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China’s unprecedented emergence as an economic and political power has created a new geopolitical economy for semi-industrialised and developing economies in Southeast Asia. This paper examines China’s trade relationships with Thailand and Indonesia using the concepts of uneven and combined development (UCD) and unequal exchange. The mass of surplus value obtained through China’s trade with the developed economies has flowed into the considerable expansion in China’s imports from developing countries since 2000. China has maintained a consistent trade deficit with the latter. While the developing countries concerned have benefitted from this set of relationships, the extent to which they have done so has been determined by national strategies. In countries like Thailand – where manufacturing capital and a significant working class has emerged – exports expanded on the basis of mutually advantageous technologically and skills intensive goods. These are produced with a similar organic composition of capital as in China. The result has been a further consolidation of the hegemony of manufacturing capital. Indonesia, however, has a political system and economy long dominated by resource exploitation linked fractions of capital. The result has been a surge in primary goods exports. The current commodity price cycle has meant these goods exchange at prices above their value. The current looming price correction, however, may have negative repercussions. In the meantime, the concentration in raw materials exports is helping to prevent the emergence of a circuit of productive capital in manufacturing. The evidence from these contrasting cases suggests that the degree to which developing economies can benefit from China’s own historically unparalleled combined development remains highly contingent on the strength of the combined development possibilities and efforts within these other national social formations. Above all, there is the degree to which manufacturing sectors of capital can obtain hegemony.

European countries, which have many common policies and goals, are also having some disparities in their economic performance due to the existence of underlying country-specific reasons. The manufacturing sector is the key sector that promotes growth and increases the well-being of society. Thus, it is important to understand how these countries differ in engaging in industrial activities. Focusing on the manufacturing sectors of these economies, we aim to see the disparities between European Union (EU) countries in terms of their composition of manufacturing trade and the countries they are trading with. This chapter outlines some key stylized facts regarding trade over the past two decades by investigating the manufacturing data for EU countries.

This paper argues that the recent rise in China Dutch trade is a typical example of two nations trading tasks rather than goods.

China Dutch trade growth between 1996 and 2010 is compared with China's trade growth with its main partners. In addition, the composition of China Dutch trade (based on level 1 and level 3 standard international trade classification (SITC)) between 1996 and 2010 is evaluated and three short case studies are discussed.

China Dutch trade has been growing too fast and too high tech to be explained by Ricardian trade theory. Instead the data fit neatly to the recently proposed theory of trade in tasks. It seems the Dutch have outsourced tasks such as assembly and production to China and other Asian countries, while China has been outsourcing distribution and trade management activities to The Netherlands.

This paper uses sound reasoning and some empirical evidence but no formal model or regression. The arguments of this paper could be strengthened further by using for example gravity equations of Dutch China trade.

The governments of China and The Netherlands should invest in strengthening their respective comparative advantages in tasks. Currently, there is too much focus on R&D. Instead, the Chinese Government should invest more in their innovation capability and the working conditions of assembly workers. The Dutch should focus more on knowledge and skill in the orchestration of production and distribution.

This paper proposes a very different view on trade and provides a recent and typical example of two nations exchanging tasks.

Bilateral trade between Egypt and China has expanded substantially in recent years. Few studies however have focused on the understanding of this trade relationship. The purpose of this paper is to fill a void in the literature by examining and understanding the two countries' trade pattern.

In order to achieve the objectives of the paper, and in the light of the pool of literature and availability of data, the authors relied on qualitative methods to analyze the composition of trade between Egypt and China. In addition, the authors employed trade intensity index, intra‐industry trade index, and examined the trade complementarity to capture the dynamics and perspectives of bilateral trade between the two countries.

Results show low values in Egypt's trade intensity index, implying that Egyptian trade with China is less than it should be. The low values of the intra‐industry trade index suggest smaller trade between the two countries' firms in the same industry. The study clearly shows that there are few areas where there is an overlap in the two countries' comparative advantage. The trade complementarity analysis tends to suggest that the complementarity for China to export to Egypt is increasing, while that for Egypt to export to China is declining.

Given the lack of research that examines and compares trade between the two countries, the paper provides an in‐depth understanding of the patterns of trade between them and the driving forces behind such dynamics, which is pertinent to best capture the opportunities presented by the Chinese market. Also, the findings can be used to draw policy implications for promoting future trade and cooperation between Egypt and China.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze merchandise trade patterns among the GCC states with the backdrop of economic diversification within these economies.

This empirical research quantitatively analyses patterns of merchandise trade among the GCC states during 1995-2015 with specific focus on concentration, diversification and similarity of (export and import) trade indices as well as diversification within GCC economies.

The paper concludes that while Bahrain merchandise export structure shows dissimilarity when compared with other GCC states during 1995 and 2015, its imports appear to be very similar with those of the rest. The other five GCC states show more similarity among themselves in both merchandise exports and imports than that of Bahrain. Only UAE has shown an increase in both concentration and diversification indices though the increased numbers are still lower than those of the other GCC states and low in absolute terms.

The GCC has embarked on economic diversification; however, there is relatively less trade within the GCC as compared with other regional trading blocks. The paper considers trade within the GCC to explore the degree of similarity, diversification and concentration of traded products of each country. Further study should analyze the impact of diversification on intra-GCC trade. The results of this paper will be of value to GCC policymakers for providing a clear rationale for boosting trade and diversification with the long-term goal of a single currency economic union.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of export composition (diversification or specialization) on economic growth of South Asian countries, while export diversification is further categorized into horizontal and vertical export diversification.

The study uses Cobb-Douglas production function, in which export is augmented in the production function. To analyze the non-linear relationship (inverted U- or U-shape) with economic growth, square term of exports Herfindahl index, horizontal, and vertical export diversification are introduced in the model. Panel data of four countries of South Asia, i.e. Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is utilized from 1990 to 2013 at annual frequency under fixed effect model.

Exports Herfindahl index represented inverted U-shape relationship with economic growth. An increase in export diversification lead to higher economic growth initially, however, after the threshold level, export specialization have positive impact on economic growth. Horizontal export diversification is not beneficial for economic growth initially, however, after the threshold level, introducing new sector increases economic growth in South Asian countries. Vertical export diversification has insignificant and U-shaped relationship with economic growth.

Education and skill formation are essential components for creativity and innovation, therefore attention must be paid toward labor training and education. Government must encourage the exporters to increase diversification in their export portfolio as well as provide incentives and technical assistance for research and development in the manufacturing sector.

This study contributes by analyzing the non-linear relationship between export composition, i.e. diversification (horizontal and vertical) or specialization and economic growth in South Asian countries. The study is useful to boost the potential level of exports on sustainable economic growth of South Asian countries. This study provides the essential evidence, information and better understanding to key stakeholders of exports.

This study investigates the level of variance in the real time demand for bagged cement, induced in response to the climatic sequence of the humid tropics, to support best practice calls for a weather-responsive supply chain strategy.

Data on the consumption of cement and site works for 100 ongoing building construction sites were gathered for a period of 12 months. The variance partitioning capabilities of the Ordinary Least Squares and Hierarchical Linear Modelling forms of regression analysis are comparatively used to evaluate the sensitivity of cement demand to the meteorological profile of wet-humid climate

The study outcome provides statistical evidence demonstrating that the meteorological profile of wet-humid climate induces a significantly high percentage of the variance in the real-time demand for bagged cement on construction sites. However, nested within this variance, are the fixed effects of the cement footprint of the building architecture inherent in the locality. Particularly, positive changes to reduce the wet trade composition of buildings or compensating changes in technological bias, are necessary to combat weather interference in the humid tropics.

The findings are exploratory, and not for the purposes of holistically forecasting cement demand, and can therefore only form part of a more comprehensive decision support system, bespoke to the study area.

The study outcome provides a back-end view to climatic adaptation in wet humid settings, making a compelling case for localized climate-risk adaptive supply chain strategies and policies geared towards sustainability in cement usage.

The study delineates the confounding impact of weather, distinct from local building architecture and technological bias, thus creating a methodological platform for replication and comparative productivity studies in diverse geographical areas.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of the enlargement process of the European Union as a factor fostering international competitiveness of EU Member States. The paper argues that the economic integration process has reduced the technological gap between old and new EU Member States, and this pattern of technological innovation can partially explain the strong impulse on the export dynamics of European countries.

The paper builds an augmented gravity model by including the role of technological innovation, proxied by the stock of knowledge at the sector level. The authors gather together information on patents applied to international offices and bilateral export flows available from COMTRADE dataset.

By using a dynamic panel data estimator the authors find three main empirical evidences. First, the enlargement process has produced an overall larger positive impact on export flows for new Members than for old ones, and more importantly that sectors with the higher technological content have received the strongest impulse. Second, the augmented gravity model allows shaping the crucial role of technological innovation in fostering export competitiveness. Third, this impact seems to be stronger for old EU Member States than for new ones.

The major limitation concerns time span adopted in this work. By expanding the dataset to further years it could be possible to better disentangle the effects also related to the new wave of the EU enlargement.

The policy implication derived is that the more the new EU Members catch up technologically as a result of the integration process, the more they will benefit in terms of economic development.

The major originality of this paper is the construction of an augmented gravity model by including the role of technological innovation, applied to distinguished manufacturing sectors in a dynamic panel setting.

India and Iran historically share centuries-old strong socio-cultural and trade relations since ancient times. The chapter explores emerging opportunities and challenges in trade and investment in the present era. While Iran is one of the leading producers and exporters of oil, India, a major market for hydrocarbons, is heavily dependent on imports to meet its domestic requirements. This offers trade complementarities between the two countries as India is a secure market for Iran’s oil whereas Iran facilitates India to decrease its over-dependence for oil on Saudi Arabia. This chapter discusses the mutually beneficial trade relationship as well as potential for further deepening the existing economic ties between these two ancient civilizations that could offer a win-win situation for both countries.

The purpose of the paper is to explore the economic repercussions of potential India–USA free trade agreement (FTA) on the trade of agricultural commodities at HS 2-digit level.

The analysis is undertaken by assuming tariff reduction in a phased manner using the World Integrated Trade Solutions (WITS)-SMART partial equilibrium model to identify the trade creation and trade diversion effects.

Overall results show that both the trading partners gain from the proposed FTA. Trade creation dominates over trade diversion in India's analysis.

An FTA between India and the USA could be an essential step toward more liberal trade regimes and provide enormous economic benefits to both countries. Government of both the countries should support deeper integration. This will create more job opportunities and generate prosperity in both economies.

There are numerous studies conducted on evaluating the impact of FTAs ratified between countries. But there are limited studies which evaluate the impact of the proposed India–USA FTA on the economies of both trading partners specifically on the agriculture sector.