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国际贸易壁垒和解决方案 这篇文章试图带来光明,一般目前国际贸易壁垒面临最近的例子和解决方案。 国家之间的贸易已经存在了很长一段时间了。亚洲和欧洲之间的贸易标志着这个事实,莫里森(2006年,pp.314 - 2006)检查这两个大陆长期以来从事贸易。他还表明,随着时间的推移,国际贸易已经走了很长的路到体积和国与国之间的贸易模式。莫里森(2006)已经被世界贸易组织(WTO)的数据(2004年,引用了2003年国际贸易统计数据,2002年世界贸易发展)从世贸组织的官方网站,亚洲的全球商品出口中所占的份额逐渐增加,美国北部的份额略有下降和西欧的份额已从2001年下台,但不是多达1990年。莫里森进一步表明,从2000年到2002年,中国的出口和进口增长了30%,今天,中国是世界上最大的交易商之一。因此,我们可能会注意到,国际贸易起着非常重要的作用在世界经济全球化的趋势。 理解“贸易保护主义”
保护主义是“蓄意使用或鼓励限制进口,使相对效率低下的国内生产商竞争成功地与外国生产商或保护和保存这些行业和生产者认为重要的国家利益。”(麦克拉肯,2005)
This essay attempts to bring to light, the general barriers international trade faces presently and its solutions with recent examples.
Coughlin et al (1988) state that Protectionist Trade Policies are meant to improve the position of domestic products as compared to its foreign equivalents, and that this may be done through various policies - by increment of the market price of the foreign product or by barring access of foreign products to the domestic market. They explain that protectionist trade policies aim to expand domestic production in the protected industries for the benefit of the owners, suppliers and workers of the protected industry. However this may lead to a downturn in the consumption of protected goods due to either associated rise in its price or consumers start using less of other goods as a result of the decline in outputs and increase in prices. Coughlin et al hence, argue that domestic consumers are said to be impaired as the price of the protected goods keep increasing. Hence, imposing of tariffs lead to domestic producers' and the government's gain, while domestic consumers' and other domestic producers' loss. These trade policies also affect foreign interests.
The theory of Absolute Advantage suggests specialization through free trade as it benefits the consumers if they can afford foreign-made products at a comparatively cheaper price than domestic products. (Warhurst, 2009) Coughlin et al (1998, cited in Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 1817) demonstrated that two countries viz. England and Portugal were shown to produce the same two goods wine and cloth and the only production costs were labour costs. It was shown that England was comparatively less efficient to produce both goods as it was comparatively costlier to produce those goods in England. Therefore, it was said in this demonstration that Portugal had an absolute advantage in these two goods. According to this example, labour was the only resource considered to produce these goods when labour is among the many resources used to produce these goods. Also, the production costs of the additional units have been taken to be constant in this demonstration, but unit production as mentioned by Coughlin et al here, is subject to decrease or increase depending on the production. Elwell (2005) suggests that the gains from trade are mutual despite either nations' absolute advantage or disadvantage in the efficiency with which they produce all tradable goods. The difference in rate of production of one good must be limited for the expansion of another good among countries such that there is a comparative advantage among the two nations such that both benefit efficiently from trade. A nation is not to compete but look at the mutual benefits from trade. Therefore, each country must produce what they do best relatively. Comparative advantage is evident in activities that make use of profuse productive resource. Elwell explains this statement with the help of an example of the U.S. and China. He states that China, with a relative abundance of low skilled labor would find it beneficial to engage in production that requires low skilled labor, in trade. On the other hand, the U.S. specializes in production of goods that require high skilled labor. Also, the production of goods can be practiced such that a part of the good is produced in one country while another country can deal in producing another part required for the production of the good hence practicing the theory of comparative advantage. For example - American hardware companies send their products to China since it is much more cost effective due to low waged labor in China. This acts as a comparative advantage for both countries. Due to political motives, various governments still try to obstruct the system of free trade in spite of its acceptance globally, in Henderson's view.
Under the quota system as suggested by Coughlin et al (2009), the prices increase in the home market and this enables domestic producers to increase production and consumers to reduce consumption. Coughlin et al further state that the quota generates a revenue gain to the owner of import licenses. Subsidizing domestic producers is one way to restrict terms under which foreigners can compete in the home market as suggested by Coughlin et al (2009). They also state that restricting access to foreign money to buy foreign goods is known as Exchange Control.
Example - Karugia et al (2009) state that the main type of non tariff barriers faced in East Africa during Maize and Beef trade were customs documentation and administrative procedures, quality inspection, transiting procedures and immigration, which are all cumbersome and expensive. He states that these barriers reduce the possible benefits of trade preferences, lead to huge welfare loss as cost of business activities increase. As a result of this, trade among the East African nations, in beef and maize was found to be very low as Karugia et al suggest. Policies like the Tariff-Rate Quota help implement trade practice between countries in a healthy manner as it not only implements low tariff prices but also keeps a check on the quantity of products being imported. According to TRQ, a low tariff is set against imports of a fixed quantity and if the quantity of the imports increases, a higher tariff is set against the goods. Sumner et al have given the example of United States that follows this policy for various products like beef, sugar, peanuts and other dairy products. In these cases, the initial tariff is said to be low but the over-quota tariff is very highly priced and in some cases, even unaffordable.
There are some basic solutions for the removal of trade barriers put forward by Crean (2009, ed. Baldwin and Evenett, 2009) one of which is G20 leadership - such that countries lift each other up rather than pull each other down through protectionism. He adds that the G20 can play an important role in encouraging open trade flows between countries. Here is a notable example as proposed by Crean - To help open markets in Washington, Australia helped build support to execute considerable measures last year with the agreement of G20 leaders by putting forward an Action Plan for the purpose of restoring growth, addressing the progress of the WTO Doha negotiations and to put a halt to protectionism. He proposes, it is important to avoid inefficient incentives while crafting the fiscal and industry support packages and also, huge subsidies will give rise to competitive response. Crean further suggests, it is of utmost importance especially in these times post economic crisis to preserve open trade flow among nations. He adds growth and prosperity are transmitted within countries through trade. He mentioned, according to Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) analysis, a 10 percent increase in trade is associated with a 4% rise in per capita income, however, the crisis has now brought about a slowdown in trade. World Bank has predicted that 2009 will be the first year in over a quarter century in which international trade is forecast to fall, Crean sites. He has spoken of the export statistics of China and Japan and certain other countries and noted how drastically the crisis has affected the trade of these countries. He argues that protectionism gradually only lessens competitiveness, growth, employment and real incomes.
I am now going to focus on the barriers to international trade in businesses in the U.S. and EU and talk about the measures they have decided on taking to attain a healthier global trading system bearing in mind the current economic climate. Also, I will further add what steps Canada and EU have decided on taking to address the trade barriers. The USTR states that exports contribute about 13 per cent to the US Economy; therefore, measures by the USTR and the Government for the sake of the economy of the country, is necessary. The report, as USTR suggests, states what measures could be taken by the United States Trade Representative to embark upon these barriers. After reading this article, I have tried to pull together the matter in brief. The article suggests that the USTR is reviewing the functioning of the existing trade agreements, including enforcement of labour and environment provisions. The USTR is going to prioritize the trade barriers put forward by the report, in order of importance and hence, deal with each barrier according to relevance tackling the most vital barrier at first. They are planning on handling these cases by multilateral and bilateral dispute resolution. The USTR is also working with the Congress to improve the trading system in the country. The US Trade Representative Ron Kirk (2009) proposed the opening of new markets around the world. The USTR suggests that manufacturers and service providers and the American workers should make use of the benefits of previous trade agreements through strong enforcement. Kirk, in 2009, as cited in the USTR (2009) suggests that the proposals made will also help in the economic recovery procedure and incremental gains in market access and in reduction of trade barriers and thus, will help Americans attain good salary jobs. Castle (2009) states that European exporters have faced many new trade barriers since the global economic crisis however, measures to prevent protectionism have been taken by the EU. He adds that global trade volumes in August 2009 were 18 per cent below its peak in 2008 due to the economic crisis. Castle (2009, cited in Ashton, 2009) states that classical tariff increases, import and export bans or ceilings, non-tariff barriers and government procurement and investment measures are the major trade barriers faced in the EU with classical barriers alone affecting about 5 per cent of the EU exports. Another trade restricting measure according to the Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2009 in the US that states that it aims to protect US customers and businesses from defective products manufactured abroad, is, another barrier between EU and US trade as Castle (cited in Ashton, 2009) has mentioned. Castle further cites, one of the bills state that it is unsafe to grant unfair tax disadvantages to subsidiaries of the EU companies in the US in the insurance sector.
The EU and U.S. are each other's most important trading and investment partners and hence it is important for these two sides to work towards the reduction of these barriers. As cited by Palmer (2009), the two sides have agreed on meeting for identification of labeling, energy efficiency and nanotechnology for increased cooperation on regulation; and that these two sides have plans for a new US-EU Energy Council and also to set up a dialogue dealing in creating jobs in various sectors such as IT and energy. Cohen (2009) suggests that there is a Canada-EU Free Trade deal expected by 2011 as intended by Former Quebec premier Pierre Marc Johnson. 总结——CONCLUSION Trade should satisfy the theory of comparative advantage benefitting both nations engaged in trading activities. It has a positive effect on economies, both economically and socially, but it also has its ill effects for example, as Elwell (2005) suggests, while it helps benefit the economic condition of relatively efficient activities, it hampers the relatively less competent activities. However, impressing barriers prevent nations from economic gain. Elwell further suggests that tariffs, quotas and non tariff barriers result in a loss of the exporting sector and gain of the importing sector. But, it is also important to note that this may lead to an increase in prices and reduced goods available to the consumer, thereby, leading to the downfall of the economy. It is true that it is important for the domestic industry to protect, improve and sell their products but it is also important to note the profits foreign goods bring to both economies and thus, it is important for the benefit of every economy to work towards addressing the barriers they face today.
Trade, either in the form of import or export contributes largely to the economy of the country. Just like the U.S. Government and the U.S. Trade Representatives are working hand in hand to fight the barriers hence working towards the security of the country's economy, other economies should also address their respective barriers. The G 20 must also help trade flow in developing countries. Developed countries should aim to remove all trade barriers and try giving up on protectionist measures like The EU and The U.S. have pledged to do for the economic benefits of either country. Also, ideas like the free trade deal between Canada and the EU should be encouraged and worked upon by other nations as well, hence, encouraging trade among nations which in turn, shall benefit the global economy. Elwell, C. K., 2005 Trade, trade barriers and trade deficits: Implications for U.S. economic welfare [e-book] Available at [Last Accessed 06 December 2009]
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