Unveiling Protectionism: Regional Responses to Remaining Barriers in the Textiles and Clothing Trade

this chapter argues that a threat tothe future development of the textile and clothing industries within the Asia-Pacific region exists in the proliferation of preferential trade agreements involving major industrial markets and developing countries.textiles and clothing, export, protection, Asia and the Pacific

Proposed Rules of Origin in Emerging Asia-Pacific Preferential Trade Agreements: Will PTAs Promote Trade and Development?

World trade is increasingly being dominated by preferential trade agreements that have taken precedence over multilateral trade negotiations. Within Asia and the Pacific an explosion of bilateral deals is taking place that seems likely to produce a tangle of hub-spoke trade blocs centered on major Asian or Pacific countries.Rules of Origin, Preferential Trade Agreements

High Tech and High Touch: Headhunting, Technology, and Economic Transformation

[Excerpt] In High Tech and High Touch, James E. Coverdill and William Finlay invite readers into the dynamic world of headhunters, personnel professionals who acquire talent for businesses and other organizations on a contingent-fee basis. In a high-tech world where social media platforms have simplified direct contact between employers and job seekers, Coverdill and Finlay acknowledge, it is relatively easy to find large numbers of apparently qualified candidates. However, the authors demonstrate that headhunters serve a valuable purpose in bringing high-touch search into the labor market: they help parties on both sides of the transaction to define their needs and articulate what they have to offer. As well as providing valuable information for sociologists and economists, High Tech and High Touch demonstrates how headhunters approach practical issues such as identifying and attracting candidates; how they solicit, secure, and evaluate search assignments from client companies; and how they strive to broker interactions between candidates and clients to maximize the likelihood that the right people land in the right jobs

Trade, Foreign Firms, and Economic Policy in Indonesian and Thai Manufacturing

This paper first examines the rapid growth and changing composition of manufactured exports in Indonesia and Thailand, highlighting the rapid growth of office and computer machinery and electric machinery, somewhat slower growth of non-electric and transportation machinery, as well as the low growth of previously large exports of textiles apparel. Second, the important contributions of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) to export growth in the machinery industries, particularly in electric, office, and computing machinery, are documented. Third, the paper describes trade policies in all these industries in some detail, emphasizing how low protection was a key facilitator of rapid export growth in the MNEs that dominated the electric, office, and computing machinery industry, while high protection reduced incentives to export among MNEs in the transportation machinery industry.

Agro-terrorism and the Grain Handling Systems in Canada and the United States

The grain handling sector in Canada and the United States is vital to agriculture and trade. In a typical year on the Canadian prairies, about 140,000 producers deliver some 20 to 30 mmt of grain for export to primary elevators. In the United States, about 2.1 million producers deliver about 300 mmt of grain to primary elevators. Canadian grain is moved to export position using more than 400,000 hopper cars and marine containers, where about 1,200 ships per year are loaded. In the United States, about 1.08 million rail carloads of grain are originated per year, and about 23 mmt of grain are shipped on barges per year. These U.S. figures are in addition to trucks, which, more so than in Canada, are also used to deliver grain to primary processors and to terminal and export markets. The volume of grain trade gives rise to concern about risks of terrorism in the sector.(1) From a security perspective, the grain, pulse and oilseed supply chain is noteworthy because much of it is characterized by relatively long-term, insecure, bulky storage (particularly on farms) along with numerous modal and inter-modal product transfers. These factors suggest there are many places where chemical or biological contaminants could be introduced into this supply chain. From the perspective of the United States, security throughout the Canadian system as well as the U.S. system is a concern, since cross-border traffic in these products is significant, with an average of about six million tonnes of grain products alone imported into the U.S. each year (USDA-FAS, 2003). Numerous interventions to enhance food safety and mitigate the risk of terrorism have been adopted or are in the process of being developed. Some of these are private initiatives and voluntary, as a component of firm-level security processes. Others are being adopted in response to legislated initiatives. The stakes are large, and there are likely to be substantial differences in costs and effectiveness of different approaches.Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Chaos For the Halibut?

A generalized method for analyzing stability potential in discrete time renewable resource models subject to market-driven harvest is discussed. Two means by which harvest activity can influence dynamical properties of renewable resource models are identified: the "growth factor" and the "market response effect". The growth factor is a systematic influence on stability tied to changes in the position of the bioeconomic equilibrium point along a given open access supply locus. The market response effect involves variation in harvest in response to stock level changes. The analysis is applied to a model of the Pacific Halibut Fishery: a modified discrete-time version of the traditional Schaefer model. In order to investigate potential instability, we vary certain parameters of the model and study the resulting effects on stability. We find that enhancing harvest response by changing the slope of the demand schedule can thrust the model into instability, chaos, and extinction, without changing the bioeconomic equilibrium point for the Pacific Halibut Fishery Model. We also show that enhancing harvest response via slope preserving increases in market demand can push the model into instability, chaos, and even extinction. Finally, we show that similar adjustments in market demand may be capable of eliminating instability and chaos rooted in powerful intrinsic growth of the stockStability Analysis, Chaos, Open-Access Fisheries, Renewable Resource Models., Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics,

LT-23: The feedback vibrating capacitor fieldmeter

A redesign effort was undertaken starting in the fall of 1988 to replace the Models 1019A and 1019B fieldmeter probes resulting in greatly improved performance. Extensive testing was conducted to confirm performance of the new design and to evaluate outdoor atmospheric applicability. The following subjects are discussed: theory of operation, design improvements, performance, proper use, and applications of the new intrinsically safe design

Asian Textile and Apparel Trade: Moving forward with Regional Integration

This paper empirically examines the relative importance of different sources of inflation in developing Asia. In particular, it tests the widely held view that the region's current inflation surge is primarily the result of external price shocks such as oil and food shocks. In addition, this paper also estimates the degree of pass-through of external price shocks to domestic prices. Our central empirical result is that contrary to popular misconception, Asia's inflation is largely due to excess aggregate demand and inflation expectations rather than external price shocks. This suggests monetary policy will remain a powerful tool in the fight against inflation in Asia. Another significant finding is that the pass-through of the external price shocks to domestic prices has been limited so far. However, the removal of government subsidies is likely to lead to greater pass-through in the future. The resulting inflationary pressures provide a further rationale for tightening monetary policy

TEMPORAL ALLOCATION ALTERNATIVES FOR SOUTHEASTERN RED DELICIOUS APPLES

This study examines the economic feasibility of storing southeastern U.S. Red Delicious apples under various circumstances. Circumstances encompassed type of storage, potential market share in the storage periods, perceived level of quality, and opportunity cost of storage. Reactive programming was used to allocate shipments throughout the harvest and storage periods. Except for apples harvested in August, storage was found to be economically feasible under all situations studied. The greatest economic benefit to producers was shown to come from the synergistic effect of storage and improvement in perceived quality.Crop Production/Industries,