Developing countries, including least developed countries (LDCs), extensively rely on textiles and clothing (T&C) industry for employment and export earnings. They face serious adjustment challenges in post – quota expiry period. The available statistics have proven that many pre-elimination...

Textiles and clothing (T&C) trade after lapse of quotas in 2005 has revealed China's overwhelming comparative advantage in the manufacture and export of T&C products. China's advantage in this sector attracted the use of trade remedies by WTO members under WTO laws, often in a manner contrary to...

For over several years, since 2007, India and the European Union (EU) have been negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA). The nation is trying to tie-up the largest trade and investment deal. It deals with the liberalisation of goods in trade, the deregulation of services, investment and...

This paper provides an overview of agro-food value chains in the EU Outermost Regions (EU ORs). It assesses emerging trends, discusses opportunities and challenges, reviews the policy frameworks and tools that can strengthen the beneficial participation of EU ORs in international agro-food value...

The southern European periphery suffered a severe setback in its catching-up process versus Western Europe after the financial crisis with GDP dropping by 10% between 2008 and 2012 and unemployment increasing to 20% for Greece, Portugal and Spain. We analyze first the reason for this setback,...

This paper outlines elements of a conceptual framework that clarifies the role that clusters play relative to government policies and actions of individual companies in supporting the emergence of "High Road"-strategies that lead to better New Growth Path-related outcomes. It then focuses on...

Multinational production has become increasingly important in recent decades. Countries resort to different industrial policies to influence the geography of this production. In this paper, we focus on a ubiquitous “soft” industrial policy that aims at reducing information barriers -...

Track access charges are the main driver of infrastructure costs for rail operators in the rail transport sector, accounting for up to 88 percent of costs. This paper analyzes track access charges of 28 EU countries with the respective trajectories of the company forms employing panel...

The EU member states of Central Eastern Europe (EU-CEE) have experienced rapid convergence in the decades following their EU accession, and have built up strong export-oriented manufacturing sectors boosted by foreign direct investment inflows. While this growth model has brought many positives,...