Services are the fastest growing sector of the economy. With the advent and development of technology, trade in services has grown more rapidly than trade in goods in world production. This has also resulted from ongoing economic reforms and the development of more liberal policies. Prior to the Uruguay Round of negotiations, international trade was confined to the conventional form of trade in goods or merchandise trade. With new developments, especially with the advent of technological changes, trade not only centred on cross border exchanges of goods but was broadened to include cross border trade of services. In spite of this development in trade in services, trade negotiations on services liberalisation have made little progress under the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Because of this, countries have opted for other fora to address their needs under trade in services. One of the ways of doing this has been to enter into regional and free trade agreements providing for liberalisation of trade in services. Such has been the case of the proliferation of such agreements not only Africa but the world over, during the last decade. Services provisions under regional trade agreements (RTAs) follow the same trend as those RTAs that provide for goods. They are largely premised on the elimination of explicit barriers to the entry of foreign service providers in the region. Notably, for services trade under RTAs, two models of liberalisation are largely used. A number of RTAs tend to duplicate the use, found in GATS, of a positive-list approach to market opening, whereas others pursue a negative-list approach. The negative-list approach is modelled along the services provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Much discourse has been advanced on which of the models of liberalisation is better although no conclusive research has been undertaken in support of either one. Proponents of the negative list do advance its attributes while those of the negative list do the same. However, most of them conclude that one cannot say with finality that either one is the better option because the impact of liberalisation is not automatic. Such liberalisation, in order to benefit the regional economy, and also the domestic economies, must be accompanied by related policy reforms and proper formulation of such reforms. Managing reforms of services markets should therefore be done in combination with the proper formulation of both competition and regulatory reforms and policies. In addition, there should be adequate regulation and supervision mechanisms to monitor the functioning of the different services sectors or else the liberalisation efforts of the countries will be undermined. Much of such discourse on the choice of either approach to liberalisation has been undertaken based on the RTAS and free trade agreements in North America and Asia. Notably, not much of the same has been done regarding such agreements in Africa. As such, this research is undertaken focusing on assessing albeit fleetingly, the scheduling approach adopted by the East African countries under the Protocol for the establishment of the East African Community Common market. This research, while drawing from that undertaken in other regions, attempts to explore the likely consequences of the liberalisation approach adopted by the countries of the East African Community. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

<p><strong>Aim: </strong><em>Problem background -</em><strong> </strong>CSR has today increased its strategic status and consumer demand of sustainable development has also increased lately. However, there are still companies that have not adjusted their strategies to fit this swift in demand. This study offers a strategic tool, based on sustainable core competencies, for companies to implement in order to use CSR to boost their business.<strong> </strong></p><p><em>Research issue -</em><strong> </strong>How can Swedbank increase stakeholder confidence and value?<strong> </strong></p><p><em>Delimitations -</em><strong> </strong>This study focuses on the concept of integrating CSR work into the strategy and how this could result in added value for the B2B customer of Swedbank Corporate Market. <strong></strong></p><p><strong>Method:</strong> This study has an abductive approach and the author has collected qualitative primary data in the form of interviews with employees at Swedbank, Sparbanken Nord and with five of Swedbank’s customers from the public sector.</p><p><strong>Result & Conclusion:</strong> Swedbank needs to re-position their brand with a differentiated strategy, including a supportive vision and Market Communication, in order to gain a competitive advantage, strengthen their image, stakeholder confidence and financial performance. The author recommends the sustainable core competence, “Sparbankssjälen”, in order to deploy an ethical, economical and environmental responsible strategy to implement into all their activities.</p>

Aim: Problem background - CSR has today increased its strategic status and consumer demand of sustainable development has also increased lately. However, there are still companies that have not adjusted their strategies to fit this swift in demand. This study offers a strategic tool, based on sustainable core competencies, for companies to implement in order to use CSR to boost their business. Research issue - How can Swedbank increase stakeholder confidence and value? Delimitations - This study focuses on the concept of integrating CSR work into the strategy and how this could result in added value for the B2B customer of Swedbank Corporate Market. Method: This study has an abductive approach and the author has collected qualitative primary data in the form of interviews with employees at Swedbank, Sparbanken Nord and with five of Swedbank’s customers from the public sector. Result &amp; Conclusion: Swedbank needs to re-position their brand with a differentiated strategy, including a supportive vision and Market Communication, in order to gain a competitive advantage, strengthen their image, stakeholder confidence and financial performance. The author recommends the sustainable core competence, “Sparbankssjälen”, in order to deploy an ethical, economical and environmental responsible strategy to implement into all their activities.

The study of regions in international relations has been a sometime thing, gaining scholarly attention in the 1950s and 1960s, dropping largely from view in the 1970s, and returning to focus quite dramatically in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is clear that the contemporary manifestations of regionalism (the completion of the internal market of the European Communities in 1992, Asia Pacific developments, and US-centred Western hemisphere moves) constitute a new and qualitatively different factor in both interstate relations and the international political economy. The growth in the development of regions in the 1980s also represents a new level of interstate collaboration in the international system. The question arises as to the causes of this 'new regionalism' of the 1980s, and the implications of these developments for international relations practice and theory. Investigating these issues is the main task of this thesis. ¶ This thesis involves three elements: a central contemporary element examining the re-emergence of regions in the 1980s; a second comparative element comparing the causal factors operating in three different regions; and lastly, a theoretical element examining the usefulness of current theory to the phenomenon of regionalism in the 1980s and 1990s. Chapters Two and Three discuss the relevant theoretical literature with a view to developing the propositions to be examined in the case studies. They examine three of the major streams of international relations theory - realism, liberal economics, and institutionalism - with a focus on what these contending theories have had to say about how regional groupings arise. Chapter Two looks at the relevant theoretical literature in the 1950s and 1960s while Chapter Three explores the more recent theoretical literature of the 1970s and 1980s. ¶ The rest of the body of the thesis tests propositions set out at the end of Chapter Three on the causes of the regionalist revival in the 1980s by way of three case studies, each one concerned with the actual development of regionalism in three different parts of the globe: Western Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific. ¶ In all three regions the move towards regionalism was clearly a reaction to negative developments in the international economic and political systems. It was in part a specific response to the undermining of the liberal international trading regime and the associated rise in protectionism, particularly in the US. It was also partly the result of an ideational shift in terms of economic doctrine away from keynesianism and import substitution industrialisation to economic liberalism and export-oriented economic growth. Yet it is also apparent from the case studies that the new regionalism was also to some extent the result of a kind of interactive chain reaction, a spiral of mutual anxiety, with regionalism in one area provoking an extension of regionalism in another. It is indeed difficult to establish which of these causal explanations is the principal one as it is clear from the case studies that they are in fact mutually reinforcing. ¶ The thesis concludes with an analysis of the insights provided by the case studies into the theoretical debates examined in Chapters Two and Three. Finally, there is an attempt to use these insights to construct a theory accounting for the rise of the new regionalism.

In the present round table, tax specialists from Peru, Colombia, Chile and Mexico discuss about the tax reforms carried out and outstanding in their respective countries on the tax treatment of capital gain within the framework of the Latin American integrated Market. / En la presente mesa redonda, destacados especialistas de Perú, Colombia, Chile y México comentan las reformas tributarias realizadas y pendientes por realizar en sus respectivos países en torno al tratamiento tributario de las ganancias de capital en el marco del Mercado integrado Latinoamericano (en adelante, “MILA”).