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In order to alleviate China's crisis of marginalization in international trade, combined with the development characteristics of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, the development direction of the bonded cold chain business of Shanghai Yangshan Comprehensive Bonded Port Area was proposed. From a long-term perspective, a free trade zone integrating processing, logistics, finance, culture, and internal and external market trade was formed. By taking advantage of the huge consumption of imported food in the Yangtze river delta region, the policy advantages of Yangshan Port Area are exploited. Combined with the development of cross-border e-commerce, innovative experiences that could be replicated and promoted are formed. The results showed that the free trade zone is the development direction of the bonded port area. Therefore, the Shanghai Bonded Port Area should focus on the integration with the development of the free trade zone in the initial stage. This lays a solid foundation for the construction of the bonded port area as a comprehensive internal and external trade platform for ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the domestic market. Research on the planning and layout of trade zones can help plan the future development of trade zones and their direction. The trade zone is pre-controlled. The efficiency of future construction and upgrading of the bonded area is improved. It is of great practical significance to the current development and construction of the Shanghai Bonded Port Area.

The economy of Fujian has caused tremendous development momentum and increased the economic exchanges between Taiwan and the mainland since the establishment of the free trade area of Fujian province. However, the contradiction between ecological protection and economic development should be considered on the basis of solving the problem of building trade zones. Performing regional trade zone planning from the ecological and economic perspectives is difficult, not only should the ecological and economic perspectives meet and emphasize the ecological and economical levels of interaction, but also achieve the optimization of eco-economic development potential of the free trade zone. In view of the above problems, according to the economy and resource allocation base of the new trade zone in Fujian Province, the space planning strategy development was carried out in this paper. In the overall layout of the new trade zone, the chain service area, the high-end service area, and the city near the port are taken as a major planning axis. North and South regions are gathering areas of shipping, logistics and new industries, developing on three partitions of function, improvement and advance around Haijing Road. The landscape is divided into Cai Jianwei mountain and Jing Kouyan mountain as the basis, and the third South China Sea Road and Haixin road form six corridors between mountain and sea. With the foundation of international cruise port development planning, the ease of east harbors should be promoted to north, and the development rhythm od airport planning areas should be strictly controlled, which can prepare for the later spatial release of the relocation of the airport from city planning areas. The main line of the important traffic node is reserved to improve the stock space, and the industrial neighborhood area near the central fishing port of Fujian and Taiwan is reserved, which can provide the regional space preparation for the planning of the new trade zone.

Since the reform and opening up, the economy of China has rapidly developed. The system, structure, mode, and pattern of the foreign trade in China must be adjusted accordingly to adapt to new economic normality. In this study, the main types of free trade areas worldwide were analyzed, and the necessary conditions for their successful development were examined on the basis of an ecological economic perspective. The Shanghai free trade area is a typical representative of a new type of Trade Zone in China. It introduces the principles of sustainable development, people oriented, green, low-carbon and other eco free trade zones. The planning characteristics of Shanghai free trade zone were studied from the point of view of planning economy and land use. Taking Shanghai Yangshan land free trade zone as an example, the planning research was carried out in terms of functional zoning, environment, transportation and facilities. In summary, this study provided theoretical and technical references for the construction of free trade areas and for the formulation of significant policies.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The economic success of East Asia was due to an export-led growth strategy, which was heavily dependent on the global trading system underpinned by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). In recent years, however; East Asian countries have shifted their trade policy focus to regional agreements and made Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) among themselves arid with other regions. Government organization has been restructured to increase FTA activities. Generally, the current literature predicts that FTA activities of East Asia would help to increase the welfare of the region. In this paper; we offer a critical assessment of East Asia FTAs. We note that East Asia FTAs provide incomplete coverage of sectors and are likely to lead to an inefficient resource allocation. FTA movements are not matched with actual trade flows. The benefits of East Asia FTAs are fairly limited and potential benefits, if any, would not likely be materialized in the near future. Our overall assessment is that the recent policy shift in East Asian countries from multilateral trade orientation or unilateral action to regionalism or a parallel multilateral and regional trade approach will not produce much gain. The governments should increase their efforts at economic reform and reduce barriers to trade and investment, rather than to allocate more resource and manpower to FTA activities.

The success of Europe 1992 has compelled both the Pacific Rim and the Americas into examining economic unions. The United States has entered into a Free Trade Agreement with Canada and has begun serious negotiations with Mexico for a like treaty. What are the possibilities of the formation of a Common Market of North America? What are the necessary prerequisites for this to occur? And what would it look like? What are the business implications of such a Free Trade Area? In this paper we examine these issues.

The United States has entered into a tripartite Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico with a planned 1 January 1994 debut. What are the possibilities of a North American Common Market being formed? What are the potential threats that could undermine NAFTA? What are the necessary prerequisites for this to occur? What would it look like? Examines these issues, attempts to provide answers to the questions and provides recommendations for marketers.

This paper aims to examine the road ahead for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), focusing on its potential opportunities and challenges. It is intended to help the AfCFTA’s effective implementation by highlighting the major areas of intervention for State Parties.

The paper analyses relevant economic, political and legal research sources on regional integration in Africa and offers some personal views of the author to evaluate the past, present and future of the AfCFTA.

The paper shows that the AfCFTA can support its State Parties’ industrialization and diversification, better integrate micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to regional value chains, create jobs, encourage sustainable investments and help its State Parties have common positions on global issues and achieve development. But, it also shows the challenges facing the AfCFTA, which include infrastructure gap, revenue and job losses, overlapping membership of State Parties in Regional Economic Communities, cumbersome customs systems, difficulty to cross African borders, fledgling MSMEs and inadequate technical capacity on trade policy. Accordingly, it recommends that State Parties continuously take various actions to address these challenges and maximize the multiple benefits of the AfCFTA.

The paper provides a comprehensive and up-to-date appraisal of the opportunities and challenges of the AfCFTA, both in the context of the history of regional integration in Africa and the recent global shocks that adversely impacted the continent (COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine).

The purpose of this paper is to predict the likely economic effects of a free trade area (FTA) on both China and the United Kingdom (hereafter the UK).

Following literature review and trade relationship briefing, this paper uses the Global Trade Analysis Project simulation to predict the economic effects of such a FTA on both China and the UK.

The simulation results indicate that a China-UK free trade area (hereafter CUFTA) will bring more benefits than harm to both China and the UK, and achieving zero tariff or reducing technological barriers to trade (TBT) is mutually beneficial for both China and the UK, with the growth in GDP, economic welfare as well as import and export. Combining zero tariff and the reduction of TBT in exceptional departments is the most favorable way to improve the macroeconomic effects without bringing damaging effects on the comparative disadvantage industries such as transport equipment, chemicals industries for China and textiles and apparel industry for the UK.

After the UK voted to leave the European Union, CUFTA is put on the agenda by both the governments, yet there are fewer studies on CUFTA, with this paper being one of the early trials. Besides, based on the simulation results, some policy suggestions will be put forward for future negotiations and industrial policies’ adjustment.

The development of the current European economic area maritime cabotage market occurred when, at a policy level, the European Union forced the opening of its member-states cabotage markets to Community shipowners and extended this openness, in 1997, to the european free trade area countries. A two-tier cabotage market emerged, where a European economic area legislative framework co-exists with the legislative acts of each member-state. With such a unique background, this paper aims to investigate both the European economic area member-states and the rest of the world cabotage regimes and identify a list of reasons and policy measures used to implement cabotage policies.

By means of a desk research methodological approach, this paper analyses, from a geographical perspective, different countries’ cabotage policies and classifies them, and identifies in a systematically way a set of reasons and policy instruments that support each of chosen policies approach.

The outcome indicates that only a few countries promote free liberalised cabotage services and that most countries favour protectionist cabotage policies, whose governments can control the number of foreign vessels participating in these trades. Cabotage regimes have been categorised and the reasons behind both policies and respective policy instruments have been identified.

Quite often, researchers only focus on the cabotage policies of the European economic area countries, the USA, Australia, Japan and South Korea. This paper value rests on its ability to incorporate cabotage policies from other African, Asian and Latin American countries and to update existing information on the subject. Overall, this paper paves the way to broaden the cabotage knowledge.