Tensions in the discourse and practice of the European Union's Aid for Trade

The contemporary global Aid for Trade (AfT) agenda emerged out of world trade negotiations and it could have profound implications for the future of development aid, depending on how it is interpreted. The European Union (EU) has recontextualised this global agenda to suit its own approach to trade and development; specifically a focus on regional integration, and free market but ‘pro-poor’ development models. AfT is ascribed a variety of purposes in EU texts and its use continues to adapt as the EU's trade and development policy evolves. Institutionally the AfT framework has not strongly affected EU processes, organisational structures or methodology. A study of the use of EU aid for regional integration reveals dissonance between its development relationship and its trade policies while a focus on pro-poor AfT reveals a lack of capacity. Overall, there are tensions not just between discourse and practice but between different discourses of the EU.     

Regionalism in the Global South: Mercosur and ECOWAS in trade and democracy protection

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to analyse the performance of regionalism in the Global South through a comparative analysis of Mercosur and Ecowas with regard to the trade and democracy protection agendas, by contrasting their institutional design and regional leadership concerning the two issues. Firstly, it analyses the evolution of intra-regional trade as well as the trade agenda of each bloc concerning international negotiations with other states or economic blocs. Secondly, it discusses the relevance of democratic stability in the two regional organisations and how each organisation has performed in cases of democratic rupture in member states. When comparing the dynamics of the two organisations, we argue that differences in terms of institutional design and regional leadership have meant that Ecowas has been less ambitious than Mercosur in its trade agenda, but more decisive vis-à-vis the region’s democratic stability. Thus, this article aims to contribute to the comparative regionalism literature, setting out an analytical comparative framework for assessing the performance of regional organisations, which remains a difficult task for this particular research agenda.     

APEC and its enemies: The failure of the new regionalism in the Asia-Pacific

This article looks at the rise of APEC as a vehicle for the promotion of free trade in the Asia-Pacific. It argues that, although the Japanese government was more interested in trade cooperation than free trade, it played a key role, along with the Australian government, in the establishment of APEC, while the main challenge to APEC came from the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamed. During the 1990s, however, Mahathir's proposal for an East Asian Economic Bloc which excluded the USA, Australia, New Zealand and all other 'non-Asian' nation-states, was incorporated into APEC and took the name of the East Asian Economic Caucus. The accommodation of Mahathir's proposal to the APEC process, and his inability to get Japanese support for his pan-Asian initiative, symbolised the limits on any and all regional challenges to US hegemony in the Asia-Pacific. The article also emphasises that, with the coming of the East Asian crisis, the prospects of a successful regional challenge to US hegemony have become even more remote. In particular, the growing influence of the IMF in the region since the crisis has made APEC irrelevant, while the inability of regional elites to deal with the crisis in a unified fashion has thrown into sharp relief the serious obstacles which exist to any pan-Asian effort to challenge neoliberalism. At the same time, although the East Asian crisis has precipitated a reassertion of US hegemony and a consolidation of neoliberalism, the present juncture may also herald the start of a crisis of neoliberalism, with regional and international implications.     

In Search of Regional Governance in East Asia: Processes and Outcomes

Abstract

This article employs the concept of ‘regional governance’ to analyze both the processes and outcomes of the emerging regional institutional arrangements in East Asia. It argues that while ASEAN has played a significant role in creating and sustaining the ‘processes’ of wider East Asian regional governance efforts, the level of achievement in translating these processes into tangible ‘outcomes’ remains severely constrained by great power rivalry, especially between Japan and China. By focusing on the areas of trade and finance, this article argues that the varying levels of outcomes between these two issue areas can be explained primarily by the degree of convergence between Japanese and Chinese interests. In particular, while Japan and China have a shared interest in contributing to the promotion of regional financial stability, they strongly disagree over the appropriate form and contours of a trade governance system.     

Varieties of regional monetary cooperation: a tool for reducing volatility in developing economies?

Can regional monetary cooperation shield developing regions from global volatility? The article argues that the main contribution of regional monetary cooperation to enhancing the shock-buffering ability of its member countries is to provide short-term liquidity and to increase regional trade and financial links. In contrast, traditional optimum currency area (OCA) theories formulate the advantages of regional monetary cooperation in terms of allocative efficiency gains and aim at a full currency union as final stage. As such, traditional theory widely ignores the shock-buffering capacity of regional monetary cooperation as well as their varieties. In contrast, the article argues that intermediate stages of regional monetary cooperation have their own rationales related to such shock-buffering capacity. This paper systematically examines the variety of regional cooperation arrangements in the developing world that range from regional payments systems over the pooling of reserves to exchange rate coordination. We propose that the potential for shock buffering is dependent on the chosen form of cooperation. Furthermore, in contrast to full monetary integration, which is highly demanding in terms of policy coordination, the requirements for regional policy coordination are significantly lower, depending on the form and aim of the arrangement.     

Labour involvement in national and regional transformation processes: The case of Chile

This article argues that regionalisation should be analysed as a multi-layered process. Such an analysis shows the complexities of current transformation processes at the global, regional and national level. A perspective on labour issues is especially useful as it provides a focus on one of the most important aspects of globalisation-changes in production structures across borders. It also points to how labour movements are affected by these changes and how they readjust their strategies. The case of Chile is chosen as an early example of the so-called neoliberal model. Furthermore, regionalisation and strategies of integration into the world economy are central to Chile's economic model. This article intends to show the interconnections between national and regional processes of transformation in a global perspective, with a focus on the issue of labour and trade unions .     

The Folklore of Finland's Eastern Trade

Until the end of 1990, Finland was the only developed market economy to trade with the USSR on a bilateral clearing basis. It was also, so it is widely believed in Finland, the only one among the neighbours of the Soviet Union to benefit greatly economically from this trade. This article does not aim to clarify whether such beliefs are well grounded in fact, but rather to look at the beliefs themselves. To do that, we examine a large amount of so-called grey literature: memoirs, biographies and fiction, but not research proper in economics or economic history. Belief in the benefits of Eastern Trade has been widely held in Finland, but there have always been sceptics as well. The materials used offer many insights, for instance, into the character of Eastern Trade, negotiations procedures, pricing and quality issues, relations between the counterparts, as well as the implications of COCOM restrictions of trade by a neutral country.     

‘Made in China’. Contraband,Labour and the Gendered Effects of ‘Free-Trade’, China-Peru

In Peru, textiles have increasingly become contested as commodities and objects of consumption, especially following the free trade agreement between Peru and China, signed in 2009, which accommodates increased importation of Chinese textiles. This article discusses how local intermediaries, often women who have found a livelihood working with the importation and vending of textiles, are affected by increased border regulations and competition from over-seas, more formalised forms of importation. Reflecting on enactments of femininities and the social and spatial embeddedness of trade in the border areas, the article discusses the multifaceted and gendered implications of a de-localisation of commodity flows.     

Economic growth and import requirements

This article points out that our knowledge of the specific form and analytical reasons underlying the interrelationship known to exist between international trade and economic growth is limited and that this situation is largely due to the lack of an adequate theoretical framework. Comparative cost theory is not very helpful in this respect be cause the explanation of the rise of trade it provides does not lead to useful and unambiguous inferences about the role of trade in economic growth nor about the characteristics of trade flows during growth.

The difficulty may in part be attributed to the circumstance that comparative cost doctrine provides theoretical support for an ideal system of trading which nations have consistently refused to follow. The article suggests that this situation of fact results because the primary objective that nations pursue in trading is not to exploit (at a given level of employment and capacity use) whatever comparative cost differences may exist, but to ‘develop’ their national economies; and to this end the policy objectives that are given highest priority in all countries are those that induce a maximum level of domestic manpower employment and as intensive a utilization as possible of the national resource base. The trade implications of adhering to this ‘national development’ objective are easy to visualize: nations will tend to import only those commodities needed to supplement their own output so that total supply (domestic plus imported goods) fits the prevailing requirements; and they will import such commodities because an important condition for growth is a reasonable long‐run coincidence between the commodity composition of total supply and total demand. Since no country can have an all‐encompassing resource base nor attain full productive diversification, it follows that all countries must have certain minimum import requirements.

The core of the article is devoted to a discussion of an exponential‐type formula (M = ay^b P^e A^d) which defines aggregate import requirements in terms of the level of per‐capita income, the population and the geographical area of the respective countries. The discussion shows that the formula implicitly takes into account characteristics of the resource base such as its magnitude, quality and degree of exploitation. This formula, in its linear logarithmic form, is then used for a regression analysis of the imports of a uniform sample of 53 countries in three years, viz. 1953, 1958 and 1963. Data of 20 countries in 1913 and U.S. data for the period 1889–1953 are similarly analysed. The results show that the formula permits excellent fits of the data and that all the variables selected—including area—are statistically significant even at the 99 per cent confidence level. These results are interpreted as supporting evidence of the validity of the views advanced earlier regarding the economic motivation for trading and the factors that determine levels of import requirements.

The last part of the article deals with some of the implications of the empirical findings (regarding the function of trade and the role of natural resources in economic growth, the possibilities of successful import substitution and the relation between geographical size and trade requirements—relation of practical importance in connection with customs unions and similar economic integration arrangements). A few broad policy implications of the views advanced in the article are also presented.     

Trade,Development, and Nonproliferation: Multilevel Counterterrorism in Central Asia

This article was presented in its original form in October 2005 at the Conference on Central Asian Security in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. This article seeks to add to the discourse on counterterrorism by looking at the challenges posed by sub-state radicalism to development and regionalization. Specifically, adequate counterterror campaigns require addressing socioeconomic feeders of radicalism while simultaneously dealing with the threat of political violence itself. In terms of development, this means advocating increased trade volumes and export oriented growth while concurrently controlling for illicit trade (which often finances terrorist movements) and trade in strategic goods (which could serve to undermine the security of the state). The authors use the case study of Uzbekistan and Central Asian insecurity to illustrate the utility of customs modernization, border security, and export control legislation as integral components in wider counterterror campaigns. The study addresses circumstances specific to present day Central Asia but has wider implications in stymieing the relationship between “grey areas” and terrorist movements worldwide.     

Challenging the European Union: the rising powers and the USA in the Doha Round

In this article, the challenges posed to the European Union's (EU) role in trade policy and its implications for development policy during the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Agenda, also known as the Doha round, are highlighted. The authors argue that transformed power relations have created a situation characterized by role uncertainty, for the emerging powers but also for the EU. Priorities among multiple possible roles – in the existing trade regime, in relation to the global South and in the ongoing negotiations – become subject to redefinition. For the EU, heavily wedded to a multilateralist and reformist mission because of its own history, this process is particularly difficult. The EU's traditional role conceptions as a leader and a benign partner to developing countries have been challenged and partly replaced by a more realist approach.     

The Evolution of the Foreign Direct Investment Regime in the Americas

The purpose of this article is to describe the international regime governing foreign direct investment in the Americas and assess its implications for regional economic governance. The article develops a novel methodology to map the multi-layered patchwork of investment agreements according to the level of investment protection offered by each agreement. The mapping exercise demonstrates the existence of two distinct legalization projects in the Americas, one which broadly corresponds to the investment protection concerns of the United States, and a second, overlapping regime, which better reflects the interest of many Latin American governments in maintaining their policy autonomy. The article argues that these distinct visions are anchored in a common dispute settlement system based on binding international arbitration, which tends to harmonize the governance effects of the regime.     

Regional wages and economic development: A case study of manufacturing wages in India, 1950–1960

This paper examines some hypotheses with respect to the interregional wage variations in Indian manufacturing from 1950 to 1960. The choice of this period was determined by the availability of relevant data. It was found in an earlier study that the regional wage structure tended to be flexible during the period under consideration. In this paper, an attempt has been made to explain the inter‐regional wage differentials by analysing the data on trade unionism, per capita income, productivity, capital intensity, non‐primary employment and consumer prices. It is argued that the level of regional wage differentials can be explained by relative differentials in productivity and in trade unionism, but the change in wage differentials depends upon the changing capital intensity in respective regions.     

Trade creation,trade diversion and effective protection in the central American common market

Aggregate analyses suggest that the formation of the Central American Common Market (CACM) has resulted in little or no trade diversion, but different conclusions apply when the import data are appropriately disaggregated. Increases in the effective rates of protection for consumer goods have led to increased demand for extra‐regional imports of intermediate inputs and decreased demand for extra‐regional imports of final goods. On balance, the CACM is a trade‐diverting customs union for non‐durable consumer goods: trade‐creating effects are present in Honduras and Costa Rica, but trade‐diverting effects dominate in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.     

Political Economy of the Environment,Gender, and Resistance under Colonialism: Murang'a District,Kenya, 1910–1950

This article draws on interviews with women resettlement farmers in Wedza District, Zimbabwe, to trace changes in livelihood strategies and gender relations from 2000 to 2006. The research indicates a shrinking number of viable options for livelihoods, and the severe erosion of formerly critical activities. Thewomen interviewed see increases inmarital discord and collapse, with implications for family formation, social order, and survival. The article explores the linkages between changing livelihoods and gender relations, focusing especially on marriage in relation to agriculture and land issues, gendered incomes, sexuality, AIDS orphans and other effects of HIV/AIDS. Within this overall difficult context, the enduring ethic of caring and the buffering effects of people’s access to arable land and other natural resources are apparent. Throughout, the article discusses the theoretical implications of the research, participating in debates about regional conditions and theoretical understandings of labour, economy, livelihoods and gender in southern Africa.     

Regional Offices in the New NHS: An Analysis of the Effects and Significance of Recent Changes

This article reports on a two-year, multi-method, qualitative study in two regional offices in the UK National Health Service of the changing role of the regional tier from the autumn of 1994. The nature of the changes from fourteen semiautonomous regional health authorities to eight regional offices of the NHS Executive, whose staff became civil servants, are described together with the way this reorganization changed the role and relationships of NHS Executive HQ, the regional offices and the field. By the end of our research in the autumn of 1996, the change from regional health authority to regional office had gone well in the two regional offices studied; they had become smaller organizations, had established closer working with HQ and believed they had more influence over policy, while retaining good relations with health authorities. Emerging issues from the changes and some of their implications are discussed, particularly the pressures towards greater centralization and the particular forms that these have taken, despite the aim, and in part the achievement, of greater devolution, and the cultural differences between the NHS and the civil service. We conclude by assessing what the future holds for regional offices, in the light of the recent NHS White Paper (Secretary of State for Health 1997)     

Emerging powers,soft power,and future of regional cooperation in South Asia

This article looks into the future of regional cooperation in South Asia in the light of two emerging powers: China and India focussing on how their rise would change the relationship in the region. The paper argues that China and India both are trying to enhance their spheres of influence forcing the states in the region to align with either of them in a binary framework of unstable equilibrium and uneasy coexistence rather than reinforcing the regional solidarity of SAARC. Such a competition between China and India and the putative interventionary efforts of Western powers and their agencies in the region are bound to bring implications of profound value for not just regional cooperation but for the individual destinies of the various states involved in the days ahead.     

State transformation and cross-border regionalism in Indonesia’s periphery: contesting the centre

Abstract

This article examines how the decentralisation and fragmentation of the Indonesian state and resultant central–local dynamics affect cross-border regionalism in Indonesia’s periphery. It argues that cross-border regionalism projects are best understood as sites for scalar contestation over regulatory control between central and local government. Moreover, scalar contestation around cross-border regional projects is characterised by the struggles to control relationships with transnational capital between elites operating at different tiers of the state. When elites at different scales have conflicting interests and strategies, this can cause policy incoherence, inhibiting the development of cross-border regionalism. Conversely, when they align, and intersect with the interests of transnational business, cross-border regionalism can succeed. To illustrate the argument, this article utilises the comparative case studies of the Batam free trade zone and West Kalimantan–Sarawak cross-border cooperation.     

Contending eurocentric theories: the case study of Thailand's economic regionalism in ASEA

ABSTRACT

The Eurocentric theory of economic regionalism, as demonstrated by the empirical case of the European Union, has been widely recognized as the pathfinder, role model, and inspiration for other regional organizations, including ASEAN, due to its continuous attempts at deepening economic integration, formalizing the decision-making process, and legalizing the administrative body. Despite this concordant movement, it is evident from Thailand that ASEAN has evolved differently from the rationale, process, and prediction that Eurocentric theory dictates.

The purpose of this article is to argue that the economic regionalism of ASEAN has not developed in accordance with an economically-oriented rationale. Moreover, the process of economic integration has not necessarily derived from the free trade agreement itself, particularly when a country lacks continuity in terms of its development of regionalist projects. In addition, Thailand has not followed the path of economic integration due to spillover effects. This is because member countries have not given up their sovereignty in favour of the regional institution. Economic regional activities have been broadened within a limited scope, and the expansion has been conducted through bilateral talks, rather than a strengthening of regional solidarity.     

The European Union and Mercosur: A case of inter-regionalism

The article reviews the relation between two regional integration arrangements, the European Union and Mercosur, under three aspects: trade and investment, international negotiations and the institutional dimension. Tracing the agenda and issues dealt with between the two, leading to a project of a transatlantic free trade area, reveals that trade issues, one of two 'pillars' of reference, are important. However, the most influential results have stemmed so far from the other 'pillar', the political one. These results may be seen in the EU's role as a 'road map' for Mercosur's institutional trajectory, and second, as a signal for the private sector in furthering industrial networks within the ongoing world economic restructuring. The objective, thus, is to highlight how the relationship may interact with two encompassing processes: the shaping of regionalism/s, in particular the Mercosur case, and the so-called globalisation process.