From “Thin” to “Thick” (and Back Again?): The Politics and Policies of the Contemporary US–Canada Border

Despite making modest progress on challenging management and security issues common to their shared border, the United States and Canada have, in recent years, slipped behind on advancing a progressive border agenda. The momentum unleashed under the 30-point Smart Border Action Plan, signed in late 2001, has slowed in the face of new regulations at the border, many of which were initiated by the United States. These include significant changes in US admission procedures under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), new border policing resources and protocols, as well as new customs and inspection fees. The much-heralded Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), designed to facilitate both trade and security between the two countries, has also lost momentum, with the last trilateral meeting of leaders resulting in little more than a press release. As a result of these and other developments, it appears that rather than “thinning,” the US–Canada border is “thickening” at precisely the time when greater economic and security cooperation is necessary to bolster North American competitiveness in an increasingly globalized economy and complex security environment. This article will investigate some of the key reasons behind these policy developments, exploring some of the early positions that frame approaches to border management in the Obama administration. It will also offer some thoughts on opportunities for improved border management policies by providing some specific recommendations, which may help advance solutions to pressing – and festering – bilateral security and trade issues.     

中日制成品产业内贸易实证分析

本文通过对1987~2006年的统计数据进行实证分析发现:中日产业内贸易水平20年来总体处于上升趋势;中日产业内贸易主要集中在制成品领域内,其中,机械和运输设备产业内贸易所占比重最高;垂直型产业内贸易是中日产业内贸易的主要形式;中日两国的产业内贸易受多种因素共同影响,其中,中国人均收入水平不断提高以及日本对华直接投资规模的扩大是重要的影响因素。     

日本对外贸易政策的新动向--关于区域自由贸易协定的几点议论

日本与新加坡签署自由贸易协定,表明其对外贸易政策发生了一些变化,它有别于日本一贯主张的“多边主义”,这一变化是建立在对多边贸易政策和区域协定重新认识基础之上的,表现为日本积极参与区域协定的具体行动上,其意图是适应外部环境变化以解决自身的经济问题。     

Australia's embrace of investor state dispute settlement: a challenge to the social contract ideal?

This paper explores the origins of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) treaties and their implications for the Australian social contract. This analysis includes how and why ISDS emerged in NAFTA, was rebuffed with the failure of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), and became incorporated into most subsequent bilateral US trade and investment agreements. The paper considers Australia's exposure to ISDS—first through using it in bilateral investment agreements in nations with inadequate governance mechanisms to support the rule of law, then turning against it when a multinational tobacco company tried to use the mechanism to overturn scientifically endorsed, democratically approved and constitutionally validated tobacco plain packaging measures. The paper concludes by exploring the hypothesis that an alternative governance vision can be achieved in which the system of investment arbitration and trade law is made coherent with presumptively more democratically legitimate normative systems such as constitutional and international law.     

The Making of an ‘All Weather Friendship’ Pakistan,China and the History of a Border Agreement: 1949–1963

China and Pakistan share what is widely known as an ‘all weather friendship’. The historical roots of this friendship can be traced to 1963, when the two countries entered into a border agreement that divided territory in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Since then, China has provided missile and nuclear technology to Pakistan. It has limited the potential for escalation in the time of war between India and Pakistan and is the largest economic investor in Pakistan. The benefits of this friendship for Pakistan are clear. Yet, there is little detail on what led to the making of the ‘all weather friendship’. This article provides a detailed account of Sino–Pakistani relations between 1949 and 1963. It argues that whilst the 1963 agreement led to a turning point, the Pakistani establishment – military and civilian – sought to engage China since 1949. They did so to create strategic options for themselves in the event that the US and the UK – Pakistan's main allies following independence – limited or worse, ended their support for Pakistan in its troubled relations with India. This article is based on primary sources available in the US, Britain, as well as recently declassified and hitherto unused papers in India.     

大米换橡胶：20世纪50年代的中锡贸易

1952年9月和12月,中国与锡兰从各自的需要出发,签订了以大米换橡胶为主要内容的政府贸易协定,不仅开创了新中国同尚未建交、又是不同社会制度国家签订政府贸易协定的先河,而且建立了新中国与锡兰间的贸易关系,促进了两国贸易额的迅速增长。1957年8月,中锡在签订第二个五年贸易协定时,面对超价难题,周恩来提出了将贸易和援助分开来谈,即橡胶贸易按照公平的市场价格,但中国同时给予锡兰经济援助的设想,使谈判进入了比较顺利的阶段。中锡贸易协定的执行和续订,从南亚和东南亚方向打开了美国对华封锁、禁运的缺口,促进了中锡友好关系的发展。     

The economic impact of the Australia–US free trade agreement

The Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) came into effect in 2005. It was the second preferential trade agreement that Australia signed, after its agreement with Singapore, and marked a departure from the primacy of Australia's previous trade policy of unilateral and multilateral trade liberalisation toward preferential liberalisation. This paper assesses the economic effects of AUSFTA by applying the Productivity Commission's gravity model of trade from its Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements review. The evidence reveals AUSFTA resulted in a fall in Australian and US trade with the rest of the world—that the agreement led to trade diversion. Estimates also show that AUSFTA is associated with a reduction in trade between Australia and the United States.     

NAFTA's Impact on Business Environmental Decision Making

Signing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) liberalized trade policy and reduced tariffs between Mexico, the United States, and Canada, but activists opposed to the treaty predicted an environmental disaster. This article seeks to analyze the dynamics of environmental spending and changes in companies' profiles following NAFTA. Our results suggest that these predictions have not come true. Through an econometric model, we explore how 2,438 industries in the 1994–2002 period made environmental decisions and how much they spent on cleanup. Estimates were made with a dynamic panel model using the generalized method of moments (GMM) method. Our results suggest that environmental investment decisions depended on business size, their technological capabilities, sales performance, and the need to comply with the standards required by customers in the international market. The last section explores policies to improve compliance with Mexico's environmental regulations and to develop sustainable, eco‐friendly manufacturing.     

Neoliberalism in a Small Canadian City? Windsor City Council and the Reform of the Detroit River Border Crossing

This article examines the idea of the neoliberal city. Using the reform of the Detroit River international border crossing between Canada and the United States as a case study, the article explores the extent to which a small- to medium-sized Canadian municipality is capable of developing policy positions that challenge neoliberalism. The conclusion is mixed. Windsor City Council is not advancing policies that present a fundamental challenge to the economic status quo. It does not, for example, challenge the rationale that a new border crossing will facilitate freer trade. Nevertheless, neither are the municipal council's positions completely in line with arguments that municipal governments have no room to advance positions in opposition to major economic interests. The council is advancing policy positions opposed by major local, regional and international business interests. There is, therefore, some evidence of the possibility of local agency within the geography of neoliberalism.     

Greening America's Skylines: The Diffusion of Low-Salience Policies

The diffusion literature is replete with examples of highly salient policies spreading across subnational governments. However, low-salience policies that do not benefit from a groundswell of public opinion also spread across jurisdictions in patterns that appear similar to those of other, more well-known policy ideas. This research is an investigation of the mechanisms that propagate low-salience policies. I analyze the adoption of the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy Efficient Design standard across 119 U.S. cities from 2000 to 2008. The investigation indicates that a knowledge broker, in this case the USGBC, occupies critical roles in linking a low-salience policy to a broader set of widely held societal values, developing a common policy vocabulary, providing a base policy that jurisdictions may freely adapt, and creating a diffusion infrastructure by acting as a communication hub for existing and interested jurisdictions to discuss innovations and progress.     

Books Received

While improving the “hard” resources of the physical infrastructure is important to facilitating cross-border trade, studies of global supply chain logistics performance suggest that expanding the focus to include “soft” infrastructure resources will be critical for future gains. Border management is increasingly important to North American trade facilitation, yet little is known about what constitutes the soft infrastructure of border crossings or how to design and manage this infrastructure for improved performance. Hence, this study uses an exploratory research design to examine the nature and dimensions of the soft infrastructure of border crossings. The research relies on a grounded-theory analysis of primary data collected in an exploratory case study of two border crossings between Alberta, Canada, and Montana, US.     

Defining the relationship between Australia and the European Union: is the framework treaty enough?

Australia is currently negotiating a framework treaty with the European Union (EU) that aims at closer cooperation on a wide range of shared policy goals. The treaty is not expected to include trade-liberalisation commitments. This article queries why this is, given the importance of trade and business relations with the EU for Australia, and the fact that the EU exerts international influence primarily as a trade power, rather than a foreign and security policy power. Since 2006, the EU has also been negotiating ‘new-generation’ bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), focusing on tariffs and regulatory non-tariff trade barriers. It has now committed itself to FTA negotiations with many of Australia's trade partners in Asia and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. An FTA and a complementary framework treaty were concluded with South Korea in 2010, and the EU is currently negotiating a similar package with Canada. As Australia and Canada are comparable trade partners for the EU, the article argues that an FTA on the EU–Canada model could be a more effective avenue for Australia to achieve deeper engagement with the EU.     

关于我国环境税收法制建设的思考

随着我国经济发展步伐的加快,环境污染问题也日益严重,而我国现行环境税费制度存在较多问题,不能很好地起到防治污染、保护环境的作用。本文在分析我国设立环境税的价值基础上,探讨了我国环境税收方面存在的诸多问题并提出相关法律对策。     

我国地方税制的历史沿革与发展探析

地方税制是国家税收制度的组成部分 ,国家进行税制调整常引起地方税制的变化 ,税制调整又与财政体制的变化相关联。由于地方税制是以中央与地方分财权为前提 ,因此确立什么样的中央与地方的财政分配关系直接决定着地方税制是否存在 ,以及地方税制的存在形式。财政体制发生变化 ,地方税制必然随之变化 ,税制调整和财政体制调整往往是交织在一起的。文章在回顾与总结我国税收制度发展和改革历程的基础上 ,探讨了地方税制产生和发展以及运行的一般规律 ,并对进一步完善地方税体系 ,使地方税收活动规范化、民主化、科学化提出了设想     

祀典抑或淫祀:正统标签的边陲解读--以明清闽台保生大帝信仰为例

王朝的正统标签历来为各种社会阶层所追求,但在不同的时代背景与不同的地域环境下,不同阶层的人们对其解读方式却颇有不同。保生大帝信仰盛行于东南沿海边陲,南宋时获得王朝的三次敕封,明清时期则一直未能得到王朝的正式承认。保生大帝信仰的这种特殊性,使得明清时期地方官府在解读该信仰的正统性时,没有在祀典与淫祀之间划出一条界域分明的鸿沟,而是从当地保生大帝信仰的实际情况与边陲社会的实际需求出发,来理解该信仰在当地存在的合理性。保生大帝信仰的个案,凸显了传统社会中国家权力在边陲控制上的多维变通以及民间社会对此作出的积极应对。