Recent examples of protectionism in first world countries are typically motivated by the desire to protect the livelihoods of individuals in politically important domestic industries. Whereas formerly blue-collar jobs were being lost to foreign competition, in recent years there has been a renewed discussion of protectionism due to offshore outsourcing and the loss of white-collar jobs.
Some may feel that better job choice is more important than lower goods costs. Whether protectionism provides such a tradeoff between jobs and prices has not yet reached a consensus with economists. Some point out that free trade has not benefited those in manufacturing, and that service-sector jobs, such as store clerk, do not pay as well as manufacturing used to. However, according to several surveys of professional economists, 95percent of economists support free trade, the highest percentage of agreement in any category.
18、貿易保護的世界潮流
It is the stated policy of most First World countries to eliminate protectionism through free trade policies enforced by international treaties and organizations such as the World Trade Organization. Despite this, many of these countries still place protective and/or revenue tariffs on foreign products to protect some favored or politically influential industries, or to reduce the taxation demands on their internal domestic manufacturing, making their products more competitive. The elimination of these tariffs remains a contentious peg. Their currencies to the dollar and, thus, set prices of their exports lower than they would be if the market determined the relative prices of each currency.
Protectionist quotas can cause foreign producers to become more profitable, mitigating their desired effect. This happens because quotas artificially restrict supply, so it is unable to meet demand; as a result the foreign producer can command a premium price for its products. These increased profits are known as quota rents.
19、對貿易保護的批評
Protectionism is frequently criticized as harming the people it is meant to help, instead of aiding them; these critics often support free trade. Some have denounced critics of protectionism as ideologues whose opinions are shaped more by ideology than facts. However, academic economists are generally supporters of free trade. Economic theory, under the principle of comparative advantage, suggests that the gains from free trade outweigh any losses; as free trade creates more jobs than it destroys because it allows countries to specialize in the production of goods and services in which they have a comparative advantage.
Some economists argue that free trade helps third world workers, even though they are not subject to the stringent health and labor standards of developed countries. This is because the growth of manufacturing—and of the penumbra of other jobs that the new export sector creates—has a ripple effect throughout the economy that creates competition among producers, lifting wages and living conditions. It has even been suggested that those who support protectionism ostensibly to further the interests of third world workers are being disingenuous, seeking only to protect jobs in developed countries.
20、貿易壁壘及其九大形式
A trade barrier is a general term that describes any government policy or regulation that restricts international trade. Most trade barriers work on the same principle: the imposition of some sort of cost on trade that raises the price of the traded products. If two or more nations repeatedly use trade barriers against each other, then a trade war results. The barriers can take many forms, including:
1.Import duties
2.Import licenses
3.Export licenses
4.Import quotas
5.Tariffs
6.Subsidies
7.Non-tariff barriers to trade
8.Voluntary export restraints
9.Local content requirements
Other trade barriers include differences in culture, customs, traditions, laws, language and currency.
21、貿易壁壘的危害性
Economists generally agree that trade barriers are detrimental and decrease overall economic efficiency, this can be explained by the theory of comparative advantage. In theory, free trade involves the removal of all such barriers, except perhaps those considered necessary for health or national security. In practice, however, even those countries promoting free trade heavily subsidize certain industries, such as agriculture and steel. Examples of free trade areas are:North American Free Trade Agreement （NAFTA）, South Asia Free Trade Agreement （SAFTA）, European Free Trade Associa-tion （EFTA）, European Union （EU）, Union of South American Nations（USAN）.
22、國際貿易
International trade is the exchange of goods and services across international boundaries or territories. In most countries, it represents a significant share of GDP. While international trade has been present throughout much of history, its economic, social, and political importance has been on the rise in recent centuries. Industrialization, advanced transportation, globalization, multinational corporations, and outsourcing are all having a major impact. Increasing international trade is basic to globalization. International trade is a major source of economic revenue for any nation that is considered a world power. Without international trade, nations would be limited to the goods found within their own borders. Desire to acquire foreign goods, eventually, led to the period of exploration and eventual discovery of the Americas.
23、國際貿易的五大經濟風險和六大政治風險
The risks that exist in international trade can be divided into two major groups:
Economic risks
1.Risk of insolvency of the buyer
2.Risk of protracted default—the failure of the buyer to pay the amount due within six months after the due date
3.Risk of non-acceptance
4.Surrendering economic sovereignty
5.Risk of exchange rate
Political risks
1.Risk of cancellation or non-renewal of export or import licenses
2.War risks
3.Risk of expropriation or confiscation of the importer’s company
4.Risk of the imposition of an import ban after the shipment of the goods
5.Transfer risk—imposition of exchange controls by the importer’s country or foreign currency shortages
6.Surrendering political sovereignty
24、國際貿易規範
Traditionally trade was regulated through bilateral treaties between two nations. For centuries under the belief in Mercantilism most nations had high tariffs and many restrictions on international trade. In the 19th century, especially in Britain, a belief in free trade became paramount. This belief became the dominant thinking among western nations since then despite the acknowledgement that adoption of the policy coincided with the general decline of Great Britain. In the years since the Second World War, controversial multilateral treaties like the GATT and World Trade Organization have attempted to create a globally regulated trade structure. These trade agreements have often resulted in protest and discontent with claims of unfair trade that is not mutually beneficial.
25、相對優勢的概念
In economics, the principle of comparative advantage explains how trade is beneficial for all parties involved （countries, regions, individuals and so on）, as long as they produce goods with different relative costs. Comparative advantage is a key economic concept in the study of trade.
Adam Smith had used the principle of absolute advantage to show how a country can benefit from trade if the country has the lowest absolute cost of production in a good （i.e. it can produce more output per unit of input than any other country）. The principle of comparative advantage shows that what matters is not the absolute cost, but the opportunity cost of production. The opportunity cost of production of a good can be measured as how much production of another good needs to be reduced to increase production by one more unit.
The principle of comparative advantage shows that even if a country has no absolute advantage in any product （i.e. it is not the most efficient producer for any good）, the disadvantaged country can still benefit from specializing in and exporting the product（s） for which it has the lowest opportunity cost of production.
26、絕對優勢和相對優勢
A country has an absolute advantage over another in producing a good, if it can produce that good using fewer resources than another country. For example, if one unit of labor in Scotland can produce 80units of wool or 20units of wine; while in Spain one unit of labor makes 50units of wool or 75units of wine, then Scotland has an absolute advantage in producing wool and Spain has an absolute advantage in producing wine. Scotland can get more wine with its labor by specializing in wool and trading the wool for Spanish wine, while Spain can benefit by trading wine for wool. The benefits to nations from trading are the same as to individuals:trade permits specialization, which allows resources to be used more productively.
The principle of comparative advantage extends the range of possible mutually beneficial exchanges. It is not necessary to have an absolute advantage to gain from trade, only a comparative advantage. This means that one needs only to be able to make something at a lower cost, in terms of other goods sacrificed, to oneself to gain from trade.
Limitations to the theory may exist if there is single kind of utility. The very fact that people want food and shelter already indicates that multiple utilities are present in human desire. The moment the model expands from one good to multiple goods, the absolute may turn to a comparative advantage. However, pure labor arbitrage, where one country exploits the cheap labor of another, would be a case of absolute advantage that is not mutually beneficial.
27、絕對優勢和相對優勢的應用
The two concepts of absolute advantage and comparative advantage have applications outside international trade, though this is where they are most commonly used. Suppose that two castaways on a desert island gather both fruit and grain, which they then share equally between them. Suppose that Castaway A can gather more fruit per hour than Castaway B, and therefore has an absolute advantage in this good. Nonetheless, it may well make sense for A to leave some fruit-gathering to B. This is because it is possible that B gathers fruit slightly slower than A, but gathers grain extremely slowly.
One needs to look at comparative advantage rather than absolute advantage, to discover how A and B can each best allocate their effort. If A’s initial advantage over B in grain-gathering is greater than his or her advantage in fruit-gathering, then fruit-effort should be transferred from A to B, to the point where A’s comparative advantages in the two goods are equal. Thus it may be rational for fruit to flow from B to A, despite A’s absolute advantage.
28、WTO的權力
With the emergence of the World Trade Organization （WTO）, democracy has been abandoned. It no longer matters what the democratic societies want, but what the global corporations want. Created in 1994,the WTO is already among the most powerful, reserved, undemocratic bodies on earth. It has been granted with vast powers, which include the right to judge whether laws of nations are impairments to trade, by WTO standards. They rule laws concerning public health, food safety, small business, labor standards, culture, human rights, and other social and economic procedures. If any of these laws proved to be harming to trade, the WTO can demand their nullification, or enforce very harsh sanctions. Trade should be a tool to achieve shared human aspirations, to improve standards living and to enhance the quality of life. Trade rules should not provide a license to degrade the world or force it to trade away those things that value the most, like clean air, clean water, wild life, and wild places. Yet, currently international rules can prevent America and other nations from rejecting imported products that are harvested or produced in ways that don’t meet tough environmental standards. For example, the WTO preached that the regulations under the U.S. Clean Air Act, which set high standards against polluting gasoline, did not accommodate with WTO rules. It judged that it was unfair for the foreign oil companies that produced contaminated oil. As a result, the U.S. government rewrote the regulations so that automobile can give off polluting exhaust.
29、WTO概況
The World Trade Organization （WTO） is an international organization designed to supervise and liberalize international trade. The WTO came into being on January 1,1995,and is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade （GATT）, which was created in 1948,and continued to operate for almost five decades as a de facto international organization.
The World Trade Organization deals with the rules of trade between nations at a near-global level; it is responsible for negotiating and implementing new trade agreements, and is in charge of policing member countries’ adherence to all the WTO agreements, signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. Most of the WTO’s current work comes from the 1986-1994
negotiations called the Uruguay Round, and earlier negotiations under the GATT. The organization is currently the host to new negotiations, under the Doha Development Agenda （DDA） launched in 2001.
The WTO is governed by a Ministerial Conference, which meets every two years; a General Council, which implements the conference’s policy decisions and is responsible for day-to-day administration; and a director-general, who is appointed by the Ministerial Conference. The WTO’s headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.
30、WTO的六大功能
Among the various functions of the WTO, these are regarded by analysts as the most important:
1.It oversees the implementation, administration and operation of the covered agreements.
2.It provides a forum for negotiations and for settling disputes.
3.Additionally, it is the WTO’s duty to review the national trade policies, and to ensure the coherence and transparency of trade policies through surveillance in global economic policy-making.
4.Another priority of the WTO is the assistance of developing, least-developed and low-income countries in transition to adjust to WTO rules and disciplines through technical cooperation and training.
5.The WTO is also a center of economic research and analysis: regular assessments of the global trade picture in its annual publications and research reports on specific topics are produced by the organization.
6.Finally, the WTO cooperates closely with the two other components of the Bretton Woods system, the IMF and the World Bank.
31、WTO的五大貿易準則
The WTO establishes a framework for trade policies; it does not define or specify outcomes. That is, it is concerned with setting the rules of the trade policy games. Five principles are of particular importance in understanding both the pre-1994GATT and the WTO:
1.Non-discrimination. It has two major components: the most favored nation （MFN） rule, and the national treatment policy. Both are embedded in the main WTO rules on goods, services, and intellectual property, but their precise scope and nature differ across these areas. The MFN rule requires that a WTO member must apply the same conditions on all trade with other WTO members, i.e. a WTO member has to grant the most favorable conditions under which it allows trade in a certain product type to all other WTO members. “Grant someone a special favor and you have to do the same for all other WTO members.” National treatment means that imported and locally-produced goods should be treated equally （at least after the foreign goods have entered the market） and was introduced to tackle non-tariff barriers to trade （e.g. technical standards, security standards et al. discriminating against imported goods）.
2.Reciprocity. It reflects both a desire to limit the scope of free-riding that may arise because of the MFN rule, and a desire to obtain better access to foreign markets. A related point is that for a nation to negotiate, it is necessary that the gain from doing so be greater than the gain available from unilateral liberalization; reciprocal concessions intend to ensure that such gains will materialize.
3.Binding and enforceable commitments. The tariff commitments made by WTO members in a multilateral trade negotiation and on accession are enumerated in a schedules （list） of concessions. These schedules establish “ceiling bindings”: a country can change its bindings, but only after negotiating with its trading partners, which could mean compensating them for loss of trade. If satisfaction is not obtained, the complaining country may invoke the WTO dispute settlement procedures.
4.Transparency. The WTO members are required to publish their trade regulations, to maintain institutions allowing for the review of administrative decisions affecting trade, to respond to requests for information by other members, and to notify changes in trade policies to the WTO. These internal transparency requirements are supplemented and facilitated by periodic country-specific reports （trade policy reviews） through the Trade Policy Review Mechanism （TPRM）. The WTO system tries also to improve predictability and stability, discouraging the use of quotas and other measures used to set limits on quantities of imports.
5.Safety valves. In specific circumstances, governments are able to restrict trade. There are three types of provisions in this direction: articles allowing for the use of trade measures to attain noneconomical objectives; articles aimed at ensuring “fair competition”; and provisions permitting intervention in trade for economic reasons.
32、國際貨幣基金組織及其目的
The International Monetary Fund （IMF） was established in 1944,with certain goals in mind. One of these was to stabilize exchange rates and supervise the reconstruction of the world’s international payment system. Countries contributed to a pool which could be borrowed from, on a temporary basis, by countries with payment imbalances.
The IMF describes itself as “an organization of 185countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty”. With the exception of North Korea, Cuba, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Tuvalu, and Nauru, all UN member states participate directly in the IMF. Some are represented by other member states on a 24-member Executive Board but all member countries are members of the IMF’s Board of Governors.
33、對國際貨幣基金組織的批評
Two criticisms from economists have been that financial aid is always bound to so-called “Conditionalities”, including Structural Adjustment Programs. Conditionalities, which are the economic performance targets established as a precondition for IMF loans, it is claimed, retard social stability and hence inhibit the stated goals of the IMF, while Structural Adjustment Programs lead to an increase in poverty in recipient countries.
Typically the IMF and its supporters advocate a Keynesian approach. As such, adherents of supply-side economics generally find themselves in open disagreement with the IMF. The IMF frequently advocates currency devaluation, criticized by proponents of supply-side economics as inflationary. Secondly they link higher taxes under “austerity programmes” with economic contraction.
That said, the IMF sometimes advocates “austerity programmes”, increasing taxes even when the economy is weak, in order to generate government revenue and balance budget deficits, which is the opposite of Keynesian policy. These policies were criticized that by converting to a more Monetarist approach, the fund no longer had a valid purpose, as it was designed to provide funds for countries to carry out Keynesian reflations.
34、世界銀行組織及其五大機構
The World Bank Group （WBG） is a family of five international organizations responsible for providing finance and advice to countries for the purposes of economic development and eliminating poverty. The Bank came into formal existence on 27December 1945following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference （1 July—22July 1944）. Commencing operations on 25June 1946,it approved its first loan on 9 May 1947（$250mto France for postwar reconstruction, in real terms the largest loan issued by the Bank to date）. Its five agencies are:
1.International Bank for Reconstruction and Development （IBRD）
2.International Development Association （IDA）
3.International Finance Corporation （IFC）
4.Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency （MIGA）
5.International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes （ICSID）