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The impact of domestic policy regulations and standards on trade has been at the forefront of global policy during the past decade. Every country develops their own policies and standards that differ from country to country. These differences create problems for manufacturing industries, especially in major exporting countries. This study overviews the policy context driving standards in the manufacturing industries. The study consists of three different articles that attempt to examine the role of technical regulations and standards and their relationship with trade using different econometric models In the first article, the standard factor endowment approach is employed to explain the effects of environmental regulatory policy on net exports in different manufacturing industries. The study hypothesizes that a countrys comparative advantage depends on its factor abundance. The regulatory policy increases production costs and, thus, reduces the output level of an industry. The results indicate that each industry is unique in the factors determining net exports and in many instances environmental regulations are important. In the second article, we investigate the impact of competition policy on a countrys production and export competitiveness. Since the impact of competition regulation depends upon the particular circumstances of the industry to which the policy is applied, we examine how competition policy impacts production and exports of a specific sector, in particular the agri-food processing sector. The results suggest that competition policy enhances competition by reducing entry barriers, and causes firms to produce more output with lower prices. Exports for both total and food manufacturing in the post-competition policy period are higher than exports in the pre-competition period. In the third article, we estimate regressions based on an extended gravity model to determine the possible influence of food safety standards on export flows of six Asia-Pacific countries to ten importing countries. We examine the relationship between bilateral exports and importers imposition of food safety standards. The results show that the value of exports in food and food products is negatively affected by food safety standards: the greater the aflatoxin standards, the lower its restrictiveness, and higher the bilateral export flows.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine Turkey&rsquo / s export competitiveness in the first 15 members of the European Union (EU-15 market) against non-EU-15 competitors. The study covers the recent period since the Customs Union agreement signed between Turkey and the EU at the end of 1995. Turkey&rsquo / s position in the EU-15 market is analyzed in detail by focusing upon major dimensions of export competitiveness / such as &lsquo / export similarity&rsquo / , &lsquo / export diversification&rsquo / , &lsquo / intensive and extensive margins&rsquo / , &lsquo / revealed comparative advantages&rsquo / , &lsquo / dynamic market positioning&rsquo / and &lsquo / competitive threat&rsquo / . We use various indexes from the literature and develop some original indexes as our own contributions. In terms the subject-matter, time dimension and data-detail of our study, all indexes utilized in this thesis are applied to Turkey&rsquo / s case for the first time. Examining price and quantity differences across countries and within each industry, Turkey&rsquo / s competitive position in the EU-15 market is analyzed as compared to 30 countries for more than 3000 export-product groups classified according to their technological characteristics. Based on the results, suggestions at the levels of countries, products and technological categories are made for Turkey to improve its export strategy in terms of seizing the existing but unexploited opportunities in the EU-15 market against its competitors. Policy possibilities are also discussed for directing Turkey&rsquo / s competitiveness towards higher value-added products in a rational and strategic way.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / O Brasil e particularmente o Estado do Cearà vem aumentando consideravelmente suas exportaÃÃes de plantas vivas e produtos de floriculrura e consequentemente vem participando efetivamente na criaÃÃo de divisas para o paÃs. Entretanto, pouco se sabe sobre a competitividade das exportaÃÃes brasileiras e cearenses com respeito a outros exportadores nacionais. Assim, procurou-se identificar, qual o desempenho competitivo do Brasil e do Cearà no mercado internacional desse segmento. Para atingir esta proposta foram traÃados os seguintes objetivos: Verificar a competitividade das exportaÃÃes de plantas vivas e produtos de floricultura do Cearà e do Brasil durante o perÃodo de 1998 a 2004; Identificar a existÃncia de polÃticas de incentivo à produÃÃo e comercializaÃÃo de plantas vivas e produtos de floricultura; Identificar o nÃvel de competitividade da exportaÃÃo de plantas vivas e produtos de floricultura do Cearà e do Brasil em relaÃÃo aos principais exportadores internacionais. A anÃlise foi pautada no conceito de competitividade compreendida como: Capacidade de uma empresa/paÃs permanecer no mercado atravÃs de uma posiÃÃo competitiva criada para um produto ou grupo de produtos, sendo essa, fruto de estratÃgias capazes de manter ou elevar eficientemente a posiÃÃo competitiva no comÃrcio internacional. A metodologia utilizada baseou-se na anÃlise tabular descritiva e no cÃlculo de indicadores de desempenho das exportaÃÃes: Vantagem Comparativa Revelada (VCR); Taxa de Cobertura (TC); Intensidade de ComÃrcio; Desempenho das ExportaÃÃes; PosiÃÃo Relativa das ExportaÃÃes e Constante Market Share (CMS). Os resultados demonstram que o Estado do Cearà ao longo do perÃodo analisado sà foi realmente competitivo no comÃrcio internacional de plantas vivas e produtos de floricultura no ano de 2004, onde apresentou tanto VCR como TC superiores a unidade, indicando que nesse ano o Estado apresentou eficiÃncia comercial. Pelo modelo CMS, constatou-se que de acordo com as fontes de crescimento das exportaÃÃes o efeito competitividade foi o maior responsÃvel pelo aumento mÃdio das exportaÃÃes de plantas vivas e produtos de floricultura do Cearà no perÃodo de 1998 a 2004. O Brasil, em todo o perÃodo, apresentou VCR e TC superior a unidade, indicando que o paÃs tem dinamismo comercial no segmento em anÃlise quando comparado aos outros paÃses exportadores. Pelo modelo CMS, constatou-se tambÃm que, de acordo com as fontes de crescimento das exportaÃÃes, o efeito competitividade foi o maior responsÃvel pelo aumento mÃdio das exportaÃÃes de plantas vivas e produtos de floricultura do PaÃs no perÃodo analisado. Os Ãndices revelaram que o Brasil foi competitivo no comÃrcio mundial no perÃodo deste estudo. Cearà nÃo foi competitivo nos anos de 1998 a 2003, entretanto em 2004, o Estado demonstrou està se tornando um potencial parceiro comÃrcial deste setor. / Brazil and particularly the state of Cearà have considerably increased the exports of live plants and flower-raising products and participated effectively in the opening of new boundaries to the country. Nevertheless, little is known about competitiveness in Brazilian and Cearà Exports, regarding other national exports. Thus, we have tried to identify what competitive performance Brazil and Cearà have in the international market of this segment. In order to accomplish this, the following objectives were drawn: To ascertain the exports competitiveness of live plants and flower-raising products from Cearà and Brazil from 1998 to 2004; to identify the existence of inducement policies for producing and commercializing live plants and flower-raising products; to identify the level of competitiveness of the exports of live plants and flower-raising products from Cearà and Brazil towards the main international exporters. The analysis was based in the concept of competitiveness as: The capacity of a country/corporation to remain in the market through a competitive position, created to a product or a group of products, which is the result of strategies which are able to maintain or elevate the competitive position in the international market. The methodology used was based in the descriptive tabular analysis and in the calculation of export development indicators: Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA); Covering Tax (CT); Commerce Intensity; Exports Performance; Relative Position of Exports and Constant Market Share (CMS). The results show that the state of CearÃ, during the time explored, was only competitive in the international commerce of live plants and flower-raising products in the year 2004, when it presented both RCA and CT, indicating that in this year the state presented commercial efficiency. Through the CMS model, we realized that according to the sources of export increase, the competitive effect was responsible for the average increase in the exports of live plants and flower-raising products in Cearà from 1998 to 2004. Brazil, through the whole period, presented superior RCA and CT, indicating that the country is commercially dynamic in the analyzed segment when compared to other countriesâ exports. Through the CMS model we found that according to the sources of export increase, the competitive effect was the major responsible for the average increase in the exports of live plants and flower-raising products during the analyzed period. The indexes revealed that Brazil was competitive in the world commerce during this study. Cearà wasnât competitive from 1998 to 2003, although in 2004, the state showed a great commercial power in this area.

A debate over environmental policies and trade competitiveness, “Do environmental policies really matter to impact trade competitiveness?” still exists during the past decade. The thesis aims at investigating the impact of WTO-EU environmental policies for the international olive oil market on production and export competitiveness of developing countries. In particular, we focus our analysis on the agro-industrial sector in the Arab countries, and we take specific reference to the case of the olive oil agro-industrial sector in Syria. In the frame of a partial equilibrium trade model, we incorporate the “end-of-the-pipe” environmental policies which in turn enhance the productivity of the polluting input. Moreover, a part of the burden of environmental compliance may be shifted onto foreign consumers. The most novel part of our model consists of the augmented effect of compliance with environmental policies, which includes not only the standard impact on the effective product price, but also on the input shadow price. The empirical findings, based on Syrian data, provide strong support to the Porter Hypothesis and its application to international markets for agro-industrial products. Accordingly, the study disproves the legitimacy of concerns that stricter environmental policies in developing economies may have negative impacts on their production and export competitiveness. In contrast, our results show that compliance with environmental policies under the large country assumption has positive effects on their international competitiveness of environmentally sensitive sectors, in particular. Therefore, the policy implications suggest the implementation of strict environmental regulatory policies supporting environmentally sound technologies.

The Czech Republic has committed itself to adopt the euro with joining the European union in 2004. Until today there has not been any political interest of setting the specific date of euro adoption due to low public approval. Currently, there is an increase of positive public opinion about euro so it is the right time to start an objective discussion. The thesis is divided into three parts. The First part describes the history and evolution of the European monetary union, Maastricht convergence criteria and the theory of optimal currency area. The second part presents possible economic benefits and costs of joining the monetary union. The third and the main part examines the real effects of euro adoption on sample of selected countries with similar characteristics. The impact of euro on main economic indicators was analysed and there has been carried out a comparison between these countries. Also the role of euro in trade of selected countries has been highlighted. Last but not least, the possible impact of euro on country competitivness has been analysed in the context of optimum currency area theory. It is expected that joining the monetary union leads to a boost of bilateral trade which harmonizes the economic cycles of trade partners. The main purpose of this part is to prove the increase of competitiveness of exporters gained from monetary union measured by the raise of the bilateral trade interconnection. Finally these two criteria - gross domestic product alignment and bilateral trade interconnection have been used to describe the suitability of Czech Republic as a candidate country for the European monetary union.