Imperfect Competition, State Trading and Japan's Imports of Rice

In the negotiations on agriculture in the World Trade Organization, itwas asserted that an importing state trading enterprise affects the domestic market but not the international market. This claim is investigated through specifying a model of intermediaries in international trade. There are two kinds of intermediaries: first, a state trading enterprise; and second, an n-firm Cournot oligopsony/oligopoly that acts as the counterfactual. Using Japanese market priceand quantity data for rice, and elasticity parameters drawn from the literature,the equations of the model are calibrated to these data and parameters. The resulting equations then permit the calculation of the tariff equivalence of the state trading enterprise under different assumptions about market structure, as wellas the welfare effects associated with them. The equations are re-specified to model the existing import regime for rice, which is a tariff quota. The conclusions are: first, that, compared with the counterfactual, an importing state trading enterprise acts like a tariff by restricting imports; and second, the currentimport regime of a tariff quota causes a welfare loss compared with the counterfactual.

Uncertainty Aversion and Technical Barriers to Trade: An Australian Example

International Relations/Trade,

An Assessment of the Economic Effects of COFCO

International Relations/Trade,

Resistive switching in ZrO2 films: physical mechanism for filament formation and dissolution

Resistive switching devices, also called memristors, have attracted much attention due to their potential memory, logic and even neuromorphic applications. Multiple physical mechanisms underpin the non-volatile switching process and are ultimately believed to give rise to the formation and dissolution of a discrete conductive filament within the active layer. However, a detailed nanoscopic analysis that fully explains all the contributory events remains to be presented. Here, we present aspects of the switching events that are correlated back to tunable details of the device fabrication process. Transmission electron microscopy and atomically resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) studies of electrically stressed devices will then be presented, with a view to understanding the driving forces behind filament formation and dissolution

The Economic Effects of State Trading Enterprises: Market Access and Market Failure

International Relations/Trade,

COMPETITION POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL TRADE

International Relations/Trade,

How to Name the Residents

I read Mary Stewart Craig\u27s article Do Mamaroneckers Like to Neck? in the November issue of Word Ways with great relish. As an upstanding citizen, I immediately sat down and set down some regional epithets that popped into my head, trying to follow her example. I mailed them to Word Ways and returned to my mystery novel. In a few days I received a note from the editor, suggesting that I elucidate and illustrate those principles that make for clever citizens\u27 names