Foreign Investment And WTO: Measures Against Expropriation
This paper is about Expropriation of foreign property, which has become with the inflow of foreign investment all over. It examines the WTO procedure as well, regarding Expropriation. In order to give a free environment to investors, it is important to curb illegal expropriation with the use of settled principles of international law and NAFTA rules etc. One of the primary goals of a WTO agreement on investment should be to provide strong and effective protection for investors against nationalization, expropriation, and measures tantamount to expropriation.
http://www.worldtradereview.com/
Trade in Energy Services: GATS and India
This paper examines India’s opportunities and constraints to trade in energy services within the GATS framework. The study found that India has the capability of exporting high-skilled manpower at competitive prices but is facing various market access, discriminatory and regulatory barriers in markets of export interest. With the entry of energy- producing countries such as Saudi Arabia into the WTO, the Doha negotiations provide an important platform to offensively push for liberalization in this sector.
The World Must Go Beyond Doha
The recent G-20 summit communiqué included a commitment by world leaders not to impose protectionist measures. The ink was barely dry before a number of countries took measures to protect domestic companies. Russia imposed a number of import tariffs. India slapped restrictions on steel. France created a fund to protect French companies. The United States and the European Union are contemplating state aid for the domestic auto industry. Earlier, China had increased its value-added tax rebate for exports and is now publicly worrying that the renminbi is, yes, overvalued.
Indian Agriculture In The Globalization Era – Position And Prospects
With a rich experience of green revolution of 1960s initiated by technological breakthrough, much was expected from Indian Agriculture in the following years. Then there was an almost lull period. The New Economic Reforms of 1990s promised a period of resurgence, with a fast growth of economy in general and agricultural sector in particular. But on the contrary, the post WTO period has witnessed a sharp decline in agricultural production. The agricultural sector is facing a crisis. Free trade has not been free from problems. Farming and farming community are waiting for a fair treatment even as many of them have lost interest or lives.
Opening Up Of Services Sector
The government is believed to have committed to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to further open up its services sector for foreign services providers without assessing its impact on the domestic market. Pakistan’s permanent mission to the WTO has sent a draft offer to commerce ministry for approval. In the year 2005, Pakistan made an initial offer for liberalisation of nine out of 12 sectors. This has been followed up in revised offers for remaining areas of the sector. The sectors which will be reviewed for opening up include business services and communications, construction/engineering, health and tourism, veterinary, education, accounting and legal services.
http://wwww.worldtradereview.com/
Does Trade Integration Contribute to Peace?
This paper investigates the effect of trade integration on military conflict. Our empirical analysis, based on a large panel data set of 290,040 country-pair observations from 1950 to 2000, confirms that an increase in bilateral trade interdependence and global trade openness significantly promotes peace. It also suggests that the effect of trade openness varies depending on the geographical proximity of countries. The peace-promotion effect of bilateral trade integration is significantly higher for contiguous countries that are likely to experience more conflicts.
India – Sri Lanka economic relations: A Case of CEPA
The bilateral economic and commercial relations between India and Sri Lanka continued to remain strong and vibrant in 2008. Despite the global economic downturn, the overall trade turnover for 2008 is likely to remain around the same level as it was in 2007 at about US 3.2 billion. In terms of investments, too, India retained its position as a leading foreign investor in Sri Lanka even while Sri Lankan investments in India registered a remarkable growth. Besides, India continued to make a significant contribution as a development partner, Sri Lanka being the largest recipient of aid, grants and concessional lines of credit in South Asia.
EPAs and Benchmarking Development
The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) being negotiated between the EU and ACP countries are widely acknowledged to pose a major challenge for the ACP / African countries since they are essentially free trade agreements based on reciprocal market liberalization. As such, the issue of development benchmarks has been discussed often as many actors from different quarters realize the need to stringently monitor the implementation of EPAs, where these are signed, and to put in place brakes on the liberalization process if the desired development goals are not being attained.
International Trade in Used Vehicles: The Environmental Consequences of NAFTA
Previous studies of trade and the environment overwhelmingly focus on how trade affects where goods are produced. However, trade also affects where goods are consumed. In this paper we describe a model of trade with durable goods and non‐homothetic preferences. In autarky, used goods are relatively inexpensive in high‐income countries and free trade causes these goods to be exported to low‐income countries. We then evaluate the environmental consequences of this pattern of trade using evidence from the North American Free Trade Agreement.…….
http://www.fordschool.umich.edu/
Transport Infrastructure and Trade Facilitation in the Greater Mekong Sub region
As trade is an important driver of growth and infrastructure is a necessity for trade, infrastructure development has a key role to play in economic development. This study aims to quantify the potential benefits of the development of the economic transport corridors, along with the implementation of the Cross-Border Transport Agreement (CBTA) in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Some of the key linkages between upgraded infrastructure, economic growth, and sectoral responses are explored using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) framework.
A Triple Call On Climate Change
The call to act is directed to all those in the field of international development who do not currently work on climate change. Nobody can stand aside from this issue. It requires the combined multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary attention of every one of us – urban and rural, national and international, development and humanitarian. Our urgent priority is to mainstream action on climate change. Attempts to mainstream gender or poverty have shown us how difficult this can be. The lessons from those experiences need to be learned. Why can’t we stand aside?
Poverty And Poverty Reduction In Sub-Saharan Africa: An Overview Of The Issues
The problem of poverty and how to reduce it remains the most pressing dilemma in the international development debate. More specifically, two questions are at the heart of much of academic research and public policy for development, namely: what is it that makes Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) the poorest region in the world and what can be done to deliver the sustainable and broad-based economic growth required to address this? This paper seeks to provide an introduction to current debates on these two interrelated questions.
A Case Study of Aid Effectiveness in Kenya: Volatility and Fragmentation of Foreign Aid, with a Focus on Health
In September 2000, 149 heads of state and government endorsed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). With this endorsement they set themselves eight goals to be reached by 2015 (from the 1990 base), foremost of which is to halve the proportion of the world’s people who were absolutely poor. The MDGs provide a departure from past approaches in addressing poverty. By focusing attention on a core set of interrelated goals and measurable targets, it is now easier to track progress and measure the impact of development interventions.
Unemployment, Working Poor And Vulnerable Employment To Increase Dramatically Due To Global Economic Crisis
The global economic crisis is expected to lead to a dramatic increase in the number of people joining the ranks of the unemployed, working poor and those in vulnerable employment, the International Labour Office (ILO) says in its annual Global Employment Trends report (GET) (Note 1). Based on new developments in the labour market and depending on the timeliness and effectiveness of recovery efforts, the report says global unemployment in 2009 could increase over 2007 by a range of 18 million to 30 million workers, and more than 50 million if the situation continues to deteriorate.
China and India: Convergence in Economic Growth and Social Tensions?
Do the economic policies or the “business model” adopted by China and India necessarily aggravate inequalities in income and wealth distribution, and thus exacerbate social contradictions? While not providing a definitive answer, the article examines the rising concentration of income and wealth, the trends in poverty, employment and unemployment, the nature and extent of social unrest, and how the rich are getting richer, aided by fiscal sops, and outlines a feasible alternative centred on development with equity.
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