International Assistance and Cooperation for Access to Essential Medicines

Access to essential medicines is a critical problem that plagues many developing countries. With a daunting number of domestic constraints technologically, economically, and otherwise developing countries are faced with a steep uphill battle to meet the human rights obligation of providing essential medicines immediately. To meet these challenges, the international human rights obligations of international assistance and cooperation can play a key role to help developing countries fulfill the need for access to essential medicines. This article seeks to highlight and expand upon the current understanding of international assistance and cooperation for access to essential medicines through a review of obligations identified in international human rights law and a synthesis of official guidance provided on the matter

Crew interface with a telerobotic control station

A method for apportioning crew-telerobot tasks has been derived to facilitate the design of a crew-friendly telerobot control station. To identify the most appropriate state-of-the-art hardware for the control station, task apportionment must first be conducted to identify if an astronaut or a telerobot is best to execute the task and which displays and controls are required for monitoring and performance. Basic steps that comprise the task analysis process are: (1) identify space station tasks; (2) define tasks; (3) define task performance criteria and perform task apportionment; (4) verify task apportionment; (5) generate control station requirements; (6) develop design concepts to meet requirements; and (7) test and verify design concepts

Government policy and competitive advantages of foreign-financed firms in the Guangdong province of southern China

This paper investigates the impact of various Chinese government policies on the competitive advantages of foreign-financed manufacturing firms in Guangdong province of southern China. The objectives of various government sector-specific policies are to lubricate the factor markets in labour, capital and products and to facilitate the operation of foreign-financed firms. However, the actual effects are often quite different: the ambiguity, complexity and inflexibility of policies impose higher transaction costs on foreign-financed firms. These disadvantages offset some economic benefits gained under the central government's preferential foreign direct investment policy and thus damages the competitive advantages of foreign-financed firms based in Guangdong. Worse still, the lack of co-ordination among various bureaux further hampers arbitration between government bureaux and foreign investors

Regional monopoly and interregional and intraregional competition: the parallel trade in Coca-Cola between Shanghai and Hangzhou in China

This article uses a “principal-agent-subagent” analytical framework and data that were collected from field surveys in China to (1) investigate the nature and causes of the parallel trade in Coca-Cola between Shanghai and Hangzhou and (2) assess the geographic and theoretical implications for the regional monopolies that have been artificially created by Coca-Cola in China. The parallel trade in Coca-Cola is sustained by its intraregional rivalry with Pepsi-Cola in Shanghai, where Coca-Cola (China) (the principal) seeks to maximize its share of the Shanghai soft-drinks market. This goal effectively supersedes the market-division strategy of Coca-Cola (China), since the gap in wholesale prices between the Shanghai and Hangzhou markets is higher than the transaction costs of engaging in parallel trade. The exclusive distributor of Coca-Cola in the Shanghai market (the subagent) makes opportunistic use of a situation in which it does not have to bear the financial consequences of the major residual claimants (the principal and other agents) and has an incentive to enter the nondesignated Coca-Cola market of Hangzhou by crossing the geographic boundary between the two regional monopolies devised by Coca-Cola. The existence of parallel trade in Coca-Cola promotes interregional competition between the Shanghai and Hangzhou bottlers (the agents). This article enhances an understanding of the economic geography of spatial equilibrium, disequilibrium, and quasi-equilibrium of a transnational corporation's distribution system and its artificially created market boundary in China

What are the impacts of implementing ISOs on the competitiveness of manufacturing industry in China?

Based on the proposed ‘PIE’ analytical framework, this paper argues that the preparation, implementation and evaluation of international standards (ISOs) affect the competitiveness of (foreign-financed) export-oriented manufacturing industry in southern and southeastern China, both in the short- and long-term. During the period of preparation, the decision to adopt ISOs is mainly driven by market demand and/or by the decisions of established competitors. Negative effects due to the diversion of scarce resources and institutional resistance to change during the period of transitional implementation are offset by the overall enhancement of the firm's productivity in the long run. ‘Tailoring for the external audit’ and ‘second-best’ practices are two strategies commonly employed by Chinese firms to lower the transaction costs involved in ISO audits

Does WTO accession matter for the Chinese textile and clothing industry?

Based on field surveys conducted in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Beijing in 2000 and 2001, this paper argues that accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by China will create a new competitive arena for different categories of textile and clothing firms located in that country, partly dependent on the size and ownership of the firm. From the perspectives of reducing import tariffs, eliminating export quotas and the regulations on trade disputes, WTO accession does matter for the majority of Chinese firms in this ‘win–lose’ game. From the perspective of compliance with international standards, this paper argues that accession to the WTO does not really matter for some Chinese firms, as they may not survive the intense competition prior to 2005, when the effects of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing materialise