Abstract
The foreign trade policies of the industrialized countries have become increasingly complex. The states in question do not apply uniform policies to all other countries but operate different arrangements for different groups of countries. The divergencies can be easily adduced as evidence in support of charges of discrimination against one group of countries for the benefit of another group. The state trading countries for instance claim—in partial explanation of their relatively small export achievements—that the foreign trade policy of the industrialized western countries puts them at a disadvantage compared with the developing countries. Is this charge justified? The following study answers this question for the EC which is the most important market for both these groups of countries in the industrialized world.
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References
J.M. Fleming, S.C. Tsiang: Changes in Competitive Strength and Export Shares of Major Industrial Countries, IMF Staff Papers, Vol. 5 (1956/57), p. 219. On the shortcomings of this indicator cf. A. Lenel: Zur Konkurrenz der Entwicklungs- und Staatshandelsländer auf den Absatzmärkten der EG (On the competition between the developing and state trading countries in the EC markets), doctor thesis, Berlin 1980, p. 8 ff. and 54 ff.
The idea of the preference hierarchy was first evolved by T. Murray: Trade Preferences for Developing Countries, London 1977, p. 119. It was applied extensively to the EC by A. Borrmann, C. Borrmann, M. Stegger: Das Allgemeine Zollpräferenzsystem der EG (The Generalized System of Tariff Preferences of the EC), Hamburg 1979, p. 158.
For a discussion of the differences between the EC’s generalized and special preference systems cf. A. Borrmann, C. Borrmann, M. Stegger, ibid., C. Borrmann, M. Stegger: Das Allgemeine Zollpräferenzsystem der EG (The Generalized System of Tariff Preferences of the EC), Hamburg 1979, p. 163 ff.
Cf. A. Lenel, op. cit., On the shortcomings of this indicator cf. A. Lenel: Zur Konkurrenz der Entwicklungs- und Staatshandelsländer auf den Absatzmärkten der EG (On the competition between the developing and state trading countries in the EC markets), doctor thesis, Berlin 1980, p. 237.
For a review of more recent theoretical work cf. H.G. Johnson: Comparative Cost and Commercial Policy Theory for a Developing World Economy, Stockholm 1968, p. 14 ff. and F. Weiss, F. Wolter: New Approaches in the Consideration of the Implications for Industry of the Industrialization Process in Developing Countries. A Review of Economic Literature, in: OECD: Labour and Skill Intensity of Industrial Activities, Paris 1979, p. 38 ff. For an application of this approach to the economic relations between the industrialized western countries cf. E. Minx: Von der Liberalisierungs- zur Wettbewerbspolitik. Internationale Wirtschaftspolitik zwischen Industrieländern nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg (From the policy of liberalization to the policy of competition. International economic policy between industrial countries after the Second World War), Berlin, New York 1980.
For a detailed review cf. A. Lenel, op. cit., On the shortcoming of this indicator cf. A. Lenel: Zur Konkurrenz der Entwicklungs- und Staatshandelsländer auf den Absatzmärkten der EG (On the competition between the developing and state trading countries in the EC markets), doctor thesis, Berlin 1980, p. 76 ff. The use of recent foreign trade theory on the basis of the theory of competition for the elucidation of the exports from developing and state trading countries resis chiefly on the theoretical approach of D. Lorenz: Dynamische Theorie der internationalen Arbeitsteilung (Dynamic theory of international division of labour). Berlin 1967.
H.B. Chenery, D.B. Keesing: The Changing Composition of Developing Country Exports, World Bank Staff Working Paper No. 314, Washington 1979, p. 25.
Cf. A. Lenel, op. cit., On the shortcomings of this indicator cf. A. Lenel: Zur Konkurrenz der Entwicklungs- und Staatshandelsländer auf den Absatzmärkten der EG (On the competition between the developing and state trading countries in the EC markets), doctor thesis, Berlin 1980, p. 147 ff
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Lenel, A. Competitiveness of developing and state trading countries. Intereconomics 16, 109–114 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02924743
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02924743