This study examines the comparative impact of multilateral trade agreements on intra-regional trade in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regions in Africa. Annual data was gathered from 2000 to 2018 and dynamic panel data and econometric techniques were used to control for individual country characteristics, endogeneity, serial correlation, heteroscedasticity and interdependencies between the countries in each region. Two estimations were done, one using the tariff measures of multilateral agreements, the second using non-tariff measures of multilateral agreement. The results of the empirical analysis show that the SADC region has a slight edge over ECOWAS in terms of technological progress and investment, especially in trade infrastructure. However, the ECOWAS levels of employment and economic growth are higher than those in the SADC region. These differences further translate into differences that drive intra-African trade in these regions, and how they relate to the role of multilateral agreements in intra-African trade in each of these regions. While technology and investment are key drivers and enhancers of intra-African trade in SADC countries, economic growth and employment stand out as key enhancers of intra-African trade in ECOWAS, especially where multilateral agreement is represented by tariff measures. This study reports that when non-tariff measures are used to represent multilateral agreements, export trade costs, in addition to investment and technology, are the key drivers of intra-African trade in SADC countries. For ECOWAS, under non-tariff measures of multilateral agreements, only economic growth drives intra-African trade. / Business Management / D. Phil. (Business Management)

In wastewater management big variations in flowrates, caused by precipitation, leads to high peak loads forcing treatment facilities to maintain large over capacity. Wastewater management is a capital-intensive industry, meaning that new investments are costly and should therefore be avoided. But as peak load levels increase and stricter regulations are imposed it becomes increasingly hard to maintain sufficient reduction rates and facilities are likely to face new investments if the highest flowrates can’t be reduced. One way to reduce flowrates is to charge higher prices for the peak loads through an efficient tariff design. This thesis includes a literature review to define what constitutes an efficient tariff and then moves on to develop a model including marginal cost pricing and increasing block tariff design that examine how the marginal cost price is affected by constructing the tariff in different ways. The results show that the marginal price can be significantly increased by adapting this approach compared to a two part tariff with one fixed and one variable part which is commonly used by wastewater utilities today. The biggest deciding factor will be how the marginal block is defined.

Customs duty represents an inescapable financial obligation in international trade. Such duties are determined by valuing the imported goods according to the classification of the goods. To classify the goods under an appropriate tariff heading is notoriously difficult – despite the almost trite principles from judicial decisions amongst the jurisdictions discussed in this study, such as the European Union, Australia, Canada and the United States of America. In South Africa, the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 defines the ambit of customs duties and ratifies the Harmonised System ("HS"). The HS allows for a uniform approach to tariff classification used by countries across the world accounting for in excess of 95% of the world trade. Countries that employ this system are obliged to incorporate the HS into such country's domestic legislation and to use all headings and subheadings of the HS without addition or alteration, together with the numerical codes and to apply the General Rules for Interpretation and all section, chapter and subheading notes. Classification of goods is to be done objectively at the time of presentation of the goods to the tax authorities. The intentions of the importer or the descriptions of the goods in advertisements and manuals constitute inadmissible evidence. In the recent judgment of Smith Mining Equipment (Pty) Ltd v The Commissioner: South African Revenue Service1 ("Smith Mining") the court, however, opined that it was not obliged to consider the notes referred to above, in the absence of evidence on use of the specific vehicles at the different locations allowed for in the Tariff Headings. The Court expected the importer to present evidence on use and relied on evidence from the manual, whilst it ignored the evidence that the importer presented structured along the applicable tariff notes. The court's approach clamped on the Additional Rules in the USA and the more liberal approach applied in Canada, but stands in conflict with the approach in the European Union and the trite principles from the South African case law. / LLM (Import and Export Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Customs duty represents an inescapable financial obligation in international trade. Such duties are determined by valuing the imported goods according to the classification of the goods. To classify the goods under an appropriate tariff heading is notoriously difficult – despite the almost trite principles from judicial decisions amongst the jurisdictions discussed in this study, such as the European Union, Australia, Canada and the United States of America. In South Africa, the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 defines the ambit of customs duties and ratifies the Harmonised System ("HS"). The HS allows for a uniform approach to tariff classification used by countries across the world accounting for in excess of 95% of the world trade. Countries that employ this system are obliged to incorporate the HS into such country's domestic legislation and to use all headings and subheadings of the HS without addition or alteration, together with the numerical codes and to apply the General Rules for Interpretation and all section, chapter and subheading notes. Classification of goods is to be done objectively at the time of presentation of the goods to the tax authorities. The intentions of the importer or the descriptions of the goods in advertisements and manuals constitute inadmissible evidence. In the recent judgment of Smith Mining Equipment (Pty) Ltd v The Commissioner: South African Revenue Service1 ("Smith Mining") the court, however, opined that it was not obliged to consider the notes referred to above, in the absence of evidence on use of the specific vehicles at the different locations allowed for in the Tariff Headings. The Court expected the importer to present evidence on use and relied on evidence from the manual, whilst it ignored the evidence that the importer presented structured along the applicable tariff notes. The court's approach clamped on the Additional Rules in the USA and the more liberal approach applied in Canada, but stands in conflict with the approach in the European Union and the trite principles from the South African case law. / LLM (Import and Export Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Energy policies in favor of a larger adoption of renewable energy sources for electricity production purposes and the significant progress of several renewable technologies are among the main drivers behind an increasing integration of distributed generation (DG) in distribution networks. DG affects distribution network planning and operation and, consequently, higher or lower network costs than in a traditional passive network scenario arise. Two main complementary tools for an efficient integration of DG have been identified in this thesis: (i) a sound economic regulation of Distribution System Operators (DSOs) for taking into account DG-driven potential costs and accordingly remunerating DSOs, and (ii) network tariff design, in order to allocate network costs and re-distribute potential benefits to different grid users. Distribution economic regulations vary from country to country with grid characteristics and regulatory customs. In order for Regulators to promote the integration of DG units according to policy objectives, the potential impact of DG on the different distribution costs needs to be analyzed and quantitatively assessed: in this thesis, these objectives are achieved by using a novel model that combines the technical characteristics of distribution grids with the regulatory details specific of each regulation. Once computed, DSOs' total allowed revenue is allocated to different users' categories according to the adopted tariff structures. This thesis focuses on the challenges arising within the traditional paradigm of distribution tariff design when an increasing amount of DG is connected to the grids. In particular, the consequences of DG exemption from distribution tariffs and the application of load-tailored tariff schemes to DG are investigated, both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view; cross subsidies between consumers and DG owners are computed by applying a cost causality principle. / <p>The Doctoral Degrees issued upon completion of the programme are issued by Comillas Pontifical University, Delft University of Technology and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The invested degrees are official in Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden, respectively. QC 20151009</p>

Following Devereux, Shi, and Xu（2007）, this thesis analyzes the effects of tariffs and derives the optimal tariff under the circumstances that the US dollar acts as an international ‘vehicle’ currency— all traded goods prices between the US and the rest of the world are set in US dollars. We set a tariff policy rule which allows the authority to react to country-specific productivity shocks. The analysis on the equilibrium shows that the current tariff imposed by the US on its output is expansionary. However, for the rest of the world, a current tariff imposed by the US is contractionary. Optimal tariff under flexible and fixed exchange rates are examined. Under flexible exchange rate, optimal tariff policy parameters of the US are dependent only on the monetary policy of its own being indifferent to the exchange rate movement；the exchange rate movement is crucial to the optimal tariff policy of the rest of the world. Nevertheless, the optimal tariff policy of the US under fixed exchange rate is the same as that under the flexible exchange rate, while the policy of the rest of the world is altered owing to the loss of control on its domestic money supply to do the unilateral peg.

This thesis seeks to investigate the lack of participation by African countries in the WTO Dispute Settlement System by first providing an overview of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) system and, secondly by explaining the reasons that forestall the participation of African countries.

Worldwide energy policies are built on three pillars: ‘cost competitiveness’, ‘security of energy supply’, and ‘environmental responsibility.’ This has brought about the integration of renewable energy sources into national systems with the deployment of policy instruments to make renewable energy sources electricity (RES-E) capable of nearly competing on a commercial basis with traditional forms of electricity generation. At the national level within the EU, there has been much experimentation with different policy instruments with varying levels of success. Nevertheless the EU as a whole will not meet its stipulated renewable energy target. This study challenges the theoretical and abstract evaluation presented in the literature about EU wind power delivery systems and has developed an integrative evaluation framework. This evaluation framework is used in this study to present the views of key stakeholders on their experiences with the performance of key policy instruments (feed-in tariff, and renewables obligation) implemented in three EU Member States namely: Germany, The Netherlands, and United Kingdom. It also challenges the EU-wide harmonised renewable energy policy agenda as proposed in Directive 2001/77/EC. The concept of path dependency of the historical institutional approach was adopted in order to explore the diversity of the wind power industry across the three country cases. An indepth semi-structured interview with fifty-five senior wind power policy makers and experts was conducted to explore the historical emergence, the architect, and the outcome of the support and implementation of the policy instruments. Findings showed that the approach to wind power deployment in the three country cases differs significantly and this has affected the pattern of each country’s wind power policy instrument. Also, the role and contribution of the stakeholder groups to the success of the wind power policy instruments differ significantly in each of the country cases. This helps to explain the performance of the different policy instruments adopted. Concerning the harmonisation of EU renewable energy policy instruments which have received much attention in recent times, this study found that harmonisation based on a single policy instrument is not feasible and may ultimately inhibit the growth of the European wind power market. A harmonised system may cause uncertainties amongst willing investors, thereby causing a withdrawal of further investment in the wind power market. If this happens, Europe may also lose its position as the world leader in the wind power market. Furthermore, national histories demonstrates that Member States have different culture, stakeholder groups, political, and business practices that will influence policy instruments and the likelihood of any policy succeeding. Thus, rather than promoting harmonisation and political market for wind power, it is important that Member States adopt and implement, stable, flexible, and transparent policy instruments that enable wind power and other renewable energy sources to emerge, develop, and go through the R&D stage to a point of maturity where they can compete with other energy sources with limited financial support.

Magíster en Ciencias de la Ingeniería, Mención Eléctrica / Ingeniero Civil Electricista / Debido a la importancia de las fuentes renovables por sus beneficios medioambientales y la independencia energética que proveen, es necesario implementar políticas de promoción para estos medios renovables. Dado que las fuentes de energía mini-hidráulica ya son competitivas y que por otro lado, la geotermia es una de las fuentes renovables de menor desarrollo, esta tesis se centra en el crecimiento de las fuentes eólica, solar y biomasa. A nivel internacional los principales incentivos que se usan para incrementar la presencia de energías renovables son tres: Feed-In Tariff, Obligación de Cuotas (RPS) y Subastas Competitivas (Competitive Bidding Process). Los países con mayor crecimiento de ERNC a nivel latinoamericano tienen un incentivo del tipo Subastas Competitivas (Uruguay y Brasil); y Obligación de Cuotas (Chile). Sin embargo, a nivel de países desarrollados como el caso europeo, el mecanismo con mejores resultados es Feed-In Tariff, por lo que los resultados en Latinoamérica se pueden deber a un diseño de los incentivos que no busca maximizar su penetración. En este trabajo se determinan los mejores incentivos que se deben aplicar para lograr un mayor crecimiento de las energías renovables en un determinado mercado. No se considera en el análisis ni los impactos de estos incentivos en los costos de la energía ni el nivel de subsidios requeridos, ni tampoco otros potenciales beneficios. Para ello, se desarrolla una metodología que estima rangos de crecimiento de las energías renovables, en función del tipo de incentivo principal aplicado. La aplicación de esa metodología en el caso chileno entrega como resultado que con un incentivo del tipo Feed-In Tariff se alcanzarían los mayores niveles de penetración de ERNC. Así, para el año el 2030 se puede alcanzar un 20,7% en generación de energía eólica, 6,4% de solar y 4,5% de Biomasa, totalizando un 31,6% con estas tres fuentes.

The purpose of this study is to examine possible tariff designs for a Swedish DSO to better reflect the individual’s future use of the grid when it comes to the expected effects of EV. A qualitative research method with a combination of an experimental and comparative case study design was carried through. The literature review involved data gathering within the subjects of grid tariff design, pricing of natural monopolies and behaviour related to electricity use. Empirical data consisted of quantitative data from the grid in combination with interviews of 5 respondents. With a systematic combining approach, the theoretical framework, empirical data and analysis evolved simultaneously. The results were analysed through emerging themes and evaluated with simulations. The study has shown that a static and easy to understand tariff is preferable. A reflective way to price distribution of electricity does not imply a correct breakdown of allocating costs to direct causes of them. When designing the tariff, a DSO must be aware of the psychological barriers and consequences a tariff design can induce. By that we find the combination of a fixed, demand and ToU component should give incitements well enough to make customers mindful of how they use their electricity. During a transition to a new tariff design, a customer focus approach should be used, were transparency and simplicity are keywords. The future could imply a shift from static to dynamic tariffs designs in which enabling technologies will have to ease the complexity for the customer in order to break down the psychological barriers.