The economic effects of widespread application of antidumping duties to import pricing

Dumping accurs when a firm charges a price in the foreign market below its price in the domestic market when it supplies the indentical good to both markets. Provisions within the GATT allow member countries to impose antidumping (AD) duties to counteract this behavior and return the price of the dumped goods to its"fair value". The increasing incidence of dumping allegations and imposition of AD duties indicate the dumping of exports in foreign markets is a growing concern in international trade and policy discussions. The other studies of this volume have presented in quite impressive detail the evolution and present ubiquity of AD investigations and duties in import-competing countries, and have also addressed the issue of whether these trends truly indicate a rise in dumping activity. In this paper the authors focus on a separate, more theoretical issue: what is the impact of widespread dumping and use of AD duties on the exporting and importing economies?Environmental Economics&Policies,Trade Policy,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets

Is East Asia less open than North America and the European Economic Community? No

To shed light on regional integration schemes in North America and Europe (and on the alleged trading bloc in East Asia), the authors explore the nature of bilateral trade relationships. Using the gravity model, they conduct an econometric analysis of trade flows between major trading countries. They estimate bilateral trade flow equations using a data set for 45 countries over 12 years and then use those equations to study the contribution of trading blocs to intra-regionnal trade. Past investigators have estimated the gravity equation using data for total trade, pooling data across countries. The authors estimate separate equations for the exports and imports of 22 countries (nine in East Asia, six in Europe, three in North America, two in South America, and one in Oceania). Using 27 countries outside of North America, East Asia, and the founding members of the European Union (EEC) as the control countries, the authors test for each region's openness to trade with outside countries. They conclude that: 1) results based on individual-country equations differ greatly from those obtained from pooled, cross-country equations. In some cases, this difference is qualitative. Not surprisingly, in virtually all cases the cross-country equation masks large differences among countries. The coefficient asscociated with distance, for example, varies between -4.4 and -0.4 across the authors'equations. In almost every case the coefficient is statistically significant at a confidence level of 99 percent or more; 2) If there is an intra-regional bias in trade, it is more in North America and among the founding members of the European Union than in East Asia. Canada, the United States, and all countries of the EEC show an intra-regional bias in both exports and imports. In East Asia, on the other hand, exports in six out of nine countries have a statistically significant bias away from intra-regional markets; 3) There is little support for the hypothesis that East Asian markets are closed to trade with outside countries; and 4) Contrary to conventional wisdom, controlling for other variables, many countries export less to North America than to countries outside the three regions. Similiarly, countries outside the EEC export more to the EEC than to countries in the control group.Economic Theory&Research,Earth Sciences&GIS,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Trade Policy,Rural Land Policies for Poverty Reduction

Lessons of trade liberalization in Latin America for economies in transition

After four decades as prime examples of inward-looking trade policies and import-substituting industrialization, several Latin American countries undertook comprehensive trade liberalization and macroeconomic adjustment in the 1980s. The authors contend that the experiences in those countries are relevant for the economies in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in transition from socialism to market economies. In all of these Latin American countries, the move toward an outward orientation occurred: when the economy was facing a large negative external shock because of falling terms of trade and rising debt payments; after several decades of protectionism; and under severe macroeconomic imbalances. The authors study the reform package of trade liberalization, stabilization, and supporting policies in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay. They conclude that for the economies in transition: Rationalizing the foreign trade regime is crucial for the success of stabilization measures. Rapid, far-reaching reform is possible in sectors that were subject to prolonged periods of heavy protection. Sustained growth requires a comprehensive reform package, with supporting policies for labor, capital, and domestic product markets. Liberalization of the financial sector requires investigating the links between commercial banks and private sector firms. If trade liberalization is to succeed in the long run, it is important to study the evolution of the real exchange rate and measures to stabilize it. In the final section of the paper, the authors study the recent impetus toward trade liberalization through regional arrangements in Latin America. The issue is relevant to countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union because they belonged to the CMEA, a regional trading arrangement, and because such arrangements are evolving anew among countries in the former Soviet Union.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Stabilization,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Macroeconomic Management

Do rules control power? GATT articles and arrangements in the Uruguay Round

Many complain and offer evidence that in recent years the GATT system has become more power-oriented, less stable, and less equitable. A concern to reverse this drift was one of the motives that brought the international community to agree to undertake the Uruguay Round. Rules control power, assumed the signers of the Punte del Este declaration, therefore elaborating and extending GATT rules would move the international community toward a fairer, more stable international trading system. Finger and Dhar contend that the opposite is true. Particularly in the 1980s, the elaboration and application of GATT rules has been an exercise in the application of economic and political power, not in its control. GATT rules, in theory, are there to limit national trade restrictions. Finger and Dhar contend that in fact things work the other way around: national practice comes first, and determines what the GATT rules mean. GATT's rules do not put limits on national practices, but provide international santion for these practices. Such rules are not part of the thereforelution but are part of the problem. Theirs is a situation-specific argument, say Finger and Dhar, not a generic one. Their target is not"rules", nor is it"GATT". Rather, it is the GATT rules.Rules of Origin,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Common Carriers Industry,Transport and Trade Logistics,Trade Policy

Ligand specificity and ligand-induced conformational change in gal repressor

Gal repressor (GalR) binds D-galactose, which is responsible for lifting of repression of the gal operon. Proton T1 measurements of α- and β-anomers of galactose as a function of gal repressor show preferential binding of the β-anomer. The β-anomer was isolated by high-performance liquid chromatography and was shown to bind tightly to GalR. Calorimetry was used to determine enthalpy changes at several temperatures. Heat capacity change was found to be positive, indicating that a significant amount of hydrophobic surface area was exposed upon galactose binding. Bis-ANS binding to GalR is significantly enhanced in the presence of a saturating amount of galactose, indicating additional exposure of hydrophobic surfaces. We propose that the galactose-induced conformational change involves the opening of the two subdomains, which may disrupt protein-protein interactions responsible for repression

Quantum Dots Self Assembly Based Interface for Blood Cancer Detection

Results of the studies related to fabrication of, sensitive electrochemical biosensor using an interface based On quantum dots (QDs) self-assembly is reported. The QDs assembly is sought to provide improved fundamental characteristics to the electrode interface in terms of electro-active surface area, diffusion coefficient, and electron, transfer kinetics. This QDs modified electrode has been utilized to serve as a transducer surface for covalent immobilization of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) specific probe oligonucleotide, designed from the BCR-ABL fusion gene. The electrochemical characteristics of this biosensor toward various designed synthetic oligonucleotides reveal a significant enhancement in its mismatch discrimination capability compared to the biosensing assay without QDs under similar experimental conditions. The sensing characteristics of this biosensor Offer a potential for detection of target oligonucleotide at a concentration as low as 1.0 pM. Furthermore, the PCR-amplified CML-positive patient samples with various BCR-ABL. transcript ratios can be electrochemically distinguished from healthy samples, indicating promising application of the QDs based biosensor for clinical investigations

Preparation, characterization and application of polyaniline nanospheres to biosensing

Polyaniline nanospheres (PANI-NS) prepared by morphological transformation of micelle polymerized camphorsulfonic acid (CSA) doped polyaniline nanotubes (PANI-NT) in the presence of ethylene glycol (EG) have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infra-red and UV-Visible spectroscopy. A PANI-NS (60–80 nm) film deposited onto an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) coated glass plate by the solution casting method has been utilized for covalent immobilization of biomolecules (cholesterol oxidase (ChOx)) viaN-ethyl-N′-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) chemistry for fabrication of a cholesterol biosensor. The ChOx/PANI-NS/ITO bioelectrode detects cholesterol in the concentration range of 25 to 500 mg dL−1 with sensitivity of 1.3 × 10−3 mA mg−1 dL and regression coefficient of 0.98. Further, this PANI-NS based bioelectrode shows fast response time (10 s), low Michaelis–Menten constant (2.5 mM) and shelf-life of 12 weeks. The spherical nanostructure observed in the final morphology of the PANI-NS film is attributed to hydrogen bonding interactions between PANI-NT and EG

Electrophoretically fabricated core-shell CNT-DNA biowires for biosensing

In view of recent revelations and potential applications of the carbon nanotubes (CNT)-deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) nanobiohybrids, we propose a mechanism of DNA wrapping onto functionalized CNT using principles of co-ordination chemistry. The core-shell structural biowire comprising of CNT and DNA has been fabricated via electrophoretic deposition technique and detailed morphological investigations have been carried out to ascertain the mechanism of biowire formation. The results of these studies reveal that during the biowire formation, Mg2+ ions provide the central metal ion with enhanced structural and catalytic activity for DNA and CNT to covalently co-ordinate to form a bi-cyclic chelate structure. Employing the synergy between the nanomaterial and biomolecule, DNA-Mg2+-CNT biowires can be used as a nanobioelectrode platform for development of a genosensor

Controlled deposition of functionalized silica coated zinc oxide nano-assemblies at the air/water interface for blood cancer detection

We report results of the studies relating to controlled deposition of the amino-functionalized silica-coated zinc oxide (Am-Si@ZnO) nano-assemblies onto an indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate using Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. The monolayers have been deposited by transferring the spread solution of Am-Si@ZnO stearic acid prepared in chloroform at the air-water interface, at optimized pressure (16 mN/m), concentration (10 mg/ml) and temperature (23 degrees C). The high-resolution transmission electron microscopic studies of the Am-Si@ZnO nanocomposite reveal that the nanoparticles have a microscopic structure comprising of hexagonal assemblies of ZnO with typical dimensions of 30 nm. The surface morphology of the LB multilayer observed by scanning electron microscopy shows uniform surface of the Am-Si@ZnO film in the nanometer range (<80 nm). These electrodes have been utilized for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) detection by covalently immobilizing the amino-terminated oligonucleotide probe sequence via glutaraldehyde as a crosslinker. The response studies of these fabricated electrodes carried out using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy show that this Am-Si@ZnO LB film based nucleic acid sensor exhibits a linear response to complementary DNA (10(-6)-10(-16) M) with a detection limit of 1 x 10(-16) M. This fabricated platform is validated with clinical samples of CML positive patients and the results demonstrate its immense potential for clinical diagnosis

Polyaniline/carbon nanotubes platform for sexually transmitted disease detection

Polyaniline/carbon nanotubes composite (PANI-CNT) electrochemically deposited onto indium-tin-oxide (ITO) coated glass plate has been utilized for Neisseria gonorrhoeae detection by immobilizing 5′-amino-labeled Neisseria gonorrhoeae probe (aDNA) using glutaraldehyde as a cross-linker. PANI-CNT/ITO and aDNA-Glu-PANI-CNT/ITO electrodes have been characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry (CV), and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). This bioelectrode can be used to detect N. gonorrhoeae using methylene blue (MB) as redox indicator with response time of 60 s and stability of about 75 days when stored under refrigerated conditions. DPV studies reveal that this bioelectrode can detect complementary DNA concentration from 1 × 10−6 M to 1 × 10−17 M with detection limit of 1.2 × 10−17 M. Further, this bioelectrode (aDNA-Glu-PANI-CNT/ITO) exhibits specificity toward N. gonorrhoeae species and shows negative response with non-Neisseria gonorrhoeaeNeisseria species (NgNS) and other gram negative bacteria (GNB)