Shifts in U.S. Merchandise Trade, 2008

[Excerpt] The annual Shifts in U.S. Merchandise Trade report is prepared on the basis of more than 250 major industry/ commodity groups and subgroups identified by the U.S. International Trade Commission (the Commission). The report contains the analysis of international trade analysts of the Commission’s Office of Industries, who routinely monitor trade developments in all natural resource, agricultural, and manufacturing industries. The report is divided into three parts. Part I presents an analysis of U.S. merchandise trade in 10 merchandise sectors and overall economic performance from 2007 to 2008. U.S. merchandise trade performance in 2008 is summarized and compared with such performance in 2007. Coverage of the individual merchandise sectors includes data showing U.S. export, import, and trade balance shifts by sectors, industry/commodity groups (and in some cases subgroups), and shifts in trade with U.S. trade partners. Major shifts in trade are highlighted and examined in greater detail in the rest of the report. Part I also examines U.S. imports from trade partners eligible for U.S. trade preference programs, most notably imports from beneficiaries of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the Andean Trade Preference Act, the Caribbean Basin Initiative, and the Generalized System of Preferences. Part II examines the shifts in U.S. trade with each of the top five U.S. trade partners - Canada, China, the EU, Japan, and Mexico. Also examined are shifts in trade with Brazil, India, and Russia—U.S. trading partners that are growing in significance. Summary tables show the important shifts in U.S. bilateral trade and highlight leading changes in industry/commodity groups for each of the major trade partners. Part III presents a general overview for each of the 10 merchandise sectors, identifying significant shifts in trade within each sector. Each sector chapter includes a statistical summary table of industry/commodity groups or subgroups, showing absolute and percent changes in bilateral trade in a year-to-year comparison of 2007 and 2008. In addition to the sectoral analyses, shifts in 20 specific industry/commodity groups are examined in greater detail. These industry/commodity groups were selected based on absolute and percentage shifts in trade; such shifts must have exceeded $1.0 billion and 50 percent

The Year in Trade 2008: Operation of the Trade Agreements Program

[Excerpt] This report is the 60th in a series of annual reports submitted to the U.S. Congress under section 163(c) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2213(c)) and its predecessor legislation. Section 163(c) of the Trade Act of 1974 states that “the International Trade Commission shall submit to the Congress at least once a year, a factual report on the operation of the trade agreements program.” This report is one of the principal means by which the U.S. International Trade Commission provides Congress with factual information on trade policy and its administration for calendar year 2008. The trade agreements program includes “all activities consisting of, or related to, the administration of international agreements which primarily concern trade and which are concluded pursuant to the authority vested in the President by the Constitution” and congressional legislation

Recent Trends in U.S. Services Trade: 2009 Annual Report

Recent Trends in U.S. Services Trade, 2009 Annual Report focuses principally on professional services (advertising, education, healthcare, and legal services), which provide critical inputs to various goods and service industries, as well as specialized services directly to individual consumers. The largest professional service firms in terms of revenue are located in developed countries and offer their services across the globe through both cross-border trade and affiliate transactions. The markets of many developing countries are growing rapidly and offer larger professional service firms significant merger, acquisition, and investment opportunities. U.S. services overall, and professional services in particular, grew faster in 2007 in terms of contribution to gross domestic product, employment, and cross-border exports than the average annual rate of the preceding five-year period. Services supplied to foreign consumers by foreign-based affiliates of U.S. firms, including those in professional services, also experienced recent strong growth

The supply-side of corruption and limits to preventing corruption within government procurement and constructing ethical subjects

Corruption in government procurement programs is a perennial problem. The paper by Dean Neu, Jeff Everett and Abu Shiraz Rahaman emphasises the value of internal controls in government departments in constraining individuals and promoting ethical conduct. In response, this paper argues that good internal controls in government departments, though highly desirable, are unlikely to make a significant dent in corrupt practices to secure government contracts. A major reason for this is the supply of corruption by corporations keen to secure lucrative contracts. Within the spirit of contemporary capitalism, they have an insatiable appetite for profits and have shown willingness to engage in corrupt practices to secure government departments. The issues are illustrated with the aid of two case studies. It is argued that the supply-side of corruption severely limits the possibilities of preventing corruption in government procurement

The boomerang returns? Accounting for the impact of uncertainties on the dynamics of remanufacturing systems

Recent years have witnessed companies abandon traditional open-loop supply chain structures in favour of closed-loop variants, in a bid to mitigate environmental impacts and exploit economic opportunities. Central to the closed-loop paradigm is remanufacturing: the restoration of used products to useful life. While this operational model has huge potential to extend product life-cycles, the collection and recovery processes diminish the effectiveness of existing control mechanisms for open-loop systems. We systematically review the literature in the field of closed-loop supply chain dynamics, which explores the time-varying interactions of material and information flows in the different elements of remanufacturing supply chains. We supplement this with further reviews of what we call the three ‘pillars’ of such systems, i.e. forecasting, collection, and inventory and production control. This provides us with an interdisciplinary lens to investigate how a ‘boomerang’ effect (i.e. sale, consumption, and return processes) impacts on the behaviour of the closed-loop system and to understand how it can be controlled. To facilitate this, we contrast closed-loop supply chain dynamics research to the well-developed research in each pillar; explore how different disciplines have accommodated the supply, process, demand, and control uncertainties; and provide insights for future research on the dynamics of remanufacturing systems

The terror that underpins the ‘peace’: The political economy of Colombia’s paramilitary demobilisation process

Studies on terrorism have traditionally focused on non-state actors who direct violence against liberal states. Such studies have also tended to focus on political motivations and, therefore, have neglected the economic functions of terrorism. This article challenges the divorce of the political and economic spheres by highlighting how states can use terrorism to realise interconnected political and economic goals. To demonstrate this, we take the case of the paramilitary demobilisation process in Colombia and show how it relates to the US-Colombian free trade agreement (FTA). We argue that the demobilisation process fulfils a dual role. Firstly, the process aims to improve the image of the Colombian government required to pass the controversial FTA through US Congress in order to protect large amounts of US investment in the country. Secondly, the demobilisation process serves to mask clear continuities in paramilitary terror which serve mutually supportive political and economic functions for US investment in Colombia

Cross-Sector Review of Drivers and Available 3Rs Approaches for Acute Systemic Toxicity Testing

Acute systemic toxicity studies are carried out in many sectors in which synthetic chemicals are manufactured or used and are among the most criticized of all toxicology tests on both scientific and ethical grounds. A review of the drivers for acute toxicity testing within the pharmaceutical industry led to a paradigm shift whereby in vivo acute toxicity data are no longer routinely required in advance of human clinical trials. Based on this experience, the following review was undertaken to identify (1) regulatory and scientific drivers for acute toxicity testing in other industrial sectors, (2) activities aimed at replacing, reducing, or refining the use of animals, and (3) recommendations for future work in this area

Tariff schedules of the United States annotated /

Description based on: 1972."For use in classification of imported merchandise for rate of duty and statistical purposes."Kept up to date during each year by supplements; some supplements completely replace basic ed. and previous supplements.Mode of access: Internet.Vols. for -197 issued by: United States Tariff Commission; -198 by: United States International Trade Commission

Trade between the United States and China, the Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic nations, and other selected countries during ...

Title from cover.Mode of access: Internet