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Looks at the current status of retail distribution in the European Economic Community. Forecasts likely future developments and problems, suggesting that decisions on distribution will increasingly be made on a supra‐institutional level.

The government procurement market is one of the few markets where substantial trade barriers still exist. Many countries, including Korea, have been trying to reduce these market barriers through the World trade Organization (WTO) plurilateral government procurement agreement (GPA) and foreign trade agreement (FTA) negotiations. The actual results have been somewhat disappointing. This paper argues that one factor behind the disappointing results may be Korea’s negotiating text, heavily influenced by the GPA, that includes several provisions which may hinder efficiency and add to procurement costs. The paper offers a policy option for Korean FTA negotiators - a “half track” approach where Korea can offer mutual national treatment to the suppliers of the FTA partner with no (or very little) additional procedural or transparency requirements such as those associated with the GPA -type provisions.

Switzerland, the toughest market in Europe, has long felt an affinity to Britain which it would like to turn into trade. John Lawless and Richard Brooks examine our wealthy EFTA partner at the start of a year in which we mount a massive export drive to that country.

The present study is an attempt to evaluate the impact of the proposed India-China free trade agreement (FTA) in goods trade on both countries under a static general equilibrium framework.

The study has utilized the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model of world trade with the presence of skilled and unskilled unemployment in the world. For analysis purposes, 57 GTAP sectors, representing the whole regional economy, have been aggregated into 43 sectors and 140 GTAP regions, representing the whole world, have been aggregated into 19 regions. The study has also used the updated tariff rates provided by the World Trade Organization for better results.

The preliminary analysis using trade indicators depicted that by utilizing their own comparative advantage, both of the countries can maximize their gains by exporting more to the world. The simulation results from the GTAP analysis revealed that a tariff reduction in all goods trade would be more beneficial for both the countries than the tariff reduction in each other's specialized products. All other regions lose in terms of shifting the Indian imports towards China in a post-simulation environment. Regions with a significant loss are: the European Union (28 members), Southeast Asia, the Unites States, Japan, Korea, West Asia, and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

The disaggregated sector-wise analysis has been performed using the latest available GTAP database, version 9.

The WHDB (Welthandels Datenbank — World Trade Database) of the BWK (Austrian Federal Economic Chamber) is a specialised information service which provides Austrian firms, companies and governmental institutions with information and data about worldwide commodity trade statistics. Its second function is to be a leading source for introducing new information media into the department, such as developing a company profile CD‐ROM. Only a few parameters are of crucial significance in describing a request for information in the field of import and export statistics. Nevertheless the process of choosing the right source to satisfy the user's demand is often rather tricky and very dependent on experience and skill. In the process of reorganising this information service from a rigid, programmed, host‐oriented inhouse data service of the early 1980s to a customer‐oriented information service for the 1990s, using online and CD‐ROM sources, a number of investigations were made to locate the relevant sources and to evaluate their significance for this service. As a result, a survey of sources of statistical import and export data will be presented. Another result is the perception that attributes like accuracy, precision and individual tuning have priority over offering large amounts of data, automation and sophisticated statistical methods. We concluded with a model of a combined system using internal sources for automatic explorations and external sources for accuracy and flexibility.

To explore social dialogue over vocational education and training in Europe, comparing the role of the social partners in different national training systems and different industrial relations contexts.

A survey of European member states (EU15 before enlargement) and two EFTA countries addressed to the national agencies or ministries responsible for vocational education and training and representing the contacts of the CEDEFOP Refernet network, supplemented by a literature review and discussions with the social partners at European level.

Throughout Europe the social partners have a formal role in developing vocational training policy and are involved in implementation, particularly at sector and local levels. While the structures of participation vary according to the degree of state regulation and the locus of training, social partner involvement is extensive irrespective of the nature of the regulatory framework.

Only 13 countries responded to the survey and respondents were not always aware of workplace developments. The gaps were addressed through the literature and discussions but inevitably the study is not comprehensive.

Valuable information for those seeking to identify common and good practice in social dialogue to improve the quality and relevance of vocational training.

A useful baseline study of the role of the social partners in vocational education and training in Europe.

The purpose of this article is to provide empirical evidence about the potential positive effects of switching from given non-reciprocal trade preferences granted under the Swiss Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for developing countries (DCs) to negotiated reciprocal trade preferences under a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

In a case study of Tunisia’s exports to Switzerland, the authors apply methods of matching econometrics, namely, Propensity-Score Matching and Nearest-Neighbor Matching. Hereby, they are able to identify the average treatment effect on the treated.

Overall preferential exports increased by 125 per cent after the entry into force of the FTA in 2005 until the end of the observation period in 2011. Additionally, an analysis of the agro-food and textile sectors likewise indicate boosting preferential exports in the amount of 100 per cent.

Case studies in this vein have their disadvantages. The greatest disadvantage is the lack of generalization. In contrast to studies estimating the potential effects of an FTA for several countries, the authors are not able to generalize their results based on a single case.

Because trade preferences under the Swiss GSP are offered to the country group of DCs as a whole, non-reciprocal trade preferences are not tailored to the export structure of a particular DC. By switching from non-reciprocal to negotiated reciprocal trade preferences, DCs such as Tunisia expect to negotiate terms which are tailored to their export structure as well as better conditions than competitors from countries which are still beneficiaries of the GSP.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate explicitly the switch from non-reciprocal to reciprocal trade preferences using econometric matching techniques.

The people of Finland, along with those of other EFTA states, feel threatened by the Single Market and the possibility of a “fortress Europe”. EC membership is not considered politically viable for the Finns; and the author explores ways in which Finnish firms can continue to pursue their European marketing with success despite remaining outside the Community.