Preventing protectionism: International institutions and trade policy

This paper examines the role of international institutions in preventing the rise of protectionism. We analyze states?? choices in trade policy during the current global economic crisis, a situation likely to exacerbate uncertainty in the conduct of commercial relations and to push countries toward ??beggar-thy-neighbor?? trade policies. The main argument of the paper is that the numerous international institutions present in the international system during the current economic crisis serve as conveyors of information and mechanisms of commitment and socialization. They mitigate the uncertainty problem that prevails in prisoner??s dilemma settings such as trade. Economic international organizations increase the flow of information about the preferences and behaviors of its members. Non-economic organizations also have a role to play as social environments that encourage cooperation. Specialized international institutions devoted to trade, such as the WTO and preferential trade agreements (PTAs), not only provide monitoring and enforcement functions but also lock in commitments to liberal trade through legal obligations that make defections costly. We test our argument using a dataset of trade policies during the current economic crisis and of membership in international organizations. The paper finds strong support for the role of international institutions as commitment and socialization mechanisms in preventing the rise of protectionism.     

Promoting trade through private law: Explaining international legal harmonization

A large body of research examines states’ efforts to increase international trade through public law, that is, by forming preferential trade agreements (PTAs) that lower governmental barriers to trade. Scholars, however, have overlooked another mechanism through which states seek to facilitate trade: international harmonization of private law. Underlying legal harmonization is the assumption that cross-national variation of commercial law impedes trade; by contrast, similarity of laws across countries encourages trade by reducing uncertainty and transaction costs. I argue that the harmonization of private law acts as a substitute for the public-law channel of stimulating trade: countries with limited PTA partnerships make up for this deficiency by joining initiatives for private-law harmonization. This argument is tested by analyzing the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods-one of the primary instruments of legal harmonization. Indeed, countries that are party to shallow PTAs or have few PTA partners are more likely to ratify this private-law convention. Overall, this article urges scholars of trade and international law to broaden their research agenda to include private law.     

标志性事件对中国与东盟国家进出口影响实证分析

该文基于国别贸易数据,采集和整理了东盟10国以及东盟外8国的年度对中国贸易数据,利用改进的倍差法模型对以上数据进行分析,评估标志性事件对东盟与中国贸易规模影响的净效应。通过实证分析发现,中国与东盟政治与经济合作的标志性事件对于中国与东盟各国贸易有极其显著的正的影响效应,而中国与东盟个别国家领土、政治纠纷和国际灾害的影响效应不显著。国际性经济危机对东盟和中国之间的贸易总量也有着比较显著的影响。并依据以上实证结果提出有关发展中国—东盟贸易的建议。     

金砖国家经贸安全合作:挑战与对策

新兴经济体的崛起导致国际格局发生重大变化,全球治理体系却未很好地反映这种变化趋势,以金砖国家为首的新兴变革力量开始登上国际安全治理的舞台。然而,贸易保护主义抬头和逆全球化的盛行使金砖国家内部的贸易势头减弱;美联储加息、投资干预政策以及政局动荡和经济疲弱等因素使金砖国家面临外国直接投资净流入减少的压力;大宗商品价格剧烈波动给金砖国家能源安全合作带来困扰;金融安全合作进展缓慢。基于此,金砖国家应继续深化各领域的改革,加快经济结构的调整,为金砖国家的安全合作夯实基础;加快相互之间的发展战略对接,以提升金砖国家的安全合作水平;通过加强沟通与协调,积极参与全球治理,丰富金砖国家安全合作的内涵。     

中韩贸易关系的发展与存在的问题

1992年中韩建交以来 ,中韩两国进入了直接贸易阶段。此后 ,两国贸易关系发展非常迅速 ,远远超过两国对外贸易总额的增长速度。十多年来 ,中韩贸易商品结构发生了许多明显的变化 ,产业内贸易比重不断提高 ,但两国的国际分工关系仍具有明显的垂直型分工特点。中韩贸易关系中 ,也存在着贸易不平衡、韩国对中国产品歧视性限制较多等问题。     

Free trade agreements and vertical-specialisation in East Asia

Regional integration in East Asia has been described as ‘market-led’ integration driven by the activities of multinational corporations creating vertical specialisation. This paper investigates the effect of free trade agreements (FTAs) on vertical specialisation-based trade by employing a gravity estimation for a sample of nine East Asian countries plus the US. We find that FTAs promote international trade based on vertical specialisation and enhances deep integration between countries. The FTA effect on vertical specialisation-based trade increases with pre-agreement vertical linkage level, that is, the deeper the real integration between countries the larger the FTA impact. The results of this paper also suggest that deeper economic integrations, such as currency unions, will enhance trade based on vertical production by reducing the risk of exchange rate volatility.

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Regional Trade Agreements as Military Alliances

Research on change in international regimes usually examines noncompliance with regime norms. In studies of international trade regimes, this means a focus on the imposition of trade barriers rather than liberalization. Developing a measure of compliant as well as noncompliant government intervention in trade for the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade gives a fuller indication of regime strength. Regressing these measures against the rate of change in export volumes for the market economies allows an examination of the effects of changes in regime strength and system performance. At this level of the international system, the analysis points to a strong negative relationship between protectionist acts and the rate of growth in the export volume of the market economies; however, detrending and deserializing the independent variables results in a strong negative relationship between changes in export volume and the percentage of countries that both increase and decrease protectionist policies in the same year.     

中国—新加坡经济走廊国家单一窗口建设与通关便利化研究

本文从国际贸易单一窗口的角度,介绍和分析中国—新加坡经济走廊沿线国家为实现货物通关便利化而实施的单一窗口建设进程和特点,以及提高货物通关效率的一些效果。我们认为,沿线各国的单一窗口建设卓有成效,区域内多边和双边通关便利化合作得到推进,但进展快慢不一。沿线各国单一窗口建设和通关便利合作的空间仍然巨大。同时,各国还需解决如何应对域内各种涉及通关便利化倡议在内容上出现重叠等制度问题。     

中国-东盟自由贸易区构建对区内贸易的影响

区域经济合作与经济全球化已成为当今世界经济发展的两大主要趋势，通过建立各种优惠的经贸安排，寻求更大的经济发展空间，已经成为世界上多数国家的一项重要的政策选择。2001年中国与东盟宣布在10年内建成中国-东盟自由贸易区；2002年双方签订《全面经济合作框架协议》，这一框架协议确定了中国-东盟自由贸易区的目标、范围、措施、时间表，     

近期美元汇率走势及其对东亚经济的影响

随着国际金融危机的持续深化,近期国际市场上不管是美元汇率,还是原油、黄金和有色金属等大宗商品期货价格,都在频繁波动,这种金融市场的剧烈震荡,意味着美元本位的国际货币体系正在经受严峻的考验,世界经济形势不容乐观。     

Asset Specificity and State Subsidies in Industrialized Countries

Why do national governments in industrialized countries subsidize many of their industries? Borrowing insights from literature on transaction cost economics and international trade, I build a model which tests the hypothesis that under threat of international competition disbursement of state subsidies varies systematically with the degree of asset (factor) specificity employed in a national economy. Asset specificity refers to the cost of moving factors (assets) from one activity to the next. I pool annual data on state subsidies in thirteen OECD countries during the period 1990–93 and regress them on two measures of asset specificity (physical and human capital) in the face of competition from abroad. Physical capital exercises a significant u-shaped effect on total and sectoral subsidies. Human capital has a weak negative effect on horizontal subsidies. The results extend the literature on asset specificity and trade in two ways. First, they provide empirical support in favor of the argument that asset specificity and subsidy protection are related. While theoretical claims concerning asset specificity abound, the literature is generally short of empirical studies. Second, asset specificity helps determine the scope of subsidies.     

中国－东盟服务贸易自由化与竞争力

服务贸易是中国-东盟自由贸易区建设的重要组成部分，从一开始就列入了双方的谈判议程。2004年11月《货物贸易协议》签署后，双方加快了服务贸易谈判。经过多轮磋商，双方就《服务贸易协议》文本和各国的第一批具体承诺减让表达成一致，并于2007年1月14日正式签署《中国-东盟全面经济合作框架协议服务贸易协议》。     

The impact of infrastructure on trade in Central Asia

This paper aims to investigate the impact of infrastructure on trade in Central Asia based on the data of three countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Empirical estimations are based on panel data for the period 2010–2018. Infrastructure is measured by quality and quantity indicators. Trade flows are measured by the export and import volumes of each of these countries with their main trade partner countries. The results show that both the quality and quantity of infrastructure in Central Asia have a positive impact on trade flows. However, the positive impact of infrastructure over trade demonstrates a diminishing trend. Given the general remote geographical location of Central Asian countries, the findings of this study indicate that a regional approach to the development of infrastructure is important and that policy towards infrastructure development should be associated with a government policy that facilitates international trade.

     

International Disorder and China's Strategic Thoughts

Since the 2008 international financial crisis,international political and economic disorder has become obvious.Major reasons are the decline of US-led Western developed economies' global influence;US and other Western countries inaction or ineffective actions;power diffusion allowing non-state actors to intervene;a global governance short of needed rules;and mainstream economic theory's overemphasis on market roles.International disorder is a long-term process posing a potential threat to China' s national interests.The situation challenges China to create an international economic and trade order,thereby shaping itself as prophet of global free trade,shaper of international economic and trade rules,and trendsetter for globalization.     

Partisanship, Trade Policy, and Globalization: Is There a Left–Right Divide on Trade Policy?

Are there noticeable differences among political parties in a country over their trade policy positions? Do left parties advocate different trade policies than right parties? In the advanced industrial countries where labor tends to be scarce, are left parties more protectionist than right ones, which represent capital owners? Political institutions within these democratic countries may affect the role of partisanship. We also investigate whether increasing globalization has led to more or less partisan polarization over trade policy. We examine 25 developed countries from 1945 to 1998 to see how their parties have competed over trade policy. Controlling for various factors, partisanship matters. Right parties consistently take more free trade stances than do left ones. Globalization and other international forces have also shaped both the nature and the extent of the domestic debate over exposure to international trade.     

Age structure and political violence: a re-assessment of the “youth bulge” hypothesis

A popular hypothesis in international studies states that a “youth bulge”––an age pyramid dominated by large cohorts between 15 and 29 years of age––increases the risk of political violence. However, empirical evidence on this link remains inconclusive to date. In this article, we systematically assess the youth effect using new data from 183 countries between 1996 and 2015. We find that within countries, a decrease in the youth ratio is generally associated with a decrease in the number of violent deaths from terrorism or other internal conflicts, and vice versa. This is also confirmed in out-of-sample predictions. However, the association is not evident in all constellations and sensitive to modeling issues. In particular, large cohorts of young males can become a disruptive power in countries that increase enrollment in post-primary education. Although this is usually followed by fertility decline, youth bulges often remain at record levels for quite some time due to high birth rates in the past. Strong labor markets can in general suppress the detrimental consequences of youth bulges. However, the combination of growing youth cohorts and educational expansion often leads to increased political violence even in the presence of low youth unemployment.     

International development and the European Union's external policies: changing contexts,problematic nexuses,contested partnerships

This special section explores and explains how the European Union's (EU's) overall approach to international development has evolved since the beginning of the twenty-first century. At the international level, the rise of a group of emerging economies has not only provided developing countries with greater choices, but has also further enhanced their agency, thus questioning the EU's leadership and even relevance in international development. At the European level, the various (paradigmatic) shifts in each of the three key external policies—trade, security and foreign policy—and the EU's aspiration to project a coherent external action have collided with the EU's commitment to international development. Numerous tensions characterize the various nexuses in EU external relations, which ultimately challenge the EU's international legitimacy and (self-proclaimed) identity as a champion of the interests of the developing world. Nevertheless, the EU has made more progress than is generally acknowledged in making its external policies more coherent with its development policy. Moreover, the EU's relationship with developing countries has gradually become less asymmetrical, though not because of the EU's emphasis on partnership and ownership but more because of the increased agency of developing countries.     

CAFTA下中国与泰国经济贸易发展及展望

中国—东盟自由贸易区(CAFTA)如期建成是中国与东盟各国贸易关系具有重要意义的里程碑,对中国发展与东盟国家之间的国际贸易以及实施货物进出口零关税等关税优惠措施有着巨大的影响和推动作用,但在推行关税优惠过程中还存在诸多问题。本文在CAFTA背景下,探讨中国与东盟国家之一的泰国之间开展国际贸易以及实施零关税等关税优惠措施进程中产生的问题,并提出解决问题的方案,同时提出发展中国与泰国之间贸易,实施关税优惠措施的建议。     

中俄两国货币国际化的形势分析

实行本国货币自由兑换,最终成为世界货币是世界大国国家竞争战略的一个重要组成部分。从汇率制度改革的进度看,俄罗斯要领先于中国一步。从货币的国际影响来看,人民币在周边国家居民中已经逐渐被认可并接受,人民币作为交易货币和清算货币已是事实。货币国际化的前提是本国经济的国际化,而要达到这一点无论是中国还是俄罗斯,都还有很长的路要走。     

中俄创新经济之比较

随着经济全球化的深入发展,各国将在更广领域、更大范围参与国际竞争,如果自主创新能力薄弱,就难以突破发达国家及其跨国公司的技术垄断,也难以获得有利的贸易地位。中俄两国国情相似,创新经济都处于初期阶段,有很多共性的问题需要解决。