Save the Fish! Save WTO Doha!

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 10/29/2009 07:25:00 PM
Here's an interesting article for those who think that the WTO is anti-environment. (I should also mention that those interested in matters dealing with trade and global warming should see the United Nations Environmental Programme / World Trade Organization publication appropriately entitled "Trade and Climate Change." The folks at Reuters bring us an interesting side-story about the never-ending Doha round that involves incompletion of trade talks waylaying new measures aimed at curbing overfishing. The European NGO Oceana figures big in this story, too:Proposals to rescue collapsing fish stocks by restricting fisheries...
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Free Trade: "Supply Side" International Economics?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 10/29/2009 03:19:00 PM
I've just read a timely and on-target book about dealing with America's fiscal woes which I intend to write about in greater length soon, Bruce Bartlett's The New American Economy: The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward. In the meantime, a more or less throwaway idea Bartlett made has caught my attention. In the book, Bartlett compares tax cuts promoted by "supply side" economists with the tariff cuts promoted by "free trade" economists. In a sense, this comparison is apt since we're talking about instruments for raising revenue being reduced to--in theory at least--encourage economic activity.Not to reveal too many spoilers but the gist of Bartlett's argument--remember that he was one of the most recognizable proponents of implementing "supply side" policies in the Reagan era--is that changing conditions require changing policy prescriptions. To any reasonable observer, this is self-obvious. However, the recent Bush years have put Reaganomics in a bad light as Dubya...
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Damn Right Blair Shouldn't be First EU President

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 10/26/2009 05:16:00 PM
Rumours that Tony Blair wants to become the first European Union President have now taken shape as the newswires report that Foreign Secretary David Miliband is keen to raise the former PM's case in Luxembourg, saying that Europe needs a strong political counterweight in international politics to the US and China. With EU bigwigs pressing hard and offering sweeteners so the recalcitrant Euroskeptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus signs on to the Lisbon Treaty, this issue is beginning to be earnestly debated.However, it is also noted that the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) are doggedly determined not...
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WTO Doha: Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 10/26/2009 04:44:00 PM
The title of Neil Young's second album with his now-legendary backing band Crazy Horse says its all when it comes to the Doha Round. Earlier on, we got a lot of "don't worry because previous rounds were also interminable" rhetoric. But, with nine years of gridlock and deadlock upon us, perhaps it's time for those keen on multilateral talks to show more despair.Pascal Lamy has issued a rather dry statement reaffirming what we suspect:My general impression of the past week has seen useful engagement in focused and constructive discussions. There has been no backsliding on the level of ambition. But at the same time, we have not yet seen tangible progress in the negotiations and, overall, I would say that the current speed with which we are advancing is too slow to arrive at modalities latest by early next year as we need to do to be in a position to wrap this Round next year. This is the reality. Reuters reports on major stumbling points which require quorum that aren't quite forthcoming...
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Winter of Discontent II? Royal Mail's Strike-fest

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 10/22/2009 07:06:00 PM
It surprises me that the rest of the world's press has paid very little attention to the ongoing series of just-extended strikes by the Royal Mail here in Blighty (some footage here). The Royal Mail is, of course, the national mail carrier. While there have been moves to privatize it like most other state industries, such efforts have only gone so far with the Royal Mail. Over the past few weeks, the Communications Workers Union (CWU) has called for a series of debilitating roving strikes across the nation, crippling what is an important service for practically throughout the UK. The greatest fear is that the strikes will...
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Top 10 Honest Appraisals of "Strong Dollar" Policy

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 10/22/2009 04:06:00 PM
I remain amazed by American officials' cheek in reiterating a "strong dollar" policy while, in reality, doing everything possible to undermine the dollar's value--implementing zero interest rate policies, printing Treasuries in nearly unlimited quantities, clogging the central bank's balance sheet with junk assets, etc. Here, talk is the opposite of action. In short, it is hypocrisy. It's hard to miss the tragicomedy of it all, and the joke is on those of us dumb enough to hold dollars. A long time ago, I wrote about the "Top Ten Things the Dollar is Still Useful For." Given the recent travails of one David Letterman, I think...
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Apologies for Light Posting; No Internet at Home

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 10/15/2009 06:27:00 PM
Dear readers, my apologies for the light posting these past few days. It is with some regret that I must disclose inadvertently renting a place without an Internet connection. Although I am working to fix this, expect lighter commentary until I am wired once more. The thing is that I don't want to be tied to a long broadband contract given my present circumstances. As you probably surmise by now, there's been a miscommunication between me and the landord. To paraphrase this turn of events -I VIEW THE FLAT -ME: And there is an Internet connection, right?LANDLORD: When you arrive, get the wireless code from the others in the...
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Southeast Asia FTA Mania: How 'bout US-ASEAN?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 10/15/2009 05:56:00 PM
The remarkable proliferation of free trade agreements worldwide--many of which commentators attribute to the stalling of the Doha round--is no more evident than in Southeast Asia. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has, in recent years, inked deals with Australia and New Zealand (AANZFTA), China, South Korea, Japan, and India. Not that this remarkable proliferation of trade deals has necessarily created intraregional trade; far from it so far.It is thus with some amusement that I note the granddaddy of dabblers in the Asia-Pacific region is making overtures to ASEAN in hopes of, yes, making yet another trade deal. Barack "I Grew Up in Indonesia" Obama is making noises to the effect that he will propose such an FTA when he comes around in the middle of November, Jagdish "Termites in the Trading System" Bhagwati be damned. From Agence-France Presse:The United States is beginning to lay the initial groundwork for talks to forge a free trade agreement with South-east...
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Weekender: US-EU, US-China Trade Spats

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,,, at 10/09/2009 04:07:00 PM
Ah, what's the IPE Zone without reports of trade conflicts? Just as I was scheduled to go comfortably numb heading into the weekend, I was awakened by news of two brewing trade conflicts. In both, the US is exercising the initiative. Briefly, the first concerns the US asking the WTO dispute settlement mechanism to rule on the EU's ban of American poultry exports over the use of chlorine in cleaning chickens. The following is the USTR's version of events:In 1997, the EU began prohibiting the use of PRTs [pathogen reduction treatments] to reduce microbe levels on poultry carcasses sold in the EU, stopping the shipment of virtually all U.S. poultry. Since that time, the United States has attempted to address this market access barrier without litigation.In 2002, the United States formally requested EU approval of four PRTs: chlorine dioxide, acidified sodium chlorite, trisodium phosphate, and peroxyacids, each of which was already approved for use in poultry processing by the U.S....
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"Strong Dollar" Policy as Financial Alzheimer's

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 10/09/2009 10:58:00 AM
Blame it on former US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. During the Clinton years, he began repeating the mantra of a "strong dollar" policy with considerable gusto when his predecessors were more circumspect in doing so while alluding to basically the same idea. Back then, of course, the US was actually reducing its budget deficits if not its external imbalances. The dollar has bounced around significantly since that time. If you recall, the euro once commanded only $0.85 in 2000, prompting coordinated intervention by the G7. In retrospect, the final days of the Clinton administration may come to be regarded as the last high...
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Updating Our Odds for Turkish EU Accession

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 10/08/2009 12:46:00 PM
I am one of those who think Turkey's EU bid has been, ah, coloured by less-than-objective factors. Would Europe embrace this predominantly Muslim country bordering Iraq, among others, into its fold? As the clip from Avenue Q above says, maybe everyone's a little bit racist--including this bastion of progressive thought. In somewhat less controversial diplomat-speak, the main impediments to Turkish EU accession concern its will to resolve the Cyprus question and its treatment of the Kurdish minority. This commentary from Azerbaijan's APA notes that the recent detente between Turkey and Armenia takes a backseat to these outstanding issues:Indeed, the two biggest game-changers in Ankara’s membership talks are Cyprus and the ‘Kurdish question’. Cyprus is, superficially, similar to the Armenian issue – an inter-state dispute with deep roots, which currently hinges on a closed border and diplomatic recognition. Unlike the Armenian issue, Cyprus is an EU member. Consequently, the dispute...
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Today's UK: Jesus in Cahoots w/Money Changers

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 10/07/2009 10:50:00 AM
'Emmanuel, let's go see the fireworks!' they always tell me during Guy Fawkes Night here in England when the burn effigies of the eponymous character. However, as a Roman Catholic, I usually demur. Guy Fawkes was a [freedom fighter or terrorist in today's lingo depending on your POV] who wanted to strike a blow for Catholics in England by allegedly hiding in Parliament during the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the House of Lords. Before he could carry out such an act, however, he was caught, tortured and executed. So Guy Fawkes may be as appalling a character as the celebration he spawned belittling Catholics for, what, 403 years...
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Murmurs of Asian Currency Intervention

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 10/07/2009 10:04:00 AM
Ah yes, Asian central bank intervention. With the US dollar renewing its swoon (cue the hyperventilating headlines), the newswires are agog with rumours that the usual central bank suspects are back in the game. Dow Jones for instance says South Korea has bought somewhere between one half and a billion dollars:The South Korean won ended a touch lower Wednesday on suspected central bank intervention, shedding its gains earlier in the session. The won was up 0.3% in early trade as major currencies like the euro remain well bid against the greenback, with the euro-zone currency trading above the $1.4700 resistance.Traders said the Bank of Korea may have intervened again to buy dollars throughout the session to curb the won's gains. Some traders estimated the central bank likely bought between $500 million and $1 billion, in an attempt to keep the dollar above KRW1,170. "Authorities have succeeded in keeping the dollar above KRW1,170 for four straight sessions now. We will have to...
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India to Sue EU at WTO Over Generic Drugs?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,,, at 10/06/2009 12:56:00 PM
And so it may finally come to pass: India is now indicating that it will finally force the issue of the EU confiscating generic drugs while en route to Brazil. In neither India nor Brazil is the drug losartan, used for treating high blood pressure, under patent. However, it is in the EU. More specifically, tensions arose when transshipments from India to Brazil were confiscated in the Dutch port of Rotterdam at the behest of Big Pharma. Before moving on, here's a snippet from an earlier post:On 15 January [2009] a [Dr. Reddy's Labs] shipment of the generic version of losartan was seized in transit in the Netherlands. This shipment, on its way to Brazil, was held by the customs authority at Rotterdam, which said it infringed the patent of the original drug—Cozaar. Losartan is not patented in India or Brazil. The patent for Cozaar in the Netherlands is held by DuPont, while US-based pharma multinational Merck and Co. holds the marketing rights.The LDCs mentioned above still have...
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ICANN Affirmation: US Giving Up Internet 'Control'?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 10/04/2009 07:25:00 PM
Or so says a recent Guardian headline reporting on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN's new Affirmation of Commitments. This topic should be of great interest to IPE followers who view continued US discretion over the function of the Internet as evidence of US hegemony. The new document replaces the original 1998 Memorandum of Understanding between the US Department of Commerce and ICANN--a newly-established non-profit corporation--"to privatize the management of the domain name system (DNS) in a manner that increases competition and facilitates international participation in its management."...
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The Road Now for EU's Lisbon Treaty

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 10/04/2009 11:51:00 AM
Subject the Irish to referenda until they say "yes" to the EU's Lisbon Treaty appears to be a strategy that has worked. No, this Europhile won't need to contemplate kicking Ireland out of the EU anymore. However, this does not mean that the road to implementing Lisbon is smooth sailing here on in. Ireland was the only country in the EU to subject Lisbon to a referendum. However, both Poland and the Czech Republic have not yet signed on to it. Earlier in the week, the ruling Conservative party of the Czech Republic threw a spanner in the works by challenging the constitutionality of Lisbon. Euroskeptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus has unsurprisingly indicated that he will not sign on to Lisbon until this matter is sorted out. From the Irish Times:A group of Czech senators has lodged a new constitutional court challenge against the Lisbon Treaty, alleging that it turns the EU into a “super state”. Part of the appeal rests on a claim that the guarantees on the treaty given to Ireland...
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I'm Now at the LSE Working on ASEAN Integration

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 10/02/2009 06:50:00 PM
Dear readers, you may be glad to know that I've begun a new appointment at the London School of Economics after completing my PhD from the University of Birmingham. (Hence the sporadic posting the last few days.) I foreshadowed this eventuality when I wrote about visiting London for a job interview [1, 2]. As someone who's written in some detail about Southeast Asia, you shouldn't be surprised that I will be working on matters concerning ASEAN economic integration. As the Asia watchers among you know, ASEAN is scheduled to establish a single market by 2015. Long regarded as a "talk shop," it's an exciting time for a once-dormant...
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Has Crass F1 Commercialism Turned Too Crass?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 10/02/2009 05:49:00 PM
I've been an avid follower of Formula One racing ever since I was an eight-year-old thumbing through my dad's old copies of Road & Track in search of Grand Prix reports. Way back then, F1 wasn't yet the truly global sport it is today. Live TV coverage was mostly limited to Europe and Latin America. In recent years, of course, there has been a great eastward movement of race events: Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Shanghai. F1 goes where governments keen on sporting showcases and fans keen on viewing the unmatched spectacle of fast cars, superyachts, private jets, and (sorry female readers) pit...
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