Suchergebnisse

The year 2021 was again dominated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 cases had been on the rise since July 2020, however the number of cases seen between January and March 2021 were amongst the highest recorded up until that point. The rising case numbers resulted in many non-essential enterprises being closed or having their business restricted by public health measures which were introduced in March 2021. Subsequently, many state measures introduced in 2020 which focused on aiding organisations with their liquidity and supporting wages were extended into 2021. As the COVID-19 vaccine program, which commenced at the beginning of 2021, and public health measures took effect, COVID-19 case numbers dropped and organisations were gradually re-opened between April and June. Subsequently, the Government announced plans to phase out support measures which aided with liquidity and wages by the end of the year, and introduced a number of new measures aimed at aiding organisations to-reopen or re-engineer. As the year progressed, the number of organisations making use of several support measures, such as moratoriums on loans began to fall, whereas unemployment in 2021 remained low and was lower than the rate seen in 2020. Thus, tangible signs of recovery were seen. Despite this, the aggregate level of economic activity remained lower than levels seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (Central Bank of Malta, 2021a). Despite Malta's vaccine program proving to be one of the fastest in Europe, and very high rates of uptake, the year ended with the state commencing a vaccine booster program and record numbers of COVID-19 cases, which statistically eclipsed anything that had been seen up until that point during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the record number of cases, the percentage of hospitalisation rates remained relatively low – a factor attributed to the high rate of vaccinated individuals – and the Government resisted calls from some social partners to re-introduce lockdown measures. A key support measure, termed ...

This paper analyzes the Australia – Anti-Dumping Measures on A4 Copy Paper panel report, the second recent WTO dispute to involve a challenge to Indonesia's paper industry. The Indonesian paper industry benefits from reduced-cost inputs because of the Indonesian government's influence and subsidies over the timber and pulp market. The report offers the first interpretation of "particular market situation" under Article 2.2 of the WTO's Anti-Dumping Agreement. At the same time, it raises questions regarding the appropriateness of using anti-dumping measures to address what are fundamentally subsidy issues. While the panel ultimately found that Australia's measure was inconsistent with Article 2.2, the paper shows that the panel's interpretation of "particular market situation" increases the relative attractiveness of using anti-dumping duties instead of countervailing measures. Two key points on the welfare implications of the decision can be made. The first relates to the motivations of the Australian paper industry and the imperfectly competitive market in which Australian Paper operates. The second is the importance of challenging subsidies rather than imposing anti-dumping duties where the subsidies in question have negative environmental effects.

AbstractThis paper investigates how national economic regulation shape the impacts of reducing external barriers to services trade for a sample of European countries. Notwithstanding far-reaching integration of services markets there is significant heterogeneity in domestic regulation and governance across European economies. We show this affects the potential downstream productivity effects of external services trade policy. In some cases, liberalization can substitute for weak regulation; in others there is a complementary relationship. Thus, the productivity effects associated with services market access liberalization depend on the quality of domestic economic regulation. EU-specific measures to promote internal trade in services – proxied by implementation of the Services Directive – are found not to have such moderating effects. An implication of our findings is that EU governments should do more to assess how specific dimensions of domestic regulatory regimes influence the size and distribution of the effects of services trade reforms.

AbstractMany agreements to liberalize trade in services tend to be limited in scope. This is a puzzle considering the high share of services in total employment and value added and relatively high barriers to trade in services in many countries. In this paper we argue that neglected complementarities between services trade policies and domestic regulation may help to understand the limited ambition on services observed in many trade agreements. We show that the productivity effects of services trade liberalization are conditional on regulatory quality. Our findings suggest that greater effort to design trade agreements with a view to improving regulatory quality may be a necessary condition for deepening the services coverage of trade agreements and will enhance the welfare gains from services trade liberalization.

This paper studies the determinants of liberalization commitments in the context of trade in services used as intermediate inputs. Compared to goods, services inputs are mostly complementary to other factors of production and non-tradable. We build a theoretical trade policy framework in which (i) foreign investment as a way to contest a market for non-tradable services can be restricted by the government and (ii) the role of services as complementary inputs explains unilateral commitment to services trade liberalization. Commitment helps governments to avoid political pressures that would result in protectionist measures leading downstream producers to inefficiently reduce their production. In addition we provide new results on the influence of lobbying by both national firms and foreign multinationals. We discuss how the bargaining power of the government, the size of national services sectors and the difference in valuation between national and foreign contributions affect the willingness of the government to sign a services trade agreement.

Why do governments sign services trade agreements? This paper focuses on the role of international agreements in the context of trade in services when services are used as intermediate inputs in downstream industries. Compared to goods, services inputs are mostly non-tradable and complementary to other factors of production. We build a theoretical trade policy framework in which firms use foreign investment to contest foreign markets in services sectors and governments can restrict the entry of multinationals. Commitment helps governments to avoid political pressures that would result in protectionist measures leading downstream industries to inefficiently reduce their production. First we show that the role of services as complementary inputs is central to explain governments' commitment to services trade liberalization. Second we provide new results on the influence of lobbying by both national firms and foreign multinationals on trade policies and the gains from commitment. Finally we discuss how the bargaining power of the government, the size of national services sectors and the difference in valuation between national and foreign contributions affect the willingness of the government to sign a services trade agreement.

It is well established that Geriatrics and Gerontology are specialties in their own right meriting separate tertiary and primary care training.1 Health Care for the elderly also forms a newly added subject to the field of biomedical ethics.2 Demographic studies are consistently predicting the increasing proportion of "aged" members in our global population.3 Positive conceptions of 'healthy aging' are rightly displacing negative ageist perceptions that indiscriminately cast the elderly as weak, vulnerable, or incapable of self-determination.4 When, through the natural course of aging or due to illness or injury, body or mind begin to fail, a legitimate need for intervention - and care - will arise. In this article we discuss what is morally justified for the elderly population and recommend changes necessary in Malta especially in view of the established postwar rise in the elderly population. 5 to which Malta has been no exception. The President of the Malta College of Family Doctors is of the opinion that, "As medical technology continues to develop and new treatments and health care costs escalate, governments all over the world must devise more morally explicit principles whereby health care resources are allocated". He also points out that there exist dilemmas at sectorial levels where different groups of people, with different special needs, may feel disadvantaged. The elderly, for example, he says have less priority than the young in getting `life-saving cardiac treatment', whilst benefiting from other services helping them to remain active members of society.6 No one doubts that the institutions that were available in Malta for the elderly until a few years ago left much to be desired. The phrase "Tax-Xjuh" for the elderly was associated with either "tal-Frankuni" (Mount Carmel Hospital) for the psychiatrically ill or with "L-Imgieret" (St. Vincent De Paul Residence) and many were the elderly who shied away from wanting to spend the last few years of their life in such institutions. Although changes have been recently implemented to improve the quality of care and the quality of the environment in these institutions, much still needs to be done. ; peer-reviewed