This bachelor thesis examines if a Free Trade Agreement (FTA hereafter) has a positive effect or not on trade flows. There are many FTAs in the world beside World Trade Organization (WTO hereafter) membership. Many empirical studies have been performed by different methods and most of them show a significant influence on trade flows. In this thesis the impact on the FTA between the European Union (EU hereafter) and South Korea is studied by using the Gravity Model in period between 2007 and 2016. Dummy variables which capture the impact on the implementation of the FTA since 2011 are constructed into the standard trade Gravity equation. In addition, several dummy variables, such as the distance between countries and culture characteristic variables are utilized. The results of two different regression models show that both a positive and a negative impact on the EU’s import from South Korea and a negative impact on South Korea’s import from the EU. Overall, all estimated coefficients used in the models show a significant effect on import trade flows between countries.

Climate change is a complex and multidimensional issue that encompasses not only environmental problems but also political, socio-economic and cultural challenges as well. Moreover, major shifts in the weather patterns caused by the anthropogenically induced global warming may have significant impacts on the global economy and international trade in particular. However, the effects of climate change will be distributed unevenly around the world and the poorest nations will be affected the most due to their higher vulnerability. Additionally, the winners and losers nexus will probably differ between the time of mitigation efforts and reality of adaptation process. These issues will create more complications in the relations between developed countries (global North) and developing nations (global South). Therefore, if multilateral treaties and institutional arrangements regarding climate change are to be effective and acceptable to all parties, there is a need to deal with problematic of global warming as a whole, including the issues of development and international trade in particular. A concept of synergy is a strategy that could allow building a mutual cooperation between climate change and international trade regimes. It is important to emphasize that the synergy is understood here not as a simple cooperation of two separate parts, but as combined efforts which final effect is greater than a sum of individual parts working separately. Thus, the aim of this study was to trace and analyze linkages between the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in order to determine potentials, obstacles and consequences of synergies between these two organizations. The linkages – that are prerequisites of synergies – between the two organizations were traced within the four key areas: institutional capacity, political dimension, conceptual basis and recommendations for actions. The research was conducted based on the case study that allowed investigation of synergies as a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context. A broader understanding and clearer conclusions regarding synergies were achieved through the method of interpretation called hermeneutic circle. The world-systems and dependency theory together with a historical background of the two respective institutions became a pre-understanding of examined issues during the analytical process. The biggest potentials for establishing synergies between UNCTAD and UNFCCC were found within currently existing institutional linkages based on affiliation with the United Nations system of institutions, as well as on research and capacity building regarding the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Whereas obstacles were visible in: the North-South paradigm (or core-periphery in terms of the world-systems theory); the winner-loser division – particularly when it comes to CDM projects and adaptation to climate change impacts – visible not only on the North-South line of relations but also the South-South as well; and environmental aspects vs. economic benefits (what is the priority: climate protection or continuation of development). Conclusions of this study allowed envisaging three potential outcomes of synergies between UNCTAD and UNFCCC. Additionally, three alternative scenarios were suggested based on the aspiration to balance influences of the North and the South – a tactics that could make mitigation efforts and adaptation strategies successful for the benefits of all, rich as well as poor.

Les politiques environnementales unilatérales, destinées à corriger les défaillances de marché, peuvent échouer dans un monde globalisé. Dans cette thèse, j'analyse plusieurs mécanismes dans lesquels certaines réglementations environnementales peuvent conduire à un équilibre sous optimal dans une situation de libre-échange. J'étudie également la façon dont certaines politiques environnementales telles que les politiques de recyclages peuvent contribuer à atteindre d'autres objectifs politiques à l'échelle d'un pays. Dans le premier chapitre de cette dissertation, j'analyse l'impact des différences de taxation sur la gestion des déchets entre différents pays sur les échanges bilatéraux de déchets entre les pays membres de l'Union Européenne. Je trouve qu'une différence entre les taux de taxes a un impact non négligeable sur la quantité de déchets exportés des pays à fort niveau de taxation vers les pays à faible niveau de taxation. Ce résultat illustre l'impact néfaste que peuvent avoir, en situation de libre échange, les comportements stratégiques de type « nivellement par le bas ». Ce résultat a d'importantes implications en termes de politiques publiques car ces comportements stratégiques peuvent conduire à une sous internalisation des dommages environnementaux. Les politiques de recyclages ont originellement été mises en place pour réduire les impacts environnementaux du traitement des déchets. En réalité, elles peuvent aussi contribuer à la diminution de la dépendance en matières premières à l'échelle d'un pays. Dans le second chapitre, je trouve que les politiques de recyclages, qui stimulent la production locale de matières premières secondaires, ont un impact négatif substantiel sur les importations de matières premières métalliques. Dans le troisième chapitre, je teste empiriquement si la délocalisation vers les pays à faible coût de production diminue la propension des entreprises à développer des technologies vertes. Je trouve que la capacité d'importer des matériaux en provenance des pays à bas coût a réduit de manière drastique l'innovation verte dans les pays à coût de production élevé durant les dernières décennies. Dans le dernier chapitre, j'utilise des données sur les entreprises industrielles françaises pour tester empiriquement la majorité des hypothèses formulées par Porter et van der Linde. Mon analyse empirique rejette l'hypothèse de Porter bien que l'impact négatif des réglementations environnementales sur la profitabilité des firmes soit plutôt faible. Ce résultat constitue une preuve d'une condition nécessaire mais non suffisante à l'existence de havres de pollution. / In a globalized world, unilateral environmental policies may fail to correct market failures from a global point of view. In this dissertation, I examine some mechanisms through which environmental regulations could lead to inefficient outcomes under free trade. I also investigate how particular environmental policies such as recycling policies can help to address other concerns at the country level. In the first chapter of this dissertation, I analyze how cross-country difference in waste taxes impacts the bilateral trade in waste between the member states of the European Union. I find that a higher asymmetry in the waste taxes is associated with a non negligible amount of waste exported from strict countries to lax countries. This result illustrates the harmful impact that "race to the bottom" behaviours can have under free trade. This result has important policy implications since these behaviours can lead to an insufficient internalization of the environmental damages caused by waste management activities. Recycling policies are implemented to reduce environmental impacts but they can also mitigate country dependence on foreign raw materials. In the second chapter, I find that recycling policies substantially reduce country dependence on foreign raw materials by stimulating domestic production of secondary raw materials. In the third chapter, I test empirically whether offshoring to low-production-cost countries reduces firms' propensity to innovate in clean technologies. I find that trade with low-cost countries may have significantly reduced green innovation in high production cost countries during the last decades. In the last chapter, I use micro-data on French manufacturing to test a major part of the assumptions made in the seminal work of Porter and van der Linde. I find evidence against the Porter Hypothesis although the negative impact of regulations on firm profitability is rather small. This is evidence of a necessary but not sufficient condition for the Pollution Haven Hypothesis.

Pas de résumé / Doctorat en droit / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Pas de résumé / Doctorat en droit / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The thesis will be discussing the relation between India and the European Union (EU) after the biggest enlargement. After the inevitable setting of the historic background of these two entities in the 60-ties of the 20. century, we will focus on the period almost half of the century after, where India and the EU started working on stronger relational structure. Besides the cultural and social familiarity of two mutually completely different cultures, the stress is essentially put on the political and economic aspect. Till today, strengthening of this structure is created mainly by the organization of regular meetings. The part of summits' work undoubtedly consists in the common trade between India and EU, that will also obtain the opportunity to be mentioned. That one will be supplemented with the economic and political view of the Indian bilateral trade with three selected member states, United Kingdom, France and Germany. Protectionism, nowadays still very integral to the majority of foreign commerce relations in the world, will be the last but one topic that makes at the same time the introduction to the final one, key part of my work, critical perspective on the India - EU relation.

I argue that a country’s preferences in an international trade negotiation ultimately reflect the domestic distribution of power across economic sectors not only in the field of the market, but also in the field of society. Fields correspond to arenas of power. Whereas in the market societal actors have economic capital (EC), their position in society determines their identity capital (IC). The more a sector is associated to the dominant conception of national identity, the higher is its IC. Both types of capital impact a sector’s political power (PP). IC manifests itself in the phase of ratification either instrumentally, when in dispute in the political field, or structurally, if embedded in state institutions. Hence, when IC is instrumentalised, only if the coalition in government espouses a social paradigm to which a sector is mostly associated it will be able to convert its level of IC into PP. As ratification shadows negotiation, constraints in this latter phase tend to be false positives in explaining the formation of the national interest. The hypothesis on the role of IC in shaping the weight of sectors’ preferences in trade negotiations is tested along with a process of theory-building through a multi-method structured-focused comparison. For the comparison, two countries were chosen as their societies are diverse in terms of identity, yet each represents a variety of the effects of IC. Brazil and India have identity-based social cleavages that are expressed in structural and instrumental terms respectively. They are key players in the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) multilateral system of trade, having participated of the Doha Development Round of trade liberalisation. Brazil expressed interest for liberalisation as the mostly racially-diverse sectors had offensive demands. In turn, protectionist demands prevailed in India, as defensive sectors are associated to the dominant secularist paradigm of national identity.

This thesis investigates the role of price and non-price competitiveness factors using a relative export price index, introduced by Benkovskis and Wörz (2016), that is adjusted for changes in quality and taste. First, we replicate their model employing an updated dataset, confirming previous results. Then, the framework is used to study the recent developments in the Europe's oil product market. Given the saturation of the market, decreasing demand, and converging prices, importance of non-price competitiveness factors, such as quality, increases. The results suggest that the problems of the underinvested oil downstream industry in Northwestern European producers are caused not only by decreasing aggregate demand, high costs, and low margins, but by non-price competitiveness factors as well. We find profound improvements in product quality in CEE countries, following substantial investments into the sector and market consolidation. Both regions are at risk of rising imports of high-quality products from the Middle East, Russia and USA. This thesis provides a comprehensive picture of price and non-price competitiveness developments of all players in the highly competitive European oil downstream market.

在國際貿易活動，買賣雙方可能因為互不信任，買方擔心預先支付款項後，賣方不按交易合同要求出貨；賣方也擔心在出貨或提交貨運單據後買方不依約付款。因此需要兩家銀行作為買賣雙方的保證人，幫忙代為收款交單，以銀行的信用代替商業信用，銀行在這一方面的活動中所使用的工具就是信用狀(Letter of Credit，L/C)。 區塊鏈(Blockchain)，是一個分散式的帳本系統，採用密碼學技術來確保交易的正確性，公開、公正、透明及無法竄改特性，經濟學人稱之為信任機器(Trust Machine)。 本研究所採用的區塊鏈信用狀系統，應用區塊鏈加快‪國際貿易信用狀處理流程，則是利用區塊鏈(Blockchain)技術特性，建立一個區塊鏈交易應用平台，協助解決國際貿易時，各方參與角色的信任問題，達到傳統銀行的信用狀功能，使其中間交易支付過程可不需透過銀行，如此便可降低了銀行風險，以及降低貿易上的費用及縮短交易支付時間，根本上解決了貿易上最重要的信任問題，達到國際貿易的目的。 / In the case of international trade activities, buyers and sellers may be mistrustful and the buyer is worried that the seller will not be required to ship the goods after the advance payment; the seller is also concerned that the buyer will not pay the contract after the shipment or delivery of the shipping documents. So the two banks as the guarantor of buyers and sellers, to help on behalf of the payment of orders to the bank's credit instead of commercial credit, the bank in this area activities used in the tool is the letter of credit (Letter of Credit, L/C) The Blockchain is a decentralized ledger system that uses cryptography to ensure the correctness, openness, fairness, transparency and tampering of transactions. Economists call it Trust Machine. The blockchain trust system used in this research, the application of blockchain to speed up the international trade credit processing process, it is the use of blockchain technology characteristics, the establishment of a blockchain trading application platform to help solve international trade , The parties involved in the role of the trust of the problem, to the traditional bank's L/C function, so that the process of intermediate transactions can not be through the bank, so that can reduce the bank risk, as well as reduce trade costs and shorten the transaction payment time. It is easy to solve the most important issues of trust. To achieve the purpose of international trade.

Magister Legum - LLM / In this thesis, the study examines the factors that are believed to be instrumental in this trade imbalance between the European Union and the developing world in the agricultural sector. The study focuses on the main reason for the existence of this imbalance which is the continued use of export subsidies by the European Union. The discussion attempts to highlight the inadequacies which exist in the current trade relationship between the European Union and developing nations , in particular South Africa with regard to agricultural produce. / South Africa