An institutional approach to explaining countertrade and barter in international trade and domestic trade in transition economies.

An institutional approach to explaining countertrade and barter in international trade and domestic trade in transition economies. Difficulties in contract enforcement impede international transactions in the world economy and domestic transactions in transition economies. In Contracts in Trade and Transition, Dalia Marin and Monika Schnitzer explain how barter as an economic institution can facilitate contract enforcement across national borders in international trade and within borders in transition countries. The authors show that international countertrade—tying an export to an import—emerged in the 1980s in response to the international debt crisis when Western creditors refused to finance imports to developing countries and Eastern Europe. Barter—the exchange of goods without the use of money—reemerged in transition economies in the 1990s in response to a domestic debt crisis when banks in transition countries were reluctant to provide finance to firms. Countertrade and barter introduce a deal-specific form of collateral that addresses the lack of creditworthiness of countries and firms. Drawing on contract theory, the authors argue that parties might want to pay in goods rather than cash or link an export with an import as in countertrade to solve incentive problems that otherwise would prevent any trade from taking place. The incentive problems they discuss are the technology transfer problem to developing countries and the "lack of trust" problem in the former Soviet Union.

This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic, social, cultural and political dimensions of the evolving trilateral relationship among the three countries of North America. Contributors address such topics as energy, the environment, trade, labour, the maquiladora industrial sector of Mexico, the Mexican auto industry, and Canada - U.S. cultural relations.While other publications have focused on U.S. issues, this one emphasizes Canada and Mexico, yet adds significantly to our understanding of the place of the United States in this evolving trilateral relationship.

The publication contains an explanation of Most Favored Nation (MFN) treatment and some of the key issues that arise in its negotiation, particularly the scope and application of MFN treatment to the liberalization and protection of foreign investors in recent treaty practice. The paper provides policy options as regards the traditional application of MFN treatment and identifies reactions by States to the unexpected broad use of MFN treatment, and provides several drafting options, such as specifying or narrowing down the scope of application of MFN treatment to certain types of activities, clarifying the nature of "treatment" under the IIA, clarifying the comparison that an arbitral tribunal needs to undertake as well as a qualification of the comparison "in like circumstances" or excluding its use in investor-State cases.

Export promotion covers various fiscal, commercial and exchange rate measures that governments can take to ensure some neutrality when comparing domestic and export markets. These essays discuss export promotion and its pros and cons.