Trading in development: norms and institutions in the making/unmaking of European Union–African,Caribbean and Pacific trade and development cooperation

This paper offers a contribution to recent debates on European Union (EU) external trade and development policy, with a specific focus on the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries. The question asked is why the EU encountered such difficulties in the attempt to translate its normative preferences for freer trade and closer economic integration into a series of binding agreements? Drawing on both economic constructivist and historical institutionalist insights, it is argued that the case for reform initially rested on a strong convergence between institutions and ideas, enabling the EU to discursively present desired policy reforms as necessary to satisfy World Trade Organisation trade rules. However, in due course, the institutional dynamics behind the latter began to diverge from the EU's policy preferences and blunt its norm-based argument – thus creating the space for transnational coalitions to, first, question and, ultimately, undermine aspects the EU's trade and development prospectus for the ACP.     

Globalization, Neoliberalism and the Exercise of Human Agency

Globalization as a development model is generally now regarded as the sine qua non for development policy with little room for alternative theorising on capitalist development. Neoliberalism, as the supporting ideology of globalization, inflates the social significance of the market and mystifies human relations. It therefore, gives a distorted view of reality, how people are living and their agential capacity to improve their lives. Critical to human agency is it the way it is exercised—does it reduce inequality or does it exacerbate inequality? How is this human agency exercised by different groups of people? The paper provides a discussion on the relationship between neoliberal ideology, globalization and the exercise of human agency. It examines the social reality of globalization and neoliberalism and how this affects the agential capacity of human beings to direct their development, as individuals, communities and as nations.     

The US--Caribbean apparel connection and the politics of 'NAFTA parity'

This article utilises a 'commodity chains' approach in order to examine the growth in the role of Caribbean offshore assembly operations in the North American apparel production complex. It specifically focuses on the recently enacted Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA), which was designed to address the diversionary consequences of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in terms of apparel-related investment in the Caribbean. In the process, it highlights the domestic coalition of forces within the USA which have been actively pushing for NAFTA parity for the Caribbean since 1993. In particular, it notes that contradictions within this NAFTA parity coalition account for the skewed nature of the CBTPA, as it was eventually passed. For this reason it is ultimately argued that, while this legislation is likely to enhance regional integration and further the competitiveness of US apparel firms, any developmental consequences accruing to the Caribbean from this package are likely to be fairly limited, given the restrictive nature of the legislation as well as the competitive logic of the export processing zones (EPZs) in which Caribbean apparel assembly is invariably located.     

An Unravelling Development Strategy? Garment Assembly in the Caribbean Basin after the Multifibre Arrangement

The purpose of this article is to assess the likely impact of the ending of the Multifibre Arrangement (MFA) on garment assembly in the Caribbean Basin. Over the last fifteen years or so garment assembly has come to represent one of the region's few economic ‘success stories’ and has accordingly helped to offset the loss of export revenue from traditional commodities such as coffee and sugar. With the ending of the MFA on 1 January 2005, however, the long‐term viability of this trade has been thrown into doubt. This article thus seeks to assess the prospects for continued garment assembly in the Caribbean Basin against the backdrop of these developments.     

Identifying Critical Points of Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms from Childhood to Young Adulthood

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Depression is a common mental illness and research has focused on late childhood and adolescence in an attempt to prevent or reduce later psychopathology and/or...