The Commission was asked to evaluate current assistance arrangements to the TCF industries and provide policy options for post 2005 assistance and to report on a range of related matters that will affect the sector's long-term viability. The inquiry will also look at relevant workplace issues...

Rules of origin arrangements under the Australia–New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (CER) were referred to the Commission for examination and report by May 2004. The request stemmed from concerns that Australian and New Zealand firms were having difficulty achieving the...

This paper was one input to the Australian Government’s decision to remove tariffs on imports from the least developed countries. The Commission’s analysis suggests that removing tariffs on imports from these countries could significantly boost imports from these countries, particularly of...

This research paper examines some of the key trends in Australia’s agriculture sector over the last 20 years or so. While continuing to grow in absolute terms, the size and importance of agriculture has declined relative to the rest of the economy. Within the sector, there have been marked...

If, in international agreements, governments “link'' trade to environmental policy (or other issues with non-pecuniary externalities), will this promote more cooperation in both policies or will cooperation in one policy be strengthened at the expense of the other? We analyze this question in...

Para conocer el efecto que la apertura comercial ha tenido en la tasa de crecimiento economico de largo plazo y en el proceso de convergencia real entre los estados de Mexico, el presente estudio revisa el marco teorico y conceptual que parece mas adecaudo para esta finalidad, que no es otro que...

Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem shows that transitive social preference is impossible. This note shows that in the general case of exchange, social preference need not be transitive. Indeed, it shows that social preference must be non-transitive to allow gainful exchange to maximize social...

East Asia is one of the most important areas of tropical forests worldwide. Considerable concern has arisen that the East Asian economic crisis would result in a further worsening of the already high pressures experienced by the region’s forests. This report examines the available evidence on...

The industrial diversification of cities is explained without imposing linkages among industries. In each of two city-industries, a manufacture is produced competitively as the final good using labor and industry- specific differentiated services. Manufacturers import the services of their...

This paper presents a model of the New Economic Geography which integrates commuting costs and land rent and displays a dispersion - agglomeration configuration when regional and/or international trade are liberalised. Two main results are found, the first one is that dispersion Pareto dominates...