCC ledelande is deurgaans deur strukturele kontraste en weersprekende feite gekompliseer. / Prof. G. Verhoef

Research submitted to the faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in International Relations, 2017 / Since the emergence of the global economic crisis the European Union has been confronted with many challenges. The European vision of stability, growth, prosperity and economic convergence is at stake as the mechanisms of European integration have been revolving around the influential theories of supranationalism and intergovernmentalism. Due to the economic crisis, European integration has turned out to be of interest in Europe therefore, an empirical analysis is important to identify the setbacks on collective action. A research method has been applied to present systematic and explanatory knowledge and track the decisions and resolutions from 2010 – 2015 made by the EU supranational body with respect to the impact this crisis had on the process of European integration. This research examines how effectively the EU responded to the Eurozone crisis, especially under its revised mechanisms outlined in the Lisbon treaty. The research looks at the EU’s decision making mechanisms in view of the crisis. Case specific expectations on the reactions to the Eurozone crisis were examined emphasising the Greek sovereign debt crisis to ascertain the weakness of governance in Greece and in the EU. / XL2018

Ao longo das décadas de 1990 e 2000, Brasil e Argentina passaram por mudanças estruturais em suas economias para poderem contornar as dificuldades impostas pelos novos cenários econômicos internacional e doméstico. Nesse contexto, já não havia a possibilidade de controlar os fluxos de capitais como em décadas anteriores para equilibrar déficits comerciais. A integração econômica passou a ser vista como uma forma de expandir o comércio dos parceiros, o nível de emprego e de crescimento econômico. Os ganhos após as negociações do bloco foram consideráveis, marcados por interrupções decorrentes de crises externas e internas a Brasil e Argentina. Durante as crises os setores ineficientes manifestaram-se para protegerem seus mercados e adiar a queda das barreiras comerciais e tornaram mais nítidas as limitações da estrutura regulatória do comércio. Entre 1994 e 2005, alguns setores inicialmente inexpressivos ganharam participação maior em relação ao total comercializado, demonstrando a importância da criação de novos mercados para o crescimento de segmentos anteriormente sem demanda, como foi o caso do setor de equipamentos eletrônicos para o Brasil. Pela observação dos setores envolvidos na relação comercial, pode-se observar a capacidade de geração de emprego, captação de divisas, expansão da demanda por produtos intensivos em tecnologia. Tanto para o Brasil quanto para a Argentina o setor de veículos automotores, reconhecidamente de alto valor agregado e intensivo em tecnologia, apresentou crescimento de vendas notável, utilizando-se das novas possibilidades oferecidas pela integração. / Throughout the decades of 1990 and 2000, Brazil and Argentina went through structural changes in their economies in order to face the restrictions imposed by the new domestic and international economic environment. It was not possible anymore to control capital flows as it was in previous decades to balance trade deficits. The economic integration became a way to increase trade between partners, the employment level and the economic growth. After negotiations, the gains were considerable and marked by interruptions as a result of domestic and international crises faced by Brazil and Argentina. At the same time, the inefficient sectors used the harsh moments to impose trade barriers, protect their market shares and postpone the liberalization process, making it clear the limitations of the regulatory structure. From 1994 to 2005 some sectors initially not much expressive expanded their participation on the total of trade, showing the importance of the creation of new markets for the development of sectors, as it was for the brazilian sector of electronics equipments. Analysing the sectors involved in the trade makes it possible to see their capacity to generate employment, obtain foreign exchange and increase the demand for high technology goods. As for Brazil and Argentina, the automobile sector, known as for being of high added value and intensive in technology, has demonstrated remarkable growth in sales, taking advantage of the new possibilites granted by the integration.

A presente tese tem por objetivo desenvolver um estudo comparativo entre Brasil e Argentina no que se refere à implementação do Novo Acordo de Capitais da Basiléia publicado em 2004. Nesse sentido as legislações divulgadas pelos dois países sobre o tema foram analisadas. A metodologia utilizou documentos oficiais que tratam do tema da Basiléia e da integração financeira no âmbito do MERCOSUL. Adicionalmente foi utilizado o software estatístico SPSS para geração de demonstrativos gráficos do índice de Basiléia das instituições financeiras nos dois países. A tese constata que a implementação de Basiléia II foi importante para a discussão regulatória no âmbito do sistema financeiro dos países, mas não foi suficiente por conter a crise em curso. As exigências de adequação de capital encontradas em Basiléia II e na legislação de cada país podem contribuir para aumentar a solidez e estabilidade das instituições financeiras nos dois países, desde que sempre acompanhadas de supervisão constante e intervenção estatal nos momentos de crise. A tese também constata a existência de iniciativas de harmonização regulatória do setor financeiro no âmbito do MERCOSUL e neste sentido a implementação das diretrizes do Novo Acordo poderá interferir positivamente num processo futuro de integração financeira. / The present thesis develops a comparative study between Brazil and Argentina regarding the implementation of the New Basel Capital Accord published in 2004. In this sense, publications aiming this subject were analyzed for both countries. Official documents dealing with Basel as well as financial integration in MERCOSUL were used. In addition, measurements of Basel index for financial institutions of both countries were obtained and compared . Results evidence that, although Basel II implementation was important for financial systems regulation, it was not responsible to restrain ongoing crisis. Capital requirements found in Basel II and legislation of each country can contribute to increase financial institutions´ stability and must be followed by constant supervision and state intervention at moments of crisis. Results also evidence regulatory harmonization initiatives of financial sector in the scope of MERCOSUL, and in this sense the implementation of the New Accord, will be able to intervene positively with a future process of financial integration.

A integração da América Latina é um projeto tão antigo quanto as independências. Sua primeira formulação ocorre ainda durante o curso dos movimentos políticos e conflitos militares que levariam à queda dos impérios coloniais ibéricos na América e se estende, em diversas formulações, até a contemporaneidade. O foco dessa pesquisa está no integracionismo ideado nos anos de 1810 e 1820, tendo em Simón Bolívar sua principal expressão. Por meio da atuação de Bolívar, realizou-se em 1826 o Congresso Anfictiónico do Panamá, reunindo repúblicas hispano-americanas com o objetivo de constituir um organismo que unificasse em uma só instância institucional os diversos governos surgidos da luta contra a Espanha. Tanto a obra de Bolívar como os tratados de 1826, fontes primárias para essa pesquisa, são analisados e problematizados. Além disso, os desdobramentos desse pensamento em novas elaborações integracionistas ao longo da história latino-americana são analisados desde a perspectiva do impacto sofrido por aquela primeira elaboração. Defende-se que Simón Bolívar permanece como símbolo da unidade latino-americana e seu pensamento como referência para o debate integracionista porque as questões colocadas no contexto do pós-independência, em maior ou menos medida, permanecem atuais. / The project for the integration of Latin America is as old as the independences themselves. It was first formulated during the course of political movements and military conflicts that would eventually lead to the fall of the Iberian colonial empires in America and it extends itself, in several formulations, to the contemporary. This researchs focus is on the integrationism devised in the years 1810 and 1820, in which Simón Bolívar is the main expression. The Amphictyonic Congress of Panama was held in 1826 through Bolívars direct action, bringing together Spanish American republics in order to constitute an organized body that would unify the various governments arising from the fight against Spain into a single institutional instance. Bolivars work as well as the 1826 treaties, the primary sources for this research, are analyzed and problematized. In addition, the developments of these ideas in new integrationist elaborations throughout Latin Americans history are also analyzed from the perspective of the impact suffered by that first elaboration. This research defends that Simon Bolivar remains a symbol of Latin American unity and his ideas remain reference to the integrationist debate because the issues raised in the context of post-independence, to a greater or less extent, remain current even today.