TRADE IN GOODS

As international trade became more sophisticated, the ‘traditional' trade in goods topics seemed to be entering an extinction phase and be substituted by other forms of trade regulation, such as technical barriers or sanitary measures. However, in recent years and for different reasons, many of them reclaimed their relevance. This chapter also discusses an essential tool for the operation of trade in goods, which is tariff classification, as well as an often overlooked but fundamental issue in trade in goods regulation, which are the rules of origin. Global value chain operations could not be conceived without rules of origin. Finally, the COVID 19 pandemic revealed how vulnerable international trade could be to import and export restrictions, such as quotas or licences, and how important trade facilitation could be to bolster trade and even to save lives. © Oxford University Press 2022. All rights reserved.

Impact of US-China trade war on Asian economies: neural network multilayer perceptron approach

PurposeThis study aims to find the impact of the trade war between the USA and China on Asian economies. Apart from macroeconomic variables associated with trade, this study explicitly creates a trade war scenario and trade war participant dummies. Using the neural network multilayer perceptron, this study checks for the causal linkages between the predictors and target output for the panel of Asian economies and the USA.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual model of the after effects of trade war in a quadrant is developed. Variables related to trade and tariffs are included in the study for a panel of 19 Asian economies. The feedforward structure of neural network analysis is used to identify strong and weak predictors of trade war.FindingsThe hidden layers of the multilayer perceptron reveal the inconsistency in linkages for the predictors' services exports, tariff measures, anti-dumping measures, trade war scenario dummy with gross domestic product. The findings suggest that to curtail the impact of the trade war on Asian economies, predictors with neural evidence must be paid due weightage in policy determination and trade agreements.Originality/valueThe study applies a novel and little explored AI/ML technique of Neural Network analysis with training of 70% observations. The paper will provide opportunity for other researchers to explore techniques of AI/ML in trade studies.

Consumer Preferences for Smart Energy Services Based on AMI Data in the Power Sector

Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is becoming increasingly popular as an efficient means of energy demand management. By collecting energy data through AMI, it is possible to provide users with information that can induce them to change their behavior. To ensure that AMI continues to expand and to encourage the use of energy data, it is important to increase consumer participation and analyze their preferred service attributes. This study utilized a choice experiment to analyze consumer preferences for and acceptance of smart energy services based on AMI data. The results of a mixed logit model estimation show that consumers prefer the electricity information service for individual households and the social safety-net service among convergence services. A scenario analysis confirms that monetary compensation to offset any additional charges is important to maintain the level of consumer acceptance. These empirical findings offer insights for policymakers and companies seeking to develop policies and similar services.

Water Service Quality Networks against COVID-19

Within the framework of Sustainable Development, Social Work has established areas and fields of intervention around which social services have been developed, mainly those related to water care with respect to quality of life and subjective well-being, determinants of evaluation of public policies, environmental programs and attention strategies for migrant communities [4]. In this scheme, Environmental Social Work acts as a mediator of supply policies and civil demands considering the limitations of space, time and infrastructure, but the generality of its dimensions, categories and variables inhibit the analysis of the subjectivity inherent in the objective indicators. of sustainability. [...]it is necessary to delve into the psychological, cognitive and behavioral dimension, in order to be able to establish the needs, expectations, demands and individual or community capacities in the face of environmental crises and the shortage of water resources [5]. From This Nomenclature, It Is Possible To Notice That Sustainable Development Is A Central Issue Or Node That Involves Climate Change, Global Warming, The Greenhouse Effect And Carbon Emissions As Environmental Factors That Have A Direct Impact On The Quality Of The Environment. Air And Respiratory Health In Economically Developed Cities And Economies, But In Addition To Air Pollution, Water And Municipal Waste Problems Are Central Issues In The Economic And Urban Periphery Because The Natural Resources Of The Southern Hemisphere They Are Transformed Into Satisfiers For The Northern Hemisphere, As Is The Case Of Crude Oil And Its Derivatives [5].

The Effect of Foreign Direct Investment and Trade Openness on Economic Growth: Evidence from Five African Countries

Through some empirical studies, the flow of FDI and trade openness have proven to support economic growth in developing countries. This paper examines the significance of FDI and trade openness in five African countries (Ghana, Morocco, Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia). The study employed the panel data analysis method using data from the World Bank for the period 1994-2019 for the five selected countries. The result from the Random effect model indicated that FDI positively supports growth, whereas trade openness harms economic growth in these countries. The outcome further revealed that Uganda enjoys more significance than the other countries using the countries' dummies through the pooled model estimation. We recommend that various governments focus more on exports, reduce imports, attract more FDI through incentives, and create a regulatory environment that is friendly to FDI.

Study on the Spatial Evolution of China's Pulp and Paper Product Import Trade and Its Influencing Factors

The purpose of this research is to study the changes in the market structure of China's pulp and paper product imports. In particular, the import trade environment and market layout of Chinese pulp and paper products have changed under the international context of the coronavirus pandemic and the Sino-US trade dispute and the domestic policy context of zero imports of Chinese waste paper. This study attempts to fill the gap regarding the influencing factors of market structure, while contributing new ideas on China's trade in pulp and paper products. Based on pulp and paper product import and export trade data from 2005 to 2021, a trade gravity model was used to explore the changes in the share of China's trade partners for pulp and paper product imports and their influencing factors. The results indicated that the outbreak of COVID-19 led to a significant increase in China's imports of packaging paper products, bringing about an increase in Indonesia's status as a partner in China's pulp and paper product trade. The US-China trade dispute had an impact on pulp and paper product trade between the two countries, with China's tax countermeasures causing the US to lose its status as a trading partner in China for pulp and paper product imports. The center of gravity for paper product imports has moved from the US and Japan to Indonesia and Russia. The restrictions on waste paper imports have shifted the focus of China's paper raw material imports, with the US no longer being the main importer of China's paper raw materials. Specifically, the main importers of wood pulp are Brazil and Chile, while the main importers of waste paper pulp are Thailand and Malaysia. In the future, China needs to continuously strengthen dialogue with the United States to resolve trade disputes and create a favorable environment for trade in pulp and paper products. At the same time, China's paper enterprises should strengthen the expansion of the Southeast Asian market and reduce dependence on the US market, and China should continue to improve the waste paper recycling system and improve the utilization rate of domestic waste paper.

The heterogeneous effects of trade policy on trade resilience during the 2020 trade downturn

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in large and varying declines in bilateral trade flows. This study investigates whether these diverse effects can be explained by differences in trade costs as measured by pre-existing trade policies (e.g. tariffs, non-tariff measures and trade agreements). Results indicate that trade flows subject to higher trade costs declined more than average during 2020. The results also show that trade costs have heterogeneous effects depending on the thickness of trade relationships, with small exporters being relatively more affected by the presence of trade costs. We interpret the results as evidence that the fall in demand during 2020 caused higher-cost and less-established suppliers to be squeezed out of international markets. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Tariffs: Case of Jordan

This study examines the impact of macroeconomic variables in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic on tariffs in Jordan for the period 2003–2020, by using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, in order to reveal the long-run relationship between macroeconomic variables and tariffs. However, it became clear that all these macroeconomic variables contributed to tariffs in Jordan, and it was proven that there is a long-term relationship between them and tariffs. On one hand, GDP negatively affected tariffs in Jordan, on the other hand, imports and COVID-19 pandemic positively affected tariffs. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

A Scholarly Review of Global Business Indications and Economic Trends: Understanding International Competitiveness, Economic Globalization, and Digitization Through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the New Normal

The nature and evolution of global businesses and international economics have experienced far volatility than social construction of free trade since early 1800's. Generally, trade theories investigated between mainstream international economics and global businesses support multiple aspects of politics, geography, culture, ethnic studies, anthropological perspectives, and sociological ideas. Within these dimensions remain interspersed boundless ethical values and ethical concepts of doing global business successfully. The current framework of economic globalization is examined by challenging assumptions spread across themes of internationalism, entrepreneurialism, colonialism, imperialism, and harmonization of trade organizations and agreements. Multiple aspects of globalization are analyzed through institutionalization and several ideological developments. We examine ethical standards and codes of international free trade and global economics of institutions and organizations. Global dimensions of digitization of business practices and international competitiveness of corporations are explored through themes of artificial intelligence, sustainability, automation, robotification, and organizational structures and designs. We conclude with discussions of impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on technological transformations, digital trends, and virtualization of contemporaneous international market management and sustainable development of communities.

Reducing Volume to Increase Capacity—Measures to Reduce Transport Energy for Recyclable Waste Collection

The production of municipal waste is increasing all over the world. Although a significant part of the waste is collected as commingled waste, much of it is recyclable if disposed of properly. Thus, separate deposition and collection plays an extremely important role today, more than ever, not only in terms of preventing pollution but also from the point of view of recycling as a driver of circular economy and of efficient use of resources. This work is focused on the development of compaction equipment to be applied to containers, which allows a more efficient approach to the process of collecting waste for recycling. As a management option, recycling depends on collective behavior which is based on individual acts. Therefore, individual use of plastic/metal compaction systems can help meet recycling targets, even as a complement to conventional bins. Thus, herein a proposal is presented for a plastic/metal collection station with a built-in compaction element that allows for the compacting of the separated waste, individually, in an easily accessible drawer. Sorting and compacting waste before collection will result in a reduction of the number of collection/transport stops, which will also translate into higher energy efficiency, cost savings, optimization of the transported tons/km ratio, and profitability.

The Impact of Uncertainty on Trade: The Case for a Small Port

In the present paper, we show how uncertainty emanating from fluctuations in economic uncertainty, news-based uncertainty, and geopolitical risks affect the number of containers exported from Thailand via Penang Port, Malaysia. Our sample extends from January 2009 to May 2020 from three main entry points in the Northern Peninsular Malaysia–Thailand Border: Padang Besar, Surat Thani, and Bukit Kayu Hitam. Two modes of transportation of containers are mainly used for export purposes, namely, road and rai. This study examines the nonlinear effect of uncertainty on trade by employing a two-regime Markov regime-switching approach. The empirical results show that, overall, uncertainty significantly affects the movement of containers in the high-uncertainty regime. Therefore, small ports must continue to diversify their client base to cushion the impact of fluctuations in global trade due to uncertainty.

Household Electricity Consumer Classification Using Novel Clustering Approach, Review, and Case Study

There is an increasing demand for electricity on a global level. Thus, the utility companies are looking for the effective implementation of demand response management (DRM). For this, utility companies should know the energy demand and optimal household consumer classification (OHCC) of the end users. In this regard, data mining (DM) techniques can give better insights and support. This work proposes a DM-technique-based novel methodology for OHCC in the Indian context. This work uses the household electricity consumption (HEC) of 225 houses from three districts of Maharashtra, India. The data sets used are namely questionnaire survey (QS), monthly energy consumption (MEC), and tariff orders. This work addresses the challenges for OHCC in energy meter data sets of the conventional grid and smart grid (SG). This work uses expert classification and clustering-based classification methods for OHCC. The expert classification method provides four new classes for OHCC. The clustering method is employed to develop eight different classification models. The two-stage clustering model, using K-means (KM) and the self-organizing map (SOM), is the best fit among the eight models. The result shows that the two-stage clustering of the SOM with the KM model provides 88% of overlap-free samples and 0.532 of the silhouette score (SS) mean compared to the expert classification method. This study can be beneficial to the electricity distribution companies for OHCC and can offer better services to consumers.

Trade policies, firm strategies, and adaptive reconfigurations of global value chains

The recent U.S.–China trade conflicts cast new light on the role of trade policies in global value chains (GVCs). Contrary to the expectation that trade restrictions lead to the shrinking or disruption of GVCs, our article posits that the unintended consequences of trade policies (both restrictions and trade agreements) are amplified by the prevalence and organizational complexity of GVCs. We anchor our argument in the historical evolution of three classic GVCs – apparel, automobiles, and electronics – from the 1970s to the present. Our framework highlights the dynamic interaction between GVC-oriented trade policies and firm strategies, which often has counterintuitive implications in terms of upgrading outcomes for the countries and companies involved in these GVCs. While trade policies often provide momentum for an adaptive reconfiguration of GVCs, firms’ strategic actions are crucial in modifying the geographic and organizational features of GVCs in ways that support their longevity. Firm strategies can mediate the effect of trade policies on GVC configurations in two ways: (1) firms can accommodate trade restrictions and trade agreements by altering supply and demand locations and by switching supply-chain partners;and (2) firms pursue diverse strategies to upgrade their value chain activities, leveraging the shifting geographies associated with new trade rules.

Disruptions and Risk Management in Supply Chains Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Purpose: The article presents an analysis of the weaknesses of the current approach used in risk management during the COVID-19 pandemic. Referring to the previous (pre-pandemic) theoretical considerations, an assessment of the activities applied in companies is presented. Design/Methodology/Approach: The first part of the article presents the theoretical aspects of risk management. The next part is discussing the survey results. The final part presents the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the details of changing attitudes towards the sphere of risk management. Findings: Despite numerous literature studies, problems related to risk management have been marginalized for decades. This is confirmed by, for example, surveys. COVID-19 has forced a radical change in attitude to issues related to risk management. Practical Implications: The directions of changes in the area of economic policy at the EU and US level as well as changes in the attitude of managers were indicated. Originality/Value: The paper shows the scale, direction and intensity of changes under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Tariffs: Case of Jordan

This study examines the impact of macroeconomic variables in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic on tariffs in Jordan for the period 2003–2020, by using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, in order to reveal the long-run relationship between macroeconomic variables and tariffs. However, it became clear that all these macroeconomic variables contributed to tariffs in Jordan, and it was proven that there is a long-term relationship between them and tariffs. On one hand, GDP negatively affected tariffs in Jordan, on the other hand, imports and COVID-19 pandemic positively affected tariffs. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The Sino - U.S. Trade War And Way Forward For US President Joe Biden

China and the U.S. have the biggest markets in the world. They both established diplomatic links in 1979 and the bilateral trade was developed swiftly just after China joined the United Nations Organization (UNO) in 1971. America is the Chinese top one export market and the most significant source of foreign investment. However, the main worldwide economic event in 2018 was the Sino-U.S. trade war. In March 2018, the U.S. threatened to levy high duties on Chinese imports. The equivocal shift of import and export of the Sino-US trade relations were distinctively caught in China's trade surplus with the United States, which brought divergence to the trade relations. Consequently, the Sino-U.S. trade imbalance was the main reason behind why Trump incited the trade war. This paper actually analytically discusses the phenomenon of Sino-U.S. trade war as it is considered as a test case for the new American President Joe Biden.

Analysis on the Steady Growth Effect of China’s Fiscal Policy from a Dynamic Perspective

Under the goal of a “new development pattern”, it is of great practical significance to accurately identify the economic growth effect of fiscal and tax policies. This paper constructs a TVP-FAVAR model to measure the economic effects of China’s fiscal and tax policies at the aggregate and structural levels. The results show that the reduction in total tax has a positive effect on real variables such as output and consumption;especially at the present stage, the promotion effect of total tax reduction on economic growth is relatively strong, but the stimulation effect on price is relatively weak. Further, the tax structure in which the ratio of direct tax to total tax increases and the ratio of indirect tax to total tax decreases is more conducive to the increase in output and consumption, and will not strongly stimulate the rise of price level. Therefore, at this stage, China should continue to vigorously implement the tax reduction policy and ensure the continuity of the tax reduction policy. At the same time, we should continue to optimize the tax structure and give better play to the regulatory role of fiscal and tax policies in income redistribution, so as to achieve the goal that fiscal and tax policies help build a “new development pattern” and promote high-quality economic development.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and International Trade: Temporary Turbulence or Paradigm Shift?

Global financial transactions as well as information and communications technology services have also declined significantly.6 Moreover, according to the recent United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) assessment, which is actually based on conservative assumptions, the COVID-19 outbreak will cause global foreign direct investments (service mode 3) to shrink by 5–15% in 2020.7 The demand side has also been affected as consumers around the globe are unwilling at the moment to spend their money. In particular, some countries have decided to establish export controls over certain medical products (eg medical ventilators, certain drugs, personal protective equipment) in the form of temporary export bans or the addition of licensing/authorisation requirements.8 Other countries, concerned with the security of their food supplies, have introduced export restrictions over specific agricultural products, and these decisions have generated genuine concerns about potential food shortages in the global market in the second part of the year.9 The problem appears sufficiently serious that it has led to a joint statement by the Directors-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization (WTO), in which they noted that “uncertainty about food availability can spark a wave of [additional] export restrictions, creating a shortage on the global market”. [...]a number of states have recently removed or suspended some trade controls. [...]Argentina has suspended its anti-dumping duties on imports of certain medical products from China, while Canada has temporarily eliminated tariffs for specific categories of products if they are imported by public health agencies, hospitals and testing sites, or for use by first-response organisations.11 The aim of all of these measures is to ensure that there are sufficient supplies to domestic markets (either by decreasing exports or increasing imports).

Trump Ended WTO Dispute Settlement. Trade Remedies are Needed to Fix it

Unhappy with the rulings of the WTO dispute settlement system, which disproportionately targeted US use of trade remedies, the United States ended the entire system in 2019. There are multiple hurdles to agreeing to new terms of trade remedy use and thus potentially restoring some form of binding dispute settlement. First, a change would affect access to policy flexibility by the now large number of users of trade remedies. Second, although China's exports are the overwhelming target of trade remedies, exporters in other countries increasingly find themselves caught up in trade remedy actions linked to China. Third, critical differences posed by China's economic model may call for new rules for trade remedies, but no consensus on those rules has emerged. Even some of the most promising reforms have practical limitations, create additional challenges, or may be politically unviable.

CONDITIONS AND FACTORS FOR ENERGY SUPPLY COMPANY BUSINESS PROCESS ORGANIZATION CONCERNING PAYMENT ACCEPTANCE

In the prevailing era, the most relevant issues seem to be the development of an adaptive policy of an energy sales company to ensure financial stability and sustainable development in the course of energy sales activities. This study continues the cycle of the author's general research devoted to the methodological issues of an adaptive policy development in relation to the key business processes of energy sales activities implemented by an energy sales company, the specifics of its work as a guaranteed energy (capacity) supplier, etc. The article examines the conditions and factors that determine the need to develop an adaptive system for an energy sales company to organize payment acceptance. When it comes to the business process organization for payment acceptance, energy retail companies need to take into account the conditions and factors that set the long-term trend in this area: changes in legislation, the strength of market competition and the trends of the payment acceptance market infrastructure, the ongoing coronavirus infection pandemic, and the ongoing technological change. Management decision-making should be based on the principles of economic feasibility and efficiency in conjunction with legal requirement compliance. Power supply companies need to use the conditions and factors highlighted in the study to build up competitive advantages in the field of payment acceptance organization, to maintain and develop their market position, which can only be done through an adaptation policy in this area. For the purpose of economic efficiency increase concerning organization payment acceptance business process, energy sales companies need to plan the indicators of the payment acceptance system, implement measures for their implementation (achieve target values), carry out the analysis of the achieved results and their reflection, which will ensure timely and reasonable acceptance of management decisions.