Under World Trade Organization (“WTO”) rules, the United States and other developed countries are specifically permitted to treat the People’s Republic of China (the “PRC” or “China”) as a Non-Market Economy (“NME”). Under U.S. trade laws, China’s designation as an NME allow imposition of tariffs to protect U.S. industries from “dumping” and to offset subsidies provided by foreign countries to their producers. However, on December 11, 2016, 15 years after China’s accession to the WTO, the U.S.’ legal right to automatically treat China as an NME expires under WTO law. The U.S. government has created NME methodologies under U.S. trade laws that impose often staggering duties on imports from China in a wide range of industries—duties that often have little relationship to economic reality. In effect, the U.S. is engaged in a guerrilla trade war with China, with NME status as the primary weapon. There is immense political resistance to ending the automatic NME treatment of China. For example, even Hillary Clinton, who was less openly confrontational towards China than Donald Trump, stated in her recent Presidential campaign, “Right now, Washington is considering Beijing’s request for ‘market economy’ status…if they get market economy status, it would defang our anti-dumping laws and let cheap products flood into our markets. So we should reply with only one word: No.”[i] This intense political anger is fueled by the displacements that China’s rapid rise and exports to the U.S. have engendered.[ii] Trade policy with respect to China needs to be considered in light of the critical importance of the relationship to both countries. China has become the United States’ largest single trading partner. Although the size of the trade deficit with China clearly accounts for the current heated political rhetoric about unfair trade with China, the fact is that China is by far the U.S.’ largest export trade partner (excluding our NAFTA neighbors Canada and Mexico), with exports almost twice the size of the next nearest country, Japan. This alone indicates it is in the United States’ interest to have a rational trading relationship with China. The U.S. should end the treatment of China as an NME. The policy is both ineffective and irrational. The capital markets do not consider the policy effective: recent relevant case studies show that protected U.S. companies often do not experience the intended benefit of trade law protection—a healthier business—based on analysis of their stock price performance beyond short term effects. After controlling for overall market fluctuations, companies will, at most, experience a short-term jump in their stock price. In the examples studied below, the stock price typically returns to pre-trade law protection figures within weeks. Such results imply two important points: 1) the company’s long-term fundamentals, which typically determine long-term stock performance (e.g. growth rate, cash flows, and margins), are unchanged by trade law protection; and 2) investors do not believe that these policies have a significant, long-term positive impact on U.S. companies. Regular “market economy” U.S. trade law provides real and sufficient remedies to address subsidies and dumping. Not only does the treatment of China as an NME exacerbate tensions with China[i], it imposes both unpredictable and excessive costs on U.S. consumers who purchase Chinese goods and makes U.S. businesses that use Chinese products to produce final goods less competitive with foreign competitors not facing such artificial costs[ii]. [i] Hornby, Lucy and Shawn Donnan, “China Fights for Market Economy Status”, May 9, 2016, Financial Times, https://www.ft.com/content/572f435e-0784-11e6-9b51-0fb5e65703ce. [ii] Mankiw, Gregory N. and Phillip L. Swagel, “Antidumping: The Third Rail of Trade Policy,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 84, No. 4 (Jul. - Aug., 2005), pp. 107-119. [i] Clinton, Hillary, “Commentary: If Elected President, I’ll level the Playing Field on Global Trade,” Portland Herald Press, February 23, 2016, http://www.pressherald.com/2016/02/23/commentary-if-elected-president-ill-level-the-playing-field-on-global-trade-clinton-says/ [ii] Autor, David H., David Dorn and Gordon H. Hanson, “The China Shock: Learning from Labor Market Adjustment to Large Changes in Trade,” NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 21906, National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2016, http://economics.mit.edu/files/11675.

This thesis discusses trade names including their histories, formations, and semantic implications.

It is the primary concern of this study to examine the development of Fair Trade and the different interpretations which fair trade laws have had. Also, this study will attempt to estimate future action in the area of fair trade. This study closely examines the legal framework upholding the system.

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The purpose of this study is to find the influence of common currency on the international trade development. The study deals with the Rose effect, which says, that the currency unions increase trade by more than 200%. This thesis designes an extended gravity model of international trade where the economic characteristics of countries are combined with institutional and policy factors of trade, such as the EU common policies, impacts of the Euro or trade agreements and other factors, which lowers the transaction costs of trade, such as the quality of infrastructure. The thesis also deals with the data structure influence on the results of the estimation of gravity models and shows the problem which is not in common literature noted. Compared to the common research, this thesis focus in detail only on Czech and German exports.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1959 M34

M.Sc. / South Africa is a country richly-endowed with natural resources, including huge deposits of chromium and iron ore. Escom, the country's electricity utility, has access to huge amounts of spare generating capacity, which can be exploited to produce value-added products such as stainless steel (Columbus Stainless) and aluminium (Alusaf). These factors, together with the government's stated aim of increasing levels of beneficiation in South Africa, and the needs and requirements of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), mean that the country will embark on other major beneficiation projects in the future ...

M. Comm. / The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the current tariff structure applicable to the South African clothing industry and use this information to formulate recommendations on the tariff and trade policy that would best benefit the industry and the economy. Chapter 1 provided an introduction to the analysis of the tariffs applicable to the clothing industry by defining the problem statement, the relevance of the study and the method of research. Analysis of the tariff structure is important to both the government and the private sector. The government needs this type of information to assist in their policy formulation as regards tariffs and trade and the private sector needs to be aware of the implications of government policy on their profits and performance. Chapter 2 provided a literature study of tariff theory and an international comparison, particularly as regards clothing tariffs. Chapter 3 provided background information on the South African clothing industry. Chapter 4 represented the body of the analysis and provided a detailed investigation into the current tariff structure applicable to the South African clothing industry. The aim of Chapter 2 was to outline theory relevant to tariff protection, particularly as regards the clothing industry. In order to achieve this, various aspects of tariff theory, the implications of protection, and the relationship between protection and trade policy were discussed. Prerequisites for successful tariff protection include the existence of effective domestic rivalry, the potential for a favourable 'diamond' (strategy, structure and rivalry; demand conditions; related and supporting industries; and factor conditions) and that the protection is limited in duration. The effective tariff rate (or effective rate of protection) expresses the tariff as a percentage of the value added by the exporting industry in question. Effective tariff rates are very important as the nominal tariff can be deceptive. Most industrial nations have a cascading tariff structure with low nominal tariffs on raw materials and higher rates the greater the degree of processing. Thus, exports like clothing which use partially processed materials (textiles or fabrics) can face substantially different effective tariff rates in comparison to their nominal tariff rates (in the case of clothing in South Africa, the effective rate is about three times higher than the nominal rate). Theory shows that positive effects of tariff protection include protecting employment, changing the distribution of income (this could be positive or negative, depending on who benefits), protection of infant industries or young economies, protection of strategic industries, providing income for governments (from a source that is less controversial than most income taxes) and protection from dumping. Dumping protection is a questionable point and is seen by many economists as an excuse for higher protection to make more profit, rather than as a legitimate effort to prevent a negative activity. Most of the positive effects of protection are accompanied by negative effects or may not achieve their desired outcome. Negative results of tariff protection include that protection often fails to stimulate exports and domestic output, protection tends to promote inefficient firm scale and entry, protection may be anti-competitive and it may encourage corruption. The most important of the negative factors is the promotion of inefficient firm scale and entry, the promotion of anti-competitive behaviour and the encouragement of corruption both on the part of tariff officials at points of entry, and politicians. All of these negative effects encourage businesses to behave in a complacent and inefficient manner. The impact of protection on the cost position of the clothing and textile industries in South Africa was discussed.

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Student Number : 9904829N - MA research report - School of Social Science - Faculty of Humanities / This research examines a possible welfare role of transport trade unions in the face of HIV/AIDS, particularly in the trucking industry. It uses SATAWU as a case study to see what the union, as a transport union, is doing to fight the spread of HIV in the industry. This study was motivated by a lack of previous research on the subject and also the claim of some studies that truck drivers are partly responsible for the spread of HIV in rural Southern Africa. The research was done through in-depth interviews with SATAWU officials, members of the Road Freight Association, truck drivers and other stakeholders. The main argument in this research is that although government has policies and programmes in place to fight the spread of HIV, there are certain things the unions can do to help seeing that they have more influence on the workers and they have easier access to them. The study examines programmes that are already in place and what is still lacking especially in relation to union involvement. The research also investigates union involvement in existing programmes and establishes what truck drivers and their families think should be done to fight the scourge and its aftermath. SATAWU remains remotely involved despite the spread of the scourge among truckers and the effects thereof on the family. Truckers remain vulnerable and so are their families.