University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of History

The trade agenda has undergone significant transformations during the last 25 years. Negotiations have moved from the reciprocal reduction of tariff barriers to include the construction and harmonization of regulatory frameworks in different policy areas, while trade liberalization has simultaneously advanced at the regional and multilateral levels.This research explores under what conditions the launch of trade negotiations - symmetric (South- outh), asymmetric (North-South), and multilateral - have a differential impact on domestic governance. Based on a systematic and contextualized comparative analysis of the complex constellation of domestic actors and interests, and the relationships and interactions established among them in a particular institutional setting, our study argues that these different trade agendas generate diverse policy dynamics. Findings show that the variation in the scope of the agenda, the uncertainty of political outcomes, and the technical requirements attached to these negotiations have important consequences for the ways in which domestic state and non-state actors define their interests and collective action strategies. / La agenda comercial ha sufrido importantes modificaciones durante los últimos 25 años. Las negociaciones han pasado de la reducción recíproca de tarifas a la construcción y armonización regulatoria en distintas áreas de política, mientras que la liberalización comercial ha avanzado simultáneamente a nivel regional y multilateral.Esta investigación explora bajo qué condiciones el lanzamiento de negociaciones comerciales - imétricas (Sur-Sur), asimétricas (Norte-Sur) y multilaterales - tiene un impacto diferente sobre la gobernanza doméstica. A través de la comparación sistemática y contextualizada de la compleja constelación de actores e intereses domésticos, y de las relaciones e interacciones establecidas entre ellos en un determinado escenario institucional, nuestro estudio plantea que estas distintas agendas generan diferentes dinámicas políticas. Los resultados muestran que la variación en el alcance de la agenda, la incertidumbre de los resultados políticos, y los requisitos técnicos de estas negociaciones tienen importantes consecuencias sobre la manera en que los actores estatales y no estatales definen sus intereses y estrategias de acción colectiva.

The challenge of enhancing competitiveness in a globalizing world is a continuous one, requiring action not only on narrow trade policy concerns but also in a complementary area such as the macro-economic environment to human resource management. The present report offers an overall view of the textile and clothing industries' opportunities and constrains. It proposes liberalization of trade policy with China as well as proper macro-economic environments, regulatory structures support to allow these industries to thrive and be/come robust by building an effective and efficient supply chain. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, 2003.

British accession to the European Union (EU) had far reaching economic, political and social consequences for New Zealand, forcing New Zealand to transform itself from a dependent subsidiary of Britain to acting as an independent small state for the first time. Although still in its infancy, the contemporary relationship New Zealand has formed with the EU is quite different to that it first established in the 1970s. It has increasing become more institutionalised, with a slowly developing structural framework that facilitates the narrow areas of cooperation. Dominated by the important economic relationship, the main challenges faced are of an economic nature. But the relationship also encompasses areas of political and social cooperation including people-to-people links, the environment, educational linkages, mutual support for multilateral institutions and development in the Pacific. As a small state, New Zealand is expected to display certain foreign policy behaviours in its interaction with bilateral partners. Small state theory forms the theoretical framework that explains New Zealand's behaviour in its foreign policy interaction with the EU. The theory was chosen for both its perceived usefulness in explaining and understanding the foreign policy behaviour of small states and for the apparent weaknesses of the theory, which is revealed in the case study of New Zealand-EU relations. This demonstrates how the theory is useful for its explanation of small state foreign policy behaviour, but also providing an insightful revelation of the theories flaws. This thesis proposes modifications to small state theory in order to strengthen it, and make it more encompassing of the contemporary realities of small state foreign policy, demonstrating that size does matter when exercising a foreign policy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Political Science, 2007. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 204-222).

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-04-11Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:48:11Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 freitas_vra_me_mar.pdf: 1041684 bytes, checksum: cc680e5306268f94b1048aa24ace9450 (MD5) / Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo realizar uma comparação entre as estratégias de inserção na economia internacional do Brasil e do México nos anos 1990. Por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, tomaremos como referencial as medidas de política econômica e de política externa adotadas por ambos os países no Mercosul, no caso brasileiro, e no Nafta, no caso mexicano. Para tal, é necessário fazer uma contextualização política e econômica do período anterior, sobretudo, a década de 1980, que marcou o fim de uma etapa histórica para uma nova forma de desenvolvimento. A crise da dívida externa que afetou diretamente a economia da maior parte dos países latino-americanos marcou o fim do modelo nacional desenvolvimentista, ou modelo de substituição de importações, dando espaço ao modelo econômico amparado em políticas neoliberais. Desse modo, no contexto da globalização, esse novo processo de desenvolvimento é responsável pela adoção de novas estratégias de política econômica e pela modificação da natureza da política externa, no que se refere às implicações das mudanças internacionais e domésticas, para a formulação da política externa. Pretendemos, portanto, compreender quais foram essas estratégias de inserção e os seus reflexos econômicos, bem como analisar sua relação com os processos de integração econômica regional e com a formulação da política externa de ambos os países. / This research aims to conduct a comparison between the strategies of insertion into the international economy of Brazil and Mexico in the 1990s. Through literature, we take as reference the economic policy measures and the foreign policy adopted by Brazil in Mercosul, and Mexico in NAFTA. This way, a political and an economic context of the previous period is necessary, especially the 1980s, which defined the end of an historic step towards a new form of development. The foreign debt crisis which directly affected the economy of most Latin American countries marked the end of the national development model, or model of import substitution, leaving a gap, that later would be filled up by the economic model of neoliberal policies supported. Thus, in the context of globalization, this new development process is responsible for adopting new strategies for economic policy and by changing the nature of foreign policy, regarding the implications of international and domestics transitions, to the formulation of foreign policy. Therefore, we aim to understand what were those insertion’s strategies and their economic consequences, as well as examine their relationship with the processes of regional economic integration and the formulation of foreign policy of both countries.

Le traité de Versailles semble marquer une rupture géopolitique profonde sur la scène internationale. Il place la France dans une position hégémonique (provisoire) en Europe et met le Proche-Orient au cœur des mutations et des innovations de l’entre-deux-guerres. L’effondrement de l’Empire Ottoman avec lequel la France entretenait des liens privilégiés depuis longtemps, la redistribution du pouvoir et des frontières qui en résulte, l’émergence de la SDN, porteuse de la doctrine de la sécurité collective et d’une réflexion sur de nouveaux cadres de domination visant des objectifs et des ambitions renouvelés, sont autant de facteurs qui reconfigurent les relations entre la France et les pays du Levant. En 1919, la France se voit confier par la SDN le mandat de conduire la Syrie à l’autonomie, en l’accompagnant dans son développement économique, social, politique et culturel. Les relations entre la France et la Syrie sont désormais réglées par la Charte du mandat qui encadre et par les usages plus ou moins décalés qu’en font les acteurs en fonction de la conjoncture et des tensions dans la société et entre les nations et du caractère antagoniste ou conciliable des ambitions de chacun… / The Treaty of Versailles appears to mark a profound geopolitical disruption on the international scene. It puts France in a hegemonic position (provisional) in Europe and the Middle East makes the heart mutations and innovations of the period between the wars. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire which France maintained close ties for a long time, the redistribution of power and boundaries that result, the emergence of the League, carrier of the doctrine of collective security and reflection on new domination frameworks objectives and renewed ambitions, are all factors that reconfigure the relationship between France and the Levant.In 1919, France was entrusted by the League of Nations mandate to lead Syria to autonomy, accompanying it in its economic, social, political and cultural. Relations between France and Syria are now set by the Charter of office that oversees and by the way, more or less offset than the actors do depending on the situation and the tensions in society and among nations and character antagonist or reconcile the ambitions of each ...

This paper will show that, despite the need for extension of foreign direct investment in the form of multinational corporations to capital-scarce, less developed countries, political risk creates a gap between the demand and supply of foreign investments. In Chapter II, the patterns of foreign direct investment are analyzed. Chapter III reviews the various sources of political risk and concludes that the existence of political risk is an obstacle to the formation of optimum level investment. Chapter IV discusses the relative positions of the less developed countries and the multinational corporations. Chapter V shows the problems caused by the absence of a universal, regulatory institution. Chapter VI presents case studies of corporations based in Chile, Peru, and Angola. Chapter VII suggests ways that political risk can be minimized.

Agricultural commodity derivatives were first introduced in South Africa in 1996 after the deregulation of the former marketing system. In the context of its proposed functions, namely price discovery and risk management, the question arose as to whether the futures market developed over time to performed its role efficiently. According to the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH) an efficient market is one that accurately incorporates all information available at any point in time. The purpose of the research was to address the issue of price discovery efficiency, firstly, focusing on the weak-form methodology. Secondly, considering the behaviour of futures prices over time, the study addressed the concern of anomalies in daily returns – phenomena contradictory to the EMH by implication. Thirdly, as a means of defining the sources of inefficiency, the role of scheduled public information and its impact on futures prices was examined. Therefore, the primary objective of the research was to investigate and identify the main components of agricultural futures market inefficiency within the unique price formation structure of South African grain markets. The assessment of this problem is important in terms of evaluating the growth and development of the futures market for different grain commodities to date. The Exchange needs to review rules and regulations on a frequent basis in order to ensure proper functioning at all times especially in the case of a relatively new and fast growing market. The study contributed to the knowledge of understanding the price adjustment process and its implications for market efficiency in the context of the three grain markets considered. The weak-form efficiency was tested using a co-integration based model. Analysing daily spot and futures prices of white maize, yellow maize, and wheat, results indicated that all three markets were efficient and unbiased. Non-parametric tests revealed the significant presence of day-of-the-week and turn-of-the-month effects in the futures returns of the three commodities. Further non-parametric analyses suggested a high degree of uncertainty in futures returns around scheduled agricultural and macroeconomic information release dates also contributing significantly to the identified anomalies. It was concluded that (1) the markets’ ability to anticipate the contents of future information to be released, (2) the current skewed size distribution of broking members, (3) the significant role of the R/$ exchange rate in the price formation process of South African grains and, therefore, (4) the relationship to and influence of the broader economy enhanced the return effects (anomalies) creating opportunity for profitable arbitrage. This conclusion was mainly attributed to South Africa’s status as a price-taker in the world grain complex as well as the relatively short existence of the local agricultural futures markets.

A presente pesquisa debruçou o seu olhar sobre o problema da falta de continuidade em redes de ruas que, ao que parece, não tem recebido a devida atenção por parte das administrações públicas e equipes de planejamento urbano. Através de análises como integralidade, heterogeneidade das redes espaciais urbanas e análise de bloqueios viários a pesquisa buscou inverter o olhar para elementos (e condições) estruturais que potencialmente prejudicam o desempenho da morfologia urbana de cidades causando impactos de natureza sócio-econômica. Para tanto, lançou mão da construção de grafos e da aplicação de medidas de diferenciação espacial nas redes em estudo, a fim de avançar na compreensão de eventos que possivelmente provocam algum tipo de ruptura na morfologia de cidades, provocando problemas para suas populações. O resultado do estudo apontou para a possibilidade de criação de um conceito específico chamado de microruptura em redes de ruas. / The present research intended to look at/: the problem of lack of continuity in networks of streets that, it seems, has not received due attention by the government and urban planning teams. Through analysis as integrity, spatial heterogeneity of networks and analysis of urban road blockades research sought to reverse its look to elements (and conditions) that potentially affect the structural performance of the urban morphology of cities causing social economic impacts. To do so, it uses the construction of graphs and the application of measures of spatial differentiation in the networks under study in order to advance the understanding of events that possibly provoke some kind of rupture in morphology of cities, causing problems for their people. The result of the study pointed to the possibility of creating a specific concept called microruptures in street networks.