International trade negotiations and the trans-border movement of people: A review of the literature

We review the international and New Zealand literatures on the two-way interaction between international migration and agreements designed to enhance cross-border trade or investment. Benefits and costs of migration, to the extent that these may feature in trade and migration negotiations, are discussed. While trade and migration can be substitutes in some contexts, they will be complements in other contexts. Liberalisation of services and the movement of people are likely to offer much more significant gains than liberalisation of remaining barriers to goods trade. Significant scope for liberalisation under GATS mode 4 (the movement of natural persons) may remain. However, temporary migration is already promoted on a unilateral and bilateral basis within immigration policy frameworks that may provide greater flexibility than GATS mode 4. With respect to both trade and migration, the more diverse the exchanging countries are, the greater the economic benefits tend to be. However, greater diversity may also imply greater social costs. This paradox of diversity needs to be addressed through appropriate social policies accompanying enhanced temporary and permanent migration

International trade agreements and international migration

Despite large potential economic gains to the countries concerned, bilateral and multilateral negotiations regarding liberalization of migration have not had the high profile of trade negotiations and agreements. Migration and trade have been traditionally the prerogative of different ministries, yet there are many interdependencies between international trade, foreign investment and migration. The relevance of these interdependencies for trade negotiations has been remarkably ignored in the literature. In this paper we therefore focus on the two-way interaction between international migration and agreements designed to enhance cross-border trade or investment. Liberalization of international trade in services and the movement of people are likely to offer much more significant economic gains than liberalization of remaining barriers to goods trade. However, progress within multilateral frameworks is fraught with difficulty. Mode IV of GATS is restricted to temporary movement of service employees and has yielded little progress so far. Negotiations within more flexible unilateral and bilateral frameworks are likely to be more successful in liberalizing the movement of labour. We discuss several specific examples and conclude that trade negotiations are increasingly accommodating migration policies that favour temporary migration over permanent migration and that the migration regulatory framework is likely to be further linked to trade and investment over time

Promoting U.S. Economic Growth and Security Through Expanding World Trade: A Call for Bold American Leadership

This report presents a leadership vision of a strong and open global trading system, and urges the United States and its trading partners to adopt vital policy reforms, including delinking agricultural subsidies from prices and production while opening agricultural markets everywhere, and eliminating all tariffs and non-tariff barriers in both manufacturing and services

Pascal Lamy on regional trade agreements

The paper discusses in particular the role of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regarding Regional Trade Agreements (RTA) and Regional Integration Agreements (RIA) as well as the benefits and limitations of these agreements. Examples are given which outline on the one hand the successful developements which have taken place, but also points on failures in setting up or benefitting from those agreements. It stresses also the need for unified action at the WTO itself

Creditor Moral Hazard in Equity Markets: A Theoretical Framework and Evidence from Indonesia and Korea

This paper expands on the work of Sarno and Taylor (1999) and develops three alternative models in which creditor moral hazard might occur in equity markets under different assumptions regarding the existence of asset market bubbles and implicit guarantees. Incorporating IMF-related news associated with the own country and with other countries to our models, we are able to predict the expected change in investor behavior and its effect on stock returns. Using daily stock returns for Indonesia and Korea, we test the ability of the models to predict the expected changes in stock returns on the days of IMF-related news such as program negotiations and program approval. Our results regarding Korea and, to a lesser extent, Indonesia are consistent with the creditor moral hazard models that assume implicit guarantees and asset price bubbles. Our results show that, if there is creditor moral hazard in equity markets, its duration could be measured only by days, suggesting that creditor moral hazard is a short-term phenomenon.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40045/3/wp659.pd

Customer Enquiry Management in a Global Competitive Context: A Comparative Multi-Case Study Analysis

Business-to-Business (B2B) relationships, such as between a manufacturer and a customer, are increasingly important during the Customer Enquiry Management (CEM) process, particularly so for non-Make-To-Stock (non-MTS) companies operating in industrial markets. Few empirical studies have explored the CEM practices adopted by firms in practice. A study of the Italian capital goods sector by Zorzini et al. (2007) is a recent exception. Moreover, most studies have approached CEM from a cross-department integrated perspective but in the digital economy, and with globalization, outsourcing and extended supply chains, CEM needs to be approached from a broader supply chain-oriented perspective, incorporating B2B exchanges. This paper builds on the study by Zorzini et al. (2007) by conducting multi-case study research with seven UK-based companies in the capital goods sector, including three sales and support companies with offshore manufacturing. By adopting a cross-national research perspective, it assesses whether the proposed theory applies to other capital goods firms outside Italy. By also adopting a supply chain perspective of CEM it investigates current industry practice in B2B markets and explores whether cross-functional coordination and formalization issues can be extended into a global context. Evidence from the UK generally supports prior theory, confirming links between high levels of coordination, formalization of the CEM process and improved performance. Some refinements are proposed, for example, in order to make the theory suitable for a global context. The characteristics of a supply chain are important factors that affect CEM. This research has managerial implications for improving the CEM process in non-Make-To-Stock (non-MTS) capital goods companies from both an intra and an inter-organisational (B2B) perspective. Coordination with partners along the supply chain is needed at the enquiry stage and constraints linked to global customers should be considered when structuring the