6,663 research outputs found
Market access advances and retreats : the Uruguay Round and beyond
No full textIn the Uruguay Round negotiations, trade distorting agricultural policies were taken up substantively for the first time in any round of multi-lateral trade negotiations. Voluntary export restraints outside the Multifibre Arrangement (MFA) were in fact eliminated. Developing countries became equal partners with developed countries. Their tariff cuts covered as large a share of imports as those of the developed countries and were deeper. Because developing country tariffs were higher to start with, their cuts will save importers more (perdollar of imports covered) than will cuts by developed countries. Tariff bindings for most developing countries, although often above applied rates, were extended to 90 percent or more of imports. Few countries agreed to give foreigners unlimited market access in services, or full national treatment in more than a few service activities. But developed countries agreed to some liberalization of cross-border provision for 70 percent of service activities (compared with 25 percent in developing countries). Less positively, although trade restrictions on agricultural products were converted to tariffs, border protection was reduced less on agricultural than on industrial products, and there was little agreement on reducing trade-affecting subsidies. The textiles and clothing agreement binds developed countries to eliminate all MFA-sanctioned restriction but allows them to largely put off doing so until 2005. Concessions to which developing countries agreed are due now. Reciprocal concessions of particular interest are due in the future (elimination of the MFA) or yet to be negotiated (liberalization of agricultural trade). Also disquieting, since the Uruguay Round, developing countries have undertaken anti-dumping cases at a rate (per dollar of imports) three times higher than that for the United States--mostly against other developing countries.Economic Theory&Research,Rules of Origin,Export Competitiveness,Environmental Economics&Policies,Globalization and Financial Integration,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Environmental Economics&Policies,Rules of Origin,Export Competitiveness,World Trade Organization
Agricultural trade liberalization in the Uruguay Round : one step forward, one step back?
No full textAfter evaluating the Uruguay Round's impact on agriculture and border protection in the next decade, the author concludes that while there was significant reform of the rules - particularly the conversion of nontariff barriers into tariffs and the reduction and binding of all tariffs - in practice, trade will probably be liberalized less than expected. The objective of the Round was to reverse protectionism and remove trade distortions. This may not be achieved in practice, at least not until further reductions are carried out in future rounds of negotiations. The major exception to this conclusion is in high-income Asian countries, where protection for major commodities will be significantly reduced. The tariffication and binding of all tariffs on agricultural products represents a significant step forward. Liberalization is implicit because countries are prohhibited from arbitrarily raising tariffs to new higher levels. But many of the newly established tariffs are so high in many countries as to effectively prohibit trade. Patterns of liberalization vary considerably by commodity and by country. Generally, the extent of liberalization was diminished by binding tariffs to the base period of 1986-88, when border protection was at a high point. In most OECD countries, this was worsened by"dirty tariffication:"the new base tariffs offered even greater protection than the nontariff barriers they replaced. Even after the commitments to tariff reductions in the Round, the ad valorem measure of the final binding tariffs will remain higher than the average rate of protection in 1982-93. A number of developing countries in East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East chose to lock in prior liberalization efforts on some products. But for most commodities, there will be little actual liberalization, since most developing countries chose to bind their tariffs at a maximum level. Even when countries reduced already-bound rates, bound tariffs remained significantly higher than current applied rates, giving countries the flexibility to raise tariffs later. The high level of bound tariffs may allow countries to apply variable tariffs below the bound level, thus failing to stabilize tariffs and improve market access. Moreover, the Round did not touch many of the worst distortions in developing countries, such as import subsidies, export taxes, state-trading monopolies, and domestic policies that implicitly tax agriculture.Trade Policy,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Export Competitiveness,Rules of Origin,Trade Policy,Rules of Origin,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research
Developing countries and the Uruguay Round : negotiations on services
No full textIn the late 1980s many developing countries experienced something of a pardigm shift: governments began to pursue more market-oriented domestic policies. There was an increasing perception that liberalizing access to service markets was a potentially low-cost, effective method for improving the quality and efficiency of domestic service sectors. These unilateral policy developments increased the incentives for developing countries as a group to participate in a multilateral agreement to liberalize trade in services. The author explores the extent to which the initial negotiating positions of developing countries are reflected in the draft General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) that has emerged from the Uruguay Round negotiations. He investigates whether the unilateral policy changes implemented by many developing countries in the late 1980s had a discernible impact on the draft GATS for developing countries. Many developing countries are pursuing regulatory reform and liberalization. To what extent will signing the GATS help governments trying to make their service sectors more efficient? Is the result of the defensive negotiating strategy that was pursued consistent with the shift toward a policy of liberalizing service markets? This issue is of particular relevance insofar as recent liberalization-plus-privatization programs in developing countries were driven by external forces rather than domestic pressure (industry) groups - which might reduce the credibility of liberalization policies. Membership in a binding multilateral agreement could help bolster reform efforts by increasing the costs of backsliding.Trade and Services,Poverty Assessment,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Governance Indicators,Rules of Origin
Commensal Microbes That Help Prevent Metabolic Disease
No full textOur intestines are colonized by a vast consortium of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that we now know have essential influences on gut health. Gut microbes are also instrumental for promoting the development of a mature immune system, but in turn, host immunity influences the types and functions of these commensal organisms. Research in the Round lab has recently shown that intestinal antibody responses select for specific organisms within the gut that prevent metabolic disease by limiting fat absorption within the intestine. In the absence of appropriate immunity in the gut, these protective microbes are lost, and hosts develop obesity and insulin resistance. Thus, health depends on a delicate balance between our immune system and resident gut microbes
Examining the effects of year-round education: a literature review
No full textPlan BYear-Round Education (YRE) has been a largely debated topic in recent years. The literature reveals varied results pertaining to the effects of year-round programs, including its promise in alleviating summer learning loss. Some research proposes that summer learning loss is a real phenomenon, while others purport that it simply doesn’t exist. Nonetheless, an increasing number of school districts are implementing forms of year-round schooling and reporting positive academic results. Further, many argue YRE’s logistic and financial benefits. Nonetheless, continued research on YRE, using growth sensitive measures, is essential to lead future educational practice
The unbalanced Ururguay Round outcome : the new areas in future WTO negotiations
No full textThe Uruguay Round involved a grand North-South bargain: The North reduced import barriers, particularly in textiles and agriculture. The South adopted new domestic regulations in such areas as services and intellectual property-changes that would lead to increased purchases from the North. In mercantilist economics, apples for apples-imports for imports. In real economics, apples for oranges. The authors argue that while the North's reduction of import barriers benefits both the North and the South, the new domestic regulations adopted by countries of the South could prove costly to those countries. To begin with, the regulations will be expensive to implement. And while the cost side of their impact is secured by a legal obligation (in the case of intellectual property rights, for example, the cost is higher prices for patented goods), the benefits side is not so secured.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Decentralization,Rules of Origin,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Trade and Regional Integration,World Trade Organization
June L. Round, Ph.D.
No full textDr Round is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the Department of Pathology. Dr Round received her BS from California Lutheran University and MS from the University of the Pacific. Dr Round earned her PhD from UCLA. Dr Round did postgraduate studies at the California Institute of Technology where she was a Merck Fellow on the Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2013, Dr Round was named a Pew Scholar, and awarded a Packard Fellowship. Using the Packard award, Dr Round researched ways to eliminate harmful bacteria from the gut while maintaining its commensal flora. In 2011, Dr Round opened her own lab whose primary research focus remains the study of host-microbe interactions, along with elucidating the molecular mechanisms involved in immunity, metabolism, obesity, IBD, colorectal and pancreatic cancer in order to devise novel techniques to exploit the power of the microbiota for therapeutics. Dr Round holds the H.A. and Edna Benning Presidential Endowed Chair
Experiments and DNS of a round jet with turbulent inlet
No full textExperimental and Direct Numerical Simulation data of a turbulent round jet fed by a turbulent pipe are compared in the near field. The Reynolds number achieved in both the experiment and the simulation, Re = 16000, allows a direct comparison of both the average and the fluctuating velocity statistics. In the experiments the jet is fed with olive oil droplets with a Stokes number St ' 1 whose dynamics is compared against the corresponding DNS simulation to asses the ability of particles to reproduce high order turbulence statistics and to asses the accumulation properties of inertial particles in the near field
The Preference for Round Number Prices
No full textThis study determines if a preference for round prices exists in the wheat market and how wheat sales react to price movements around whole dollar amounts. The results show round prices are slightly more prevalent than non-round prices and that transactions increase when price moves above a whole dollar amount.Demand and Price Analysis,
Beyond TRIPS: Why the WTO's Doha Round is Unhealthy
No full textOA Monitor ExerciseOA Monitor ExerciseOA Monitor ExerciseThe current round of World Trade Organization (wto) negotiations—the Doha Round—has significant implications for global health which have received insufficient attention from the global health community. All too often the health implications of global trade agreements are examined only after their conclusion, and are concerned only with intellectual property rights. This paper seeks to move beyond this narrow focus and elucidate the wider health implications of the Doha Round. It explores the negative effect of the Round on state capacity to provide and regulate health services in low-income countries, and the impact it will have on livelihoods among the poor and their ability to access health services. Overall the paper makes the case for greater engagement from the health community with the wto and the Doha Round negotiations beyond the customary focus on intellectual property rights
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