Extending European Cooperation: The European Union and the 'New' International Trade Agenda

trade policy; cohesion policy; acquis communautaire; Treaty on European Union

The European Union as a Global Regulator? Context and Comparison

The European Union’s regulations affect how business is conducted and consumers and the environment protected in parts of the world far beyond its borders. Moreover, the external impact of its regulations informs understandings of the EU as a global actor. This article makes three main arguments. First, the EU’s regulatory influence varies systematically across different forms of regulatory interaction: regulatory competition and different forms of regulatory cooperation. The form of regulatory interaction, therefore, is a critical intervening variable between the EU’s regulatory power resources and its influence. Second, within the different forms of regulatory cooperation the EU’s influence varies in line with expectations derived from the literature. But, third, the magnitude of the EU’s influence seems to be considerably less in regulatory cooperation than suggested by the literature on regulatory competition; a finding that reinforces the first argument. The article also introduces the rest of the special issue

The European Union as a Global Regulator? Context and Comparison

The European Union’s regulations affect how business is conducted and consumers and the environment protected in parts of the world far beyond its borders. Moreover, the external impact of its regulations informs understandings of the EU as a global actor. This article makes three main arguments. First, the EU’s regulatory influence varies systematically across different forms of regulatory interaction: regulatory competition and different forms of regulatory cooperation. The form of regulatory interaction, therefore, is a critical intervening variable between the EU’s regulatory power resources and its influence. Second, within the different forms of regulatory cooperation the EU’s influence varies in line with expectations derived from the literature. But, third, the magnitude of the EU’s influence seems to be considerably less in regulatory cooperation than suggested by the literature on regulatory competition; a finding that reinforces the first argument. The article also introduces the rest of the special issue

Emerging trends in WTO dispute settlement : back to the GATT?

As the number of cases in the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement system has increased, there has been a greater effort by the academic community to analyze the data for emerging trends. Holmes Rollo, and Young seek to develop this literature using data up to the end of 2002 to ask whether recent trends confirm previously identified patterns and to examine whether there are divergences from the overall pattern according to the type of dispute. They focus on three questions in particular: What explains which countries are most involved in complaints under the dispute settlement understanding? Is there a discernible pattern to which countries win? Is there a difference to these patterns depending on the type of measure at the heart of the complaint? The authors find that: A country's trade share is a pretty robust indicator of its likelihood to be either a complainant or a respondent. The frequently remarked absence of the least developed countries from the dispute settlement system can be explained by their low volume of trade. There is not much, if any, evidence of a bias against developing countries either as complainants or respondents. Regulatory issues are fading as reasons for disputes and trade defense disputes are the rising issue. Complainants overwhelmingly win (88 percent of cases). There is no strong evidence that the rate of completion of cases is biased against newly industrializing countries or traditional less developed countries.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Judicial System Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Information Technology,Judicial System Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Information Technology,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Trade and Services

Trading Up or Trading Blows? US Politics and Transatlantic Trade in Genetically Modified Food

European Food Agency; international trade; OECD; regulation; regulatory politics; WTO

EU interest representation or US-style lobbying?

While the number of interest groups competing for influence at the European level has exploded, the EU policy process is usually described as strikingly apolitical. The initial surge in interest group participation was principally a consequence of the transfer of authority to the EU, and of greater policy activity in the wake of the single market program. Subsequent efforts to integrate interest groups more fully into the policy process reflected an effort to extend democracy. The still-limited scope of EU authority, however, also restricts the successful extension of democracy at the European level

Confounding conventional wisdom: political not principled differences in the transatlantic regulatory relationship

The transatlantic complaints over hormone-treated beef and genetically modified organisms before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) seem to confirm two separate but related conventional wisdoms about the transatlantic economic relationship: that it is highly conflictual and that many of the conflicts are rooted in profoundly different approaches to regulation. This article argues that neither of the two conventional wisdoms is accurate. Rather, it contends that they are products of two, compounding analytical shortcomings: one methodological, one empirical. The methodological shortcoming takes the form of an implicit selection bias. While WTO complaints are high profile they are rare and extreme examples; it is, therefore, unsound to generalise from them to the regulatory relationship as a whole. The empirical shortcoming has to do with neither the beef hormones nor the GMO dispute demonstrating what it is purported to. The article thus serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of relying on obvious cases and the need to question whether evidence really does support a prevailing popular narrative

Comparing the effectiveness of a short-term vertical jump vs. weightlifting program on athletic power development

Efficient training of neuromuscular power and the translation of this power to sport-specific tasks is a key objective in the preparation of athletes involved in team-based sports. The purpose of the current study was to compare changes in center of mass (COM) neuromuscular power and performance of sport-specific tasks following short-term (6-week) training adopting either Olympic Style Weightlifting (WL) exercises or vertical jump (VJ) exercises. Twenty six recreationally active males (18-30 years; height: 178.7±8.3 cm; mass: 78.6±12.2 kg) were randomly allocated to either a WL or VJ training group and performance during the countermovement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ), depth jump (DJ), 20m sprint and the 5-0-5 agility test assessed pre- and post-training. Despite the WL group demonstrating larger increases in peak power output during the CMJ (WL group: 10% increase, d=0.701; VJ group: 5.78% increase, d=0.328) and SJ (WL group: 12.73% increase, d=0.854; VJ group: 7.27% increase, d=0.382), no significant between-group differences were observed in any outcome measure studied. There was a significant main effect of time observed for the three vertical jumps (CMJ, SJ, DJ), 0-5m and 0-20m sprint times, and the 5-0-5 agility test time, which were all shown to improve following the training (all main effects of time p<0.01). Irrespective of the training approach adopted by coaches or athletes, addition of either WL or VJ training for development of power can improve performance in tasks associated with team-based sports, even in athletes with limited pre-season training periods

Mammary stem cells have myoepithelial cell properties.

Contractile myoepithelial cells dominate the basal layer of the mammary epithelium and are considered to be differentiated cells. However, we observe that up to 54% of single basal cells can form colonies when seeded into adherent culture in the presence of agents that disrupt actin-myosin interactions, and on average, 65% of the single-cell-derived basal colonies can repopulate a mammary gland when transplanted in vivo. This indicates that a high proportion of basal myoepithelial cells can give rise to a mammary repopulating unit (MRU). We demonstrate that myoepithelial cells, flow-sorted using two independent myoepithelial-specific reporter strategies, have MRU capacity. Using an inducible lineage-tracing approach we follow the progeny of myoepithelial cells that express α-smooth muscle actin and show that they function as long-lived lineage-restricted stem cells in the virgin state and during pregnancy.This work was funded by Cancer Research UK, Breast Cancer Campaign, the University of Cambridge, Hutchison Whampoa Limited, La Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer (Equipe Labelisée 2013) and a grant from Agence Nationale de la Recherche ANR- 08-BLAN-0078-01 to M.A.G.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature at http://www.nature.com/ncb/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ncb3025.html

Hydrogen storage in liquid hydrogen carriers: recent activities and new trends

Efficient storage of hydrogen is one of the biggest challenges towards a potential hydrogen economy. Hydrogen storage in liquid carriers is an attractive alternative to compression or liquefaction at low temperatures. Liquid carriers can be stored cost-effectively and transportation and distribution can be integrated into existing infrastructures. The development of efficient liquid carriers is part of the work of the International Energy Agency Task 40: Hydrogen-Based Energy Storage. Here, we report the state-of-the-art for ammonia and closed CO2-cycle methanol-based storage options as well for liquid organic hydrogen carriers