Circulation and Consumption: Transnational Mass Tourism in Cancun, Mexico

Cancun’s packaged image of paradise is a dynamic and constantly flowing contestation of identity and livelihood for those involved in the service sector. Indigeneity is used as spectacle, prop, and entertainment in the tourism industry and is especially popular in mass tourism zones like Cancun. Circulation of not only bodies, but theory surrounding authenticity and indigeneity, are all represented in the hyper-commodification that defines mass tourism. Cancun uses transnational connections for marketing of space, goods, and people that are in a constant state of circulation. Looking at the rise of the tourism industry in Cancun processually leads us to explore this moment of mistrust between movements between the United States and Mexico. Violence throughout the border between these countries leads to fear that mass media instills in its audiences. How are these emerging attitudes of fear affecting mass tourism in Mexico? What are the effects of mass tourism on its locality? Using a transnational framework helps to decode complex structures of circulation in Cancun’s mass tourism industry

THE FUTURE OF NORTH AMERICAN MARKET INTEGRATION: THE MEXICAN PERSPECTIVE

International Relations/Trade,

Circulation and Consumption: Transnational Mass Tourism in Cancun, Mexico

Cancun’s packaged image of paradise is a dynamic and constantly flowing contestation of identity and livelihood for those involved in the service sector. Indigeneity is used as spectacle, prop, and entertainment in the tourism industry and is especially popular in mass tourism zones like Cancun. Circulation of not only bodies, but theory surrounding authenticity and indigeneity, are all represented in the hyper-commodification that defines mass tourism. Cancun uses transnational connections for marketing of space, goods, and people that are in a constant state of circulation. Looking at the rise of the tourism industry in Cancun processually leads us to explore this moment of mistrust between movements between the United States and Mexico. Violence throughout the border between these countries leads to fear that mass media instills in its audiences. How are these emerging attitudes of fear affecting mass tourism in Mexico? What are the effects of mass tourism on its locality? Using a transnational framework helps to decode complex structures of circulation in Cancun’s mass tourism industry

Ongoing WTO Negotiations and Bangladesh’s Interests: Insights from CPD’s October 2002 Tracking Mission to Geneva

The paper is based on the participation of CPD delegation in Geneva and gives an insight into the particular issue of priority interest to Bangladesh in the context of the ongoing negotiations including GATS, AoA, TRIPS and Market Access.The paper provides an understanding about the important implications of the ongoing Doha Development Round negotiations for Bangladesh and other least developed countries (LDCs) both in terms of accessing the opportunities emanating from the evolving global trading system, and also from the perspective of addressing the attendant challenges.WTO-General Council, Tracking Mission, Geneva, Bangladesh

THE WTO NEGOTIATIONS ON FINANCIAL SERVICES: CURRENT ISSUES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Trade in financial services is a major item on the agenda of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations stalled since the ministerial meeting in Cancun in September. This paper reviews trends in such trade and major issues which have been raised in these negotiations so far. The WTO agreement on financial services reached in December 1997 is generally regarded as having contributed more to transparent policy regimes in the organization´s member countries than to the opening of markets to foreign suppliers. The paper reviews statistical data bearing on trends in the market access of foreign banks since 1997, and finds no increase in the presence of banks from developing countries in the markets of developed countries but a large rise in the presence of banks from the latter in the markets of the former. However, the latter increase is likely to reflect less the impact of the 1997 agreement in the WTO than a more general movement in the direction of financial opening which was taking place anyway and helped to shape the agreement. Watchwords in the submissions of major developed countries to the new round of negotiations include expanded market access and the removal from countries´ commitments of limitations affecting several different financial activities (horizontal limitations). Moreover attention has been drawn to the need for greater regulatory transparency in the treatment of foreign banks. Similar objectives were also pursued on the developed-country side in the negotiations which ended in 1997. In the WTO - as in many policy fora - developing countries continue to express their concerns about vulnerability to destabilizing capital movements. Although the rules of the GATS were designed to decouple liberalization of trade in financial services from that of capital-account transactions, they have not succeeded in alleviating several developing countries´ misgivings. Other matters to which developing countries have drawn attention are the need for greater harmonization of different limitations in countries´ commitments at the levels of national and local Government, and greater participation of developing countries in the setting of international standards with a bearing on market access and national treatment. Some subjects have been raised by both developed and developing countries but from divergent points of view. Thus both developed and developing countries have raised the need for clarification of the distinctions between the modes of delivery of financial services specified in the GATS where these have been blurred by recent technological change, though concerns on the two sides are motivated by differences of perspective. Moreover both have also focused on the connections between work on financial services in the WTO and that on different aspects of the international financial system elsewhere. But whereas the thrust of developed countries´ interventions here favours managing these connections in a mutually reinforcing way, developing countries are more circumspect owing to apprehensions as to the multiplication of factors incorporated in IMF surveillance and conditionality and of consequent constraints on national policy autonomy. Similarly the question of the scope of the prudential carve-out of the Annex on Financial Services developed countries appear to favour a tighter definition of its permissible scope, while many developing countries prefer to keep the carve-out broad and unconstraining. Both developed and developing countries have expressed support for more uniform classification of financial services in countries´ commitments but there has been less consensus as to problems linked to statistics for different modes of delivery.

Sustainable Cooperation in Global Climate Policy: Specific Formulas and Emission Targets to Build on Copenhagen and Cancun

We offer a framework to assign quantitative allocations of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), across countries, one budget period at a time. Under the two-part plan: (i) China, India, and other developing countries accept targets at Business as Usual (BAU) in the coming budget period, the same period in which the US first agrees to cuts below BAU; and (ii) all countries are asked in the future to make further cuts in accordance with a common numerical formula to all. The formula is expressed as the sum of a Progressive Reductions Factor, a Latecomer Catch-up Factor, and a Gradual Equalization Factor. This paper builds on our previous work in many ways. First we update targets to reflect pledges made by governments after the Copenhagen Accord of December 2010 and confirmed at the Cancun meeting of December 2011. Second, the WITCH model, which we use to project economic and environmental effects of any given set of emission targets, has been refined and updated to reflect economic and technological developments. We include the possibility of emissions reduction from bio energy (BE), carbon capture and storage (CCS), and avoided deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) which is an important component of pledges in several developing countries. Third, we use a Nash criterion for evaluating whether a country’s costs are too high to sustain cooperation.Cancun, Climate, Concentrations, Cooperation, Copenhagen, Costs, Developing Countries, Development, Emissions, Equity, Global Climate, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas, Human Development, International, Kyoto, Sustainable, Treaty, United Nations, WITCH

The Current Trade Context

human development, aid, trade, security

Creación de clusters para una mejor oferta de actividades extraescolares en Barcelona, España

Las actividades extraescolares que se realizan en un centro escolar a veces son muy limitadas, por los recursos disponibles o porque no coinciden con las preferencias de su alumnado. Para ampliar la oferta de actividades a otras que no tengan lugar en el recinto de un centro escolar, se propone la creación de clústers que agrupen diferentes Colegios de Educación Infantil y Primaria (CEIP) de Barcelona, España. Para ello, se deberá resolver un problema de cobertura y garantizar los medios de transporte a los escolares para desplazarse de un centro educativo a otro o incluso a centros deportivos, donde puedan realizar sus tareas extraescolares preferidas. En primer lugar, se plantea un programa matemático que halle las asociaciones entre diferentes centros educativos y se implementa una heurística para la resolución del problema. Posteriormente, se implementa otro programa matemático para definir la ruta óptima entre los miembros del clúster. En los clusters también se pueden incluir, además de los centros escolares, otras asociaciones de interés donde realizar estas actividades. Como resultado se obtienen diferentes clusters que internamente tendrán la posibilidad de organizarse para poder ampliar la oferta de actividades de cada uno de sus miembros. La propuesta de transporte de pasajeros (niños y niñas) se basa en la disponibilidad de uno o dos autocares por cluster.Postprint (published version