Non‐tariff measures and United States' imports of CBERA‐eligible products

Trade coverage ratios are calculated to assess the 1991 incidence of non‐tariff measures (NTMs) on imports of products eligible for duty‐free treatment under the United States’ Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA). Overall, 16 per cent of all CBERA‐eligible products were found to be covered by one or more NTM. Corresponding figures for all eligible products exported from individual beneficiaries range up to 40 per cent. Much higher trade coverage ratios are found for individual product groups. NTMs constitute important deterrents to US imports of CBERA‐eligible products. Heavy reliance on NTMs counters the intent of the CBERA, namely to extend preferential treatment to exports from Caribbean Basin countries.     

EXEMPT PROPRIETARY COMPANY ANNUAL REPORTING REQUIREMENTS: PUBUC INTEREST OR BUREAUCRATIC EMPIRE-BUILDING?

Abstract: Australian small business enterprises, operated as exempt proprietary companies, are exposed to numerous statutory requirements. The Corporations Law Simplification Taskforce has proposed a number of changes with the stated objective of minimising the statutory burdens faced by small business. One of the recommendations of the taskforce is that most exempt proprietary companies be exempted from the requirement to supply key financial data in annual returns lodged with the Australian Securities Commission. This paper provides a review of the existing statutory responsibility for exempt proprietary companies to prepare annual returns including key financial data and lodge them with the ASC. A common justification offered for the introduction and continued maintenance of annual reporting requirements has been the protection of the public interest. The “public choice” theory of regulation provides alternative explanations for the regulation, including the promotion of producer interests or the promotion of the interests of the regulatory agency responsible for the administration of the legislation, the Australian Securities Commission, and other government departments such as Attorney-General's, Finance and Treasury. The existence of alternative explanations raises the possibility that the regulation is not motivated exclusively by the public interest. Indirect evidence of the usefulness of the annual reporting requirements was gathered with a consideration of the quality of the key financial data disclosed in annual returns. More than 40% of the annual returns lodged by a sample of exempt proprietary companies, during the years 1986 to 1989, contained key financial data which was inconsistent with being extracted from a properly prepared balance sheet (where assets minus liabilities equal shareholders' equity). The possibility that the maintenance of annual reporting requirements is not in the public interest, and the limited reliability of key financial data disclosures made, offers some support for the recent recommendations of the Corporations Law Simplification Taskforce that annual reporting requirements for small business enterprises be modified.     

深化城市派出所改革 构建打防控一体化警务工作新机制

曲靖市公安局麒麟分局积极推行以城市派出所改革为切入点 ,构建“打防控”一体化治安管理新体制的警务改革 ,经过近一年的实践探索 ,改革取得了明显成效。一、以江总书记“三个代表”重要思想为指针 ,改革创新促发展 ;二、变“刀耕火种”为“精耕细作” ,建立高效有序的警务工作运行机制 ;三、充分发挥“打防控”一体化优势 ,全面推进“严打”整治和各项公安业务向前发展。     

Forays into Japanese cultural psychology

Abstract

The search for a theory of Japanese personality and culture has been an epic endeavor among foreign specialists, filled with all the mystery and fantasy of discovering Atlantis. The inquiry began nearly a century ago when the venerable William Griffis described the moral character of the “average Japanese” as being “frank, honest, kind, gentle, courteous, confiding, affectionate, filial, loyal.” Reviewing his own inventory of personality traits, Griffis felt obliged to conclude that the “Japanese are simply human, no better, no worse than mankind outside.”     

Review Essay / Justifying the rights of pregnancy: The interest view

Bonnie Steinbock, Life Before Birth New York, Oxford University Press, 1992, 256 pp.     

To be continued . . . Syntheses and trends in follow-up of quality assurance in West European higher education

The authors report on West European trends in follow-up arrangements of national quality assurance procedures. They argue that external quality assurance ought to adopt a broader conception of quality than is now often the case. Next, the general public ought to have a guarantee that external quality assurance is valid (through meta-evaluation) and has consequences (through follow-up arrangements). Follow-up currently is not well developed in many European countries in a formal sense, but is receiving more attention as external quality assurance is maturing. Finally, the authors link national quality assurance to the European dimension; an international network could fulfil important functions in making quality assurance transparent and credible across Europe. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.