Magister Legum - LLM / Government procurement is a very important aspect of international tradeas it can either promote or inhibit trade depending on laws and policies of a country. The study is confined to issues pertaining to the role of RTAs in establishing government procurement standards that resemble or conform to those of the GPA in developing countries. The study used Africa as a case study by evaluating selected RTAs that have been signed focussing on RTAs such as the procurementinitiativeof the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and US-Morocco Free Trade Agreement. The major objectives of the study were to examine the role of the existing international regulatory instruments towards the harmonisation of global standards on government procurement. The reserach aimed at analysing the role of the WTOs GPA as a possible global standard for government procurement and to investigate reasons of limited membership by developing countries. / South Africa

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Owing to the increase in urbanisation and disposable income, South Africa offers the food industry enormous growth opportunities. According to Louw, Jordaan, Ndanga and Kirsten (2008: 287), supermarkets have become vital role players in South African food consumption. Within this market, it is especially important to note that “preferences for high quality… foods are emerging” (Louw et al, 2008:288). This highlights the need to introduce superior quality foods to the South African food market. This study took this need one step further by asking the question, “is there a need for a high-quality foreign product in the South African market?” The primary objective of this study was to conduct a needs analysis to determine whether there is a need to introduce a selected foreign product into the South African market. The high-quality product chosen for this research is a meat product called PICK salami. In addition, the distribution channel that would be the most appropriate for the possible introduction of the product to the market was also identified in the study. To accomplish this, a relevant literature study was performed. To realise the research objective, a triangulated research approach was selected and a multiple-case study conducted. The units of analysis chosen for this study were the four major South African supermarket chains: SPAR Group Limited, Shoprite Checkers, Woolworths (Pty) limited and Pick ’n Pay Retailers (Pty) Limited. The data from this study was then analysed to determine meaningful results. From the research, it was concluded that there is a need for a high-quality meat product such as PICK Salami in South Africa and that SPAR Group Limited is the most viable distribution channel to use. Both South Africa and Hungary can benefit from such a business venture as gaps in the market can be filled and both countries can profit, despite the current global economic downturn.

Due to the abortion of the proposed Havana Charter and non-participation of the USSR and other State trading economies in the Charter negotiations, GATT has been acting as a traders' club - a club mainly beneficial to western •market economies. Its rules are formulated almost exclusively in favor of free trade on a comparative advantage and private enterprise basis. There is virtually no place for NMEs to have effective access. As one of the pivots of post-World-War-II multilateralism, GATT assumes a major role in compromising, integrating, regulating and supervising diversified member nations' trade laws and policies. Its legal framework, however, is inadequate to deal with the integration of NME. This is because GATT is framed essentially along the line of market ideology and minimal government intervention. NMEs, on the other hand, discard market ideology and adopt wholesale government intervention and central planning as a basic form of economy. While trading practice in NMEs is basically incompatible with the GATT-promoted free trade rules, accommodations were made to facilitate NMEs' request for membership. Consequently, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia became GATT members respectively during the 1960s and 70s. At that time East European countries maintained command state trading thus were unable to be fully integrated into the GATT-based international trade order. During negotiations on terms of NMEs' accession to GATT, GATT countries adopted an import commitments approach to solve the central and much debated issue of market access to NME countries. Despite its merits, the approach has been criticized notwithstanding the fact that no alternative has been suggested. Accordingly, the primary objective of the thesis is to rethink the existing approaches to NMEs in order to explore new ways of effectively integrating NMEs into the GATT legal framework. By approaching the thesis problem carefully, the writer arrives at the conclusion that although GATT would need new assumptions with a view to regaining a new consensus of broader international representation and participation, a considerable and substantial decentralization in the NME is unavoidable in order to adapt themselves into the GATT framework. In the meantime, it is stressed that all GATT countries should continue to facilitate NMEs' access to the GATT forum in the hope that NMEs being potential world traders would increase world prosperity and understanding by broader participation. World prosperity, needless to say, is the best guarantee of world peace and security. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

The issue of tensions between market access and environmental protection is relatively new focus in the domain of international trade. This article suggests solutions to this conflict within the WTO framework so that while pursuing the goals of free trade and promoting development of economy the objective of 'sustainable development' can be achieved at the same time. This article includes an introduction, the main body (three chapters) and conclusion. j The Introduction starts by describing the development of the regimes of market access and environmental protection; it goes on to analyze the causes of the tension between the two and finally emphasizes the importance of resolving this tension within the World Trade Organization (WTO) framework. Chapter One elaborates on the existing principles, regulations and exception in the WTO framework and states that these regulations cannot live up to expectations of the developed countries and environmentalists. The conclusion is that it is impractical for the developing countries to avoid this issue. Chapter Two starts with an inquiry into the crux of tensions between free trade and environmental protection. It goes on to enlist different proposals by academic scholars and compare these principles' application in European Community Treaty (EC) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), hoping to resolve the tensions between market access and environmental protection. Chapter Three summarizes academic proposals and experiences of EC and NAFTA and discusses possible practical resolutions within WTO including both short-term measures and long-term ones. This chapter concludes by suggesting possible courses of action for China that could allow it to sustain the 'green challenge.' The Conclusion discusses the objectivity and unavoidability of the tensions between the free trade and the environment protection and reinforces the importance of resolving the problem within the WTO framework as well as the necessity of amending related regulations and harmonizing environmental standards of the WTO members. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, French economy as been affected by a constant and deeper trade deficit. After the financial crisis of 2009, the economy still experiences difficulties to bounce back in the context of a weakened Europe. On its side, in the early 2000s, the Latin American countries were about to go through a bright economic period. In deed, the region benefited from a rapid economic growth this last decade, with strong economies and reasonable political stability. The region is also counting with new strong economic partners like China and other Pacific Asian countries. In this work the main objective is to evaluate the trade relations between France and Latin America. I will explore the context in which those relations have been developed and their actual intensity. Then I will study the French external trade situation and the new plan the French Ministry of Trade implemented since 2012. Finally, I will develop the case of Chile and its relations with France, identifying the opportunities for both sides. Unfortunately, this specific subject is not documented by a large amount of printed literature. Thereby, this work is mainly based on statistical information published by international or regional organizations, and on transformed data collected from government or international institutions databases.

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