The debt crisis of the eurozone revealed a structural problem of the single market rooted in the external imbalance problem of indebted member states. The assumption of this paper is that the current account imbalances within the eurozone are based on an intra-eurozone competitiveness disparity...

Diverging fiscal policy paths, housing booms and diverging unit labour costs were driving forces of rising intra-European current account imbalances, which were underpinned by low interest rates. Since the outbreak of the crisis, the adjustment of intra-EMU current account imbalances has been...

This paper contributes to the discussion on the European current account imbalances by analysing the intra-European trends since 1990 based on the theory of optimum currency areas. The authors show that German unification was the origin of not only the 1992-93 EMS crisis but also rising...

In the pre-crisis period, substantial current account imbalances built up in the euro area. Despite recent progress in economic rebalancing, especially in the countries mostly affected by the euro debt crisis, a controversial debate is still raging about past causes, current interpretations and...

However sharp the clash between the industrial countries' notions of a world economic order and those of the developing countries, one point is gaining increasing importance for both camps: the fight against spreading protectionism. Rising import barriers in the North restrict the developing...

The goal of phasing out, and ultimately eliminating, the differential treatment in trade presently accorded to developing countries was incorporated into the GATT during the Tokyo Round. What are the arguments in favour of this process of “graduation” and what would be its disadvantages?...

The next round of GATT negotiations - the so-called "Nixon Round" - will be opened at the ministerial level in Tokyo on September 12–14, 1973, and probably continue for several years in Geneva. Less developed countries (LDCs) which have not joined GATT but nevertheless wish to participate in...

All Latin American countries strive for diversification of the exportable industrial production and the exploitation of new and non-traditional foreign export markets. These efforts are not free from the dangers of erroneous assessment of the limits of exports resulting in grave disadvantages...