Posts tagged…Trade
Summary of the copyright trade agreement
Wed, Apr 08 2009The participants in the proposed Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)—one of the few plurilateral (non-regional) trade agreements ever negotiated outside the multilateral trade framework of GATT and WTO—have lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding their negotiations just a little by publishing a "Summary of key elements under discussion".
Although apparently intended to calm civil-liberties…
Read more…G20 communiqué an improvement
Fri, Apr 03 2009If you read the undertakings on trade and protectionism—with only a moderately skeptical eye—as a firm undertaking, it is not as "wooly" as the critics claim. On the contrary, it is a substantial improvement on other recent efforts and streets ahead of the wobbly paragraph 13 of their November 2008 communiqué.
The underlined phrases (my emphasis) are the significant parts. They make the…
A WTO ‘code’ on carbon tariffs
Thu, Apr 02 2009Gary Hufbauer, Steve Charnovitz and Jisun Kim from the Peterson Institute have produced a small book that recommends a way to deal with the vexing—but probably inevitable— conflict between future UNEP obligations to control GHG emissions and WTO provisions on keeping markets free from regulatory distortions at, and behind, the border for goods and services.
The book helpfully and accurately…
A climate rebuttal
Wed, Apr 01 2009
A strong message with good science behind it.
Rodrik’s many recipes
Tue, Mar 31 2009
Update: Prof. Rodrik says that I've got his examples exactly wrong (see his comment) and that he meant that the World Banks' "globalizers" including Vietnam have outperformed those higher on the Heritage Foundation's index. Well… that certainly makes more sense. My apologies to him—and to you—for the misunderstanding. [2 April, 2009]
I am sympathetic to Dani Rodrik's underlying thesis in his…
Competitiveness of U.S. agriculture
Tue, Mar 31 2009
As usual, the export outlook depends more on the dollar exchange-rate than on the impact of recession on underlying demand—at least, from 2010 onwards:
"The main uncertainty for the long run concerns the value of the U.S. dollar compared with currencies of other major trading countries. One possibility is that the dollar will continue to strengthen substantially, especially against the Chinese…
The Quiet Coup
Sun, Mar 29 2009If you can't let the banks fail and won't take over their assets, they own you.
"[W]e face at least two major, interrelated problems. The first is a desperately ill banking sector that threatens to choke off any incipient recovery that the fiscal stimulus might generate. The second is a political balance of power that gives the financial sector a veto over public policy [owing to the Geitner…
Volcanic explosion in Alaska
Fri, Mar 27 2009The thousands of tonnes of ash, dust and gasses that volcanos spew into the atmosphere are often a cause of short-run global cooling. The explosive eruption of Mt Redoubt, a large volcano in Alaska, in the past 24 hours seems bound to affect the northern hemisphere climate. The image (click) shows the ash plume shooting into the upper atmosphere.
Cap-and-trade to fund Obama’s tax cuts
Thu, Mar 26 2009This seems to be a plan to make the workers pay for the proposed tax cuts for the middle-class.
"The White House planned to finance the tax cuts with revenues from its proposed cap-and-trade scheme to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, but neither the House nor Senate budget committees are planning to include those measures in their legislation.
In his press conference on Tuesday evening, Mr Obama…
Lu Kewen given his orders?
Tue, Mar 24 2009How could a meeting, at the PM's official residence, with a top Chinese politburo member be 'private'? This is a bizarre statement!
"[A] spokeswoman for Mr Rudd told The Australian: 'It was a private meeting between the two. It is not the Prime Minister of Australia's role to put out a press release announcing what every visiting politician is doing.'" Extract from The Australian
Empty words won’t limit the ‘wriggle room’
Tue, Mar 24 2009Democracy ensures we get the governments we deserve.
Gideon Rachman seems to think we deserve only to be consoled for the political dilemma of G20 leaders rather than offered real solutions to the frailties of the global trade framework. He agrees the problem is the threat of 'wiggle room' protection:
"[I]f the world’s political leaders start deliberately increasing barriers to trade, they will…
58 years of Victorian temperatures
Mon, Mar 23 2009
A small experiment with the Bureau of Met's record of mean temperature anomalies for Victoria using Hadley Wickham's 'ggplot' library for R. There are 696 observations of monthly means between 1950 and 2008. The Bureau provides 'anomalies' from the monthly 1961-1990 means. How are these anomalies distributed? Are they skewed toward the upper 'tail' of the distribution, pointing to an alarming…