Sustaining investment in the northern British Columbia forest industry: rates of return and cost of capital

No abstract available.The original print copy of this thesis may be available here: http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=b130286

Revising European Safeguards and Antidumping Provisions in Light of the Chinese WTO Accession

PhDIn November 2001, the WTO members allowed the People's Republic of China, a formerly planned economy that is going through different stages of domestic economic and related legal restructuring, to accede to the WTO. This accession is believed to be necessary for the WTO to become a truly international organisation in the post-Cold War era, along side of the IMF and the World Bank, and for China to become an integrated member of the international economic community. Although the end of the Cold War has changed European trade policy profoundly, the European Community (EC)" has maintained a traditionally bifurcated trade policy, in which planned economies, also referred to as "non-market economies", are given treatment different from market economies in trade policy instruments, such as the EC emergency safeguards provisions and EC anti-dumping regulation. The EC perceives the Chinese domestic legal and economic reforms as unfinished; and, although the treatment of Chinese products under the EC import and anti-dumping regulations has been liberalised in recent years, China is still generally considered to be a non-market economy. It is questionable whether in light of China's WTO accession such a non-market approach vis-ä-vis China, as approved in the Chinese Protocol of Accession, is justified. This thesis argues that the non-market approach for China, as it stands today, should be adjusted for two basic reasons. First, this approach does not allow China to benefit fully from its WTO accession for a number of years to come. Second, as long as the period allowing non-market economy treatment continues, the danger exists that the non-market economy trade policy, especially as far as anti-dumping is concerned, may tend to be abused for protectionist purposes by the EC. Protectionist abuse would be harmful for China because its export-oriented growth is necessary to advance the country's domestic legal and economic reforms. Protectionism, equally, would be harmful for the EC because it prevents the Community industry from adjusting itself to face the challenge of increased Chinese competition. Because there is no satisfactory methodological solution to deal with the new variant of non-market economies, and because it is impossible for China - despite all good intentions - to implement fully the WTO accession requirements by the time they must phase in, the suggested approach is for the EC to show restraint in employing these trade policy instruments against China. As far as emergency safeguards are concerned, this restraint is already a fact. Nonetheless, some holdovers from the Cold War should be put up for change. Such adjustments will also be required for the EC anti-dumping regulation

Prosecuting antidumping and countervailing duty cases in the United States of America

This thesis takes a corporate political strategy perspective of antidumping and countervailing duty cases to understand why some firms are more successful at the prosecution of these trade remedy measures. Trade remedy measures are long standing tools of US trade policy and their use has continued to grow globally amongst member countries of the World Trade Organisation. Between 1980 and 2007 a total of 1606 of these trade remedy cases were investigated by the Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission, an average of 41 antidumping and 17 countervailing duty cases a year, with a value of around US$ 63 billion or 0.3% of all US imports. Thirty-seven percent of the cases by number and 54% by value resulted in duties being imposed on the subject imports. This study uses archival material for five recent trade remedy investigations and forty-five semistructured interviews with business interests, trade attorneys and economic consultants that have experience of prosecuting these cases to understand why some firms may be more successful than others at achieving their preferred policy outcome. The imposition of duties is found to be only the simplest measure of success for US firms that file a case and does not capture the range of potential outcomes for foreign firms that face the duties. Successful prosecution of a trade case has been found to be firm specific, as the DOC determination of individual firm duty rates significantly affects what the outcome of case means for each firm in the US and foreign industries. The successful prosecution of US trade remedy cases is argued to be an informational corporate political strategy that is affected by statutory and administrative biases in the execution of the agency investigations, and creates the potential for indirect rent-seeking bias in the outcomes of cases. This informational corporate political strategy is based on three capabilities that firms need to develop, the capability to gather information, the capability to build and shape the administrative record at the agencies to reflect a firm’s policy preferences and the capability to align business practices with the US trade remedy institutions. These three capabilities are enabled by the bundling of corporate political expertise resources, organisational resources, financial resources and reputational resources. Some of these resources are internal to the firms, including staff, money and information, while other resources are external, such as the trade attorneys and economic consultants.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Federal Register

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii

P.P.R working papers : catalog of numbers 1to 200

This paper contains a numerical listing of working papers produced by the Policy, Planning, and Research Complex. Each citation contains a brief abstract, and the contact point for the paper.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Achieving Shared Growth,Banks&Banking Reform,Poverty Assessment

Earnings management and its relationship with corporate governance mechanisms in Jordanian industrial firms

This thesis investigates the association between corporate governance mechanisms and earnings management in industrial Jordanian firms. We identify the most important corporate governance mechanisms that have an effect on accounting choices and operating decisions, investigate the tools that managers use to decrease or increase earnings in Jordanian industrial firms, and finally, determine which accruals model is more powerful to detect earnings management in Jordanian industrial companies. Historically, corporate governance mechanisms are considered to be the most important factors in assessing and monitoring the effectiveness of financial reporting (Brown, Pottb and Wömpenerb, 2014), and may be considered to be a cornerstone of control in general. Internal and external corporate governance is established by senior managers to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operations and reduce the incidence of error or manipulation in accounting systems (Lee, 2006). Earnings management is considered one of the most important issues related to financial reporting, particularly after the Enron and WorldCom scandals. Earnings management behaviours are also related to low levels of corporate social responsibility and improvements in both areas would be expected to lead to improvements in the quality of corporate governance. Mixed methodology is used in this research including both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The quantitative analysis used accruals models the Standard Jones model (Jones 1991), modified Jones model (Dechow, Sloan and Sweeney, 1995), and the Peasnell, Pope and Young margin model (2000) as measures of earnings management and used these variables in conjunction with corporate governance factors. Annual financial reports that were published by the Amman stock market over the period 2005 to 2012 were used to extract the data for corporate governance characteristics of the firms. The qualitative analysis involved semi-structured interviews, conducted with general managers, financial managers and internal audit managers to provide in-depth information about corporate governance issues that we could not investigate easily through quantitative methods and to provide understanding of the context for the firm s earnings management. The qualitative analysis identified a range of motivations for earnings management in Jordanian firms including attempts to reduce customs fees; tax avoidance; the desire to attract more investors and increase share price, and the desire to increase management compensation. We find also that the Peasnell, Pope and Young margin model (2000) is a more powerful model for explaining earnings management in Jordan than the more commonly used accruals models. Quantitative results indicate that the ownership structure of the business plays a more significant role in constraining earnings management than characteristics relating to the board of directors or the characteristics of the audit process. Furthermore, the interviews also explored in depth a number of cultural factors and external economic factors, which were found to be related to the incidence of earnings management. Relevant cultural factors include particularly the tribal system that operates in Jordan, which creates pressures on firms likely to increase earnings management and external economic factors include the recent Middle East revolutions and adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards. The findings could be useful to investors, senior managers in Jordanian industrial firms, and legislators in Jordan, in relation to decisions about how to enhance the quality of monitoring mechanisms and constrain the incidence of earnings management. Our methodology and evaluation of standard accruals models in this context may also prove useful to other researchers on earnings management in developing economies

An enquiry into the application of EU anti-dumping law with particular reference to Pakistan

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyDumping is to unfairly sell goods at a lower price (at foreign market) as compared to their normal value at domestic market of the manufacturing country, thus causing material injury to the local industry of the importing country. Other researchers have explored the global (WTO Agreement) and the European Union’s (EU) Anti-Dumping law mostly with a commercial perspective. At doctoral level EU-China, EU-Japan and EU-Korea trade relations with reference to the application of protective measures have been studied. This dissertation is, however, the very first aimed to examine the application of EU Anti-Dumping law relating to Pakistan. This is a complete health check of EU-Pakistan trade relations with reference to the application of Anti-dumping duties on Pakistan. This study is a combination of doctrinal research and empirical research, whereby it critically evaluates the Commission’s investigation and the judgements of the EU Courts related to Pakistan and thus establish their consistency or inconsistency; it also studies the voting patterns within the Council and the impact of AD duties on Pakistani imports. It is a qualitative exploratory study based upon an inductive approach. Contradictions are found in the calculations of normal value and export price, constructed normal value, the comparison of normal value and export price, the calculation of dumping margin, and the calculation of injury. Suggestions are made as to the extent to which Unions’ anti-dumping rules need to be reviewed to moderate their tilt that unequivocally favours Union manufacturers. Moreover, this dissertation identifies many provisions of the basic regulation, which being too vague offers multiple interpretations, which are thus recommended to be amended. In the empirical part of this research the voting style of EU member states for or against the adoption of AD measures against Pakistan has been studied. Thereafter, the content analysis of stated reasons for specific voting styles reveals that the member states vote on the basis of the findings and conclusions of investigation as done by the Commission, thus trade partner loyalty is not the reason for their voting. Furthermore, application of the ADDs is found to be reason of import decline from Pakistan to the EU

Federal Register

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii

National Renewable Energy Policy in a Global World

Increasing trade of renewable energy products has significantly contributed to reducing the costs of renewable energy sources, but at the same time, it has generated protectionist policies, which may negatively affect the trend of the cost reduction. Although a few recent studies examined the rise of renewable energy protectionism and trade disputes, they are limited in addressing the conflict between the original goal of traditional renewable energy policies and the new protectionist policies under the globalized renewable energy industry. To fill this gap, this dissertation explores how the globalized renewable energy industry has changed national renewable energy policies. Through three analyses, three aspects of the globalized renewable energy industry are examined: the rise of multinational corporations, international interactions among actors, and the changes of the global and domestic market conditions. First analysis investigates how multinational renewable energy corporations have affected national policies. A content analysis of the annual reports of 15 solar photovoltaic multinational corporation shows that solar multinationals have been influenced by national policies and have adapted to the changes rather than having attempted to change national policies. Second analysis examines how diverse actors have framed renewable energy trade issues through a network analysis of the Chinese solar panel issue in the United States. The result shows that the Chinese solar panel issue was framed differently from the traditional environmental frame of renewable energy, being dominated by multinational corporations headquartered in other countries. Third analysis explores what has caused the increasing diversity in national renewable energy policies through the case studies of the U.S. and South Korea. The result reveals that the globalization of solar industry has affected the diversification of solar policies in two countries by generating both challenges, which needed to be addressed by new and additional policies, and opportunities, which strengthened the political power of domestic solar industries. The three analyses show that the globalized renewable energy industry has led to the diversification of national renewable energy policies by increasing international interactions between actors and by introducing both challenges and opportunities to domestic renewable energy industries. This research contributes to the literature on trade and the environment by analyzing a new pattern of the conflicts between traditional environmental policies and “green” protectionist policies. It also contributes to the literature on protectionism by adding an empirical case of green protectionism, one of the forms of “murky” protectionism that has risen after the global financial crisis

Federal Register

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii