Working Paper 79 - Impacts and Challenges of Multilateral and Bilateral Trade Agreements on Africa

Africa must continue to be active in international trade negotiations as it is being squeezed. Policy changes in its markets, dubbed incorrectly as ‘liberalisation’ by proponents is eroding rapidly the competitive advantage conferred on traditional exports to long standing markets without offering new openings for novel products or markets. This paper analyses the nature of relevant changes in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the bilateral policies of the Quad (Canada, the EU, Japan and the USA). Among the latter it gives special attention to the Economic Partnership Agreements that sub-Saharan Africa needs to negotiate with the EU and to changes in Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Why unwinding preferences is not the same as liberalisation: the case of sugar

Many of the changes to developed country trade policy that affect developing countries do not fit neatly into the category of ‘liberalisation’ yet they are frequently assessed as if they did. The recent changes to the EU’s regimes for production and imports of sugar fall into this group: both production and trade policies were highly distorted before the change and will remain so after it, but the distribution of the effects of these distortions will be altered. This will affect three of the six Development Cooperation Ireland programme countries in Africa: Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. Returns from sugar exports to the EU will be less than otherwise would have been. How much lower depends critically on how the sugar market develops after 2009.Sugar, liberalisation, value chains

Agricultural Reciprocity under Economic Partnership Agreements

This paper investigates how the formation of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the EU might affect the ability of the six Development Cooperation Ireland programme countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to continue to provide protection to their domestic agri-food sectors. Various scenarios are constructed on the assumption that ‘substantially all' trade with the EU must be liberalised if the EPAs are to be compatible with WTO rules on regional trade agreements. The paper concludes that EPAs are unlikely to require major changes in existing levels of border protection provided to domestic agriculture in Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zambia but that the effects on Tanzania and Uganda could be greater. It argues that the preparation of a ‘defensive' EPA strategy by these countries should occur in parallel with a strategic review of agricultural trade policy.Economic Partnership Agreements, agriculture, reciprocity

Special and Differential Treatment for Agriculture: Africa's Requirements from Special Safeguards and Special Products

The 1 August 2004 Framework Agreement stated that developing countries would have access to a Special Safeguard Mechanism and Special Products designation as part of special and differential treatment within a new WTO Doha Round agricultural agreement. This was confirmed in the Ministerial Declaration following the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial in December 2005. This paper discusses the potential usefulness of these instruments for the six programme countries of Development Cooperation Ireland, and what further research is desirable to help countries define them in a way that maximises their usefulness.

Initial Organizational Images and Recruitment: A Within-Subjects Investigation of the Factors Affecting Job Choices

[Excerpt] The purpose of this study was to examine the dimensions, influenceability, and consequences of applicants’ images of prospective employers early in the recruitment and job search process. Specifically, we examined three questions: (1) On what dimensions do applicants assess organizational images early in their job searches? (2) Which recruitment practices contribute to applicants’ organizational images? (3) How do organizational images influence applicants’ decisions to apply to organizations

Recruitment and Decision-Making: The Effects of Early Recruitment Practices on the Decision to Apply to an Organization

This study explored the relationship between early recruitment practices (company visibility, social networking, campus presence and traditional practices) and decision making during the initial phase of the recruitment process. Results indicated that the relationship between early recruitment practices and decisions to apply were mediated by attraction and perceptions of organizational attributes

Do Health Care Providers Quality Discriminate? Empirical Evidence from Primary Care Outpatient Clinics

There has been minimal attention paid to the mechanisms of hospital quality oversight that are currently in place. Accordingly this study will analyze the system of hospital quality regulation in the US. The Social Security Act as amended in 1965 gave the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) "deeming" power for Medicare quality requirements. There are numerous reasons why JCAHO's oversight strategy may be ineffective. The primary reason is the dual role of JCAHO as a regulator and advocate. In conclusion, JCAHO surveys do provide an incentive to hospitals to improve processes of care for the period leading up to an inspection and that incentive gets eliminated after the inspection occurs. JCAHO has announced a change from the scheduled survey to an unannounced strategy. The objective of this change is to provide an incentive to maintain a level of readiness. This may not occur if hospitals are motivated to minimize the overall cost of JCAHO compliance.

Key Agricultural Issues in the Post-Cotonou Negotiations

This Briefing Paper aims to break the sterile exchange of well established positions that has characterised EU–African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) debate on trade for the past five years or more. Negotiations have now begun for a successor to the trade regime in the current Cotonou Agreement. The new trade regime is scheduled to be in place by 2008. The first phase of negotiations covers general principles. There is disagreement between the ACP (which want this phase to last a year and result in a binding agreement on the areas covered) and the EU (which appears to want a shorter time period and no binding agreement). But in either case, serious, informed negotiation for phase 2 cannot occur unless certain basic research has been completed. The Briefing Paper describes the potential implications for agriculture of a new trade agreement. It assesses the data and analysis that is required to understand ACP interests. And it indicates which data and analyses are already available, which need to be undertaken, and the priority areas for this new work. The ACP–EU negotiations are taking place during a period when there are many other, parallel negotiations all of which will have inter-related effects. For both practical and developmental reasons, the ACP need to identify, first, their national development priorities and, second, their regional goals. These should be the foundations on which their multilateral policy is based. Trade policy with the EU needs to be tailored so that it is compatible with these national, regional and multilateral priorities. The tail of a trade agreement with one (albeit important) trade partner should not wag the dog of national, regional or multilateral policy. A high priority for new research is to identify the potential implications of reciprocity in the area of agriculture. An initial set of scoping studies can be based upon a simplifying assumption that the terms of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will be similar to those of the EU–South Africa Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement EU–SAFTA). They can use various hypothetical EPA memberships to show the range of potential effects. This initial set of studies will allow each ACP state to identify the range of agricultural products that could be excluded from an EPA. In this way, they can identify more clearly than is possible at present the potential competitive and fiscal effects of reciprocity. To the extent that ACP states lower their restrictions on imports from the EU, domestic producers will face greater competition. And, unless alternative revenue sources are obtained, a lowering of tariffs will, at least in the medium term, result in a fall in government revenue. Agricultural producers stand to be affected by both impacts. They will face increased competition from cheaper food imports. And they may suffer from any knock-on effects of reduced government revenue on lower agricultural development expenditure. Such sensitivity analysis will not only guide ACP states on the potential effects of different EPA memberships. They will also help identify the ways in which development and regional integration strategies need to evolve to overcome the new challenges. For these outcomes to arrive in good time for the phase 2 negotiations data gathering needs to commence by November 2002

An Investigation Into the Effect of Functional Electrical Stimulation to Assist the Gait of Children with Cerebral Palsy.

A common feature of cerebral palsy is persistent toe walking on the most affected side, which may result in an unstable gait and frequent falls. Results from current interventions, such as AFOs, plaster boots, botulinum, or surgery are mixed, with some being poorly tolerated and/or with only temporary results. An alternative intervention may be functional electrical stimulation (FES) in which (for this application) electrical pulses are applied to motor points through surface electrodes by a small, lightweight, external battery unit. The dynamic nature of FES may promote a more normal gait pattern and strengthen and re-educate the affected muscles. There are two apparently opposing approaches, with some studies reporting positive results from stimulating the anterior tibial muscles and studies reporting positive results from stimulating the calf muscles. Whilst both approaches have shown some encouraging results they fail to produce conclusive evidence as to which should be the treatment of choice or provide prescription guidelines for appropriate selection. The aim of this pilot study was to establish whether FES applied to the anterior tibial muscles can be used successfully to control toe walking in children with CP, building on the widely accepted model used in adults. In addition it was aimed at establishing any preconditions that need to be met. An ABA approach was used (A - non intervention; B - intervention) with each phase lasting three months, which allowed the treatment to continue for a greater period than previous studies. In terms of daily exposure, children used the device throughout their daily activities. Sufficient subjects were recruited for a statistical analysis. To control for the effects of other treatments existing therapeutic inputs continued, whilst making kinematic, kinetic, energy consumption, and clinical measurements to quantify changes. Data for over 2000 steps from ten children at six measurement sessions were recorded. Results suggest immediate orthotic and longer term therapeutic effects, as measured by the heel-toe interval, knee angle at foot contact, step and stride length, cycle time, speed, and energy consumption. Significance at the 0.05 level was reached for step and stride lengths, and speed. The effectiveness of the stimulation from the users’ point of view was assessed through a questionnaire, completed by the child and their parent or carer. A major weakness identified in the course of the study was a lack of sufficient subject numbers to allow greater statistical significance to be achieved. In addition, the lack of sufficient subjects did not allow the unambiguous identification of any sub-groups who may benefit more or less than others. Improved equipment may also have made possible a better estimate of heel-toe intervals, which appears to be potentially useful outcome measure. Future work planned includes a similar study of calf muscle stimulation and improvements to the stimulator equipment