Sustaining International Trade with China: Does ACFTA Improve ASEAN Export Efficiency?

The business of international trade has never been identified as zero-sum. Yet, dependence on regional agreements to provide alternate means for countries to overlook shortcomings persists. China’s recent rise up the trade value-chain has fostered an assumption that the regional agreement provides various advantages to exports from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries. This paper provides an empirical assessment of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) impact on ASEAN export efficiency into the Chinese market, in pre and post eras. Using a structured gravity approach to estimate potential export pattern at aggregate and industry level, this research indicates that though not consistent across years, the ACFTA offers improvements to ASEAN exports to China. No clear effects of the ACFTA can be extrapolated from the years surrounding the initial signing (Article 8—2004). However, following its full enactment (2010), the ACFTA resulted in more sustainable trade from ASEAN members towards China, at both the industry and country levels. While seeing improvements in export efficiency during its era, ACFTA’s facilitation of efficiency measures with China came at no expense to other major export destinations.

Assessment of the Trade Integration Pattern Between the Russian Federation and East/Southeast Asian Economies Using the Panel Gravity Framework

This study is the first attempt to investigate the patterns of imports and exports between the Russian Federation and East/Southeast Asian economies, namely, the People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Macau, China; Japan; the Republic of Korea; Mongolia; Cambodia; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Brunei; Indonesia; Malaysia; Myanmar; the Philippines; Singapore; Thailand; and Vietnam. To this end, a panel gravity trade model with series from 2001 to 2017 is provided to estimate the gravity variables in our models. The results reveal that GDP and income are more important in the export pattern from the Russian Federation to the East Asian region, meaning that the economic size and the income of the population in East Asian economies are more important in this pattern than other variables. Moreover, Russia's export pattern with the East Asian region follows the Heckscher–Ohlin hypothesis, while Russia's import pattern with this region is in line with the Linder hypothesis.

Assessment of the Ukrainian Industries’ Participation in Global Value Added Chains

The article aims at assessing the Ukrainian industries’ participation in global value-added chains and identifying prospects for intensifying these processes. The research methods used are the following: statistical analysis, comparison, and graphical analysis. The rise of the role of exporting products with high added value, as well as that of their integration into global value creation chains has been identified. A methodical approach to assessing the Ukrainian industries’ participation in global value creation chains is proposed, making it possible to determine the level of the country’s involvement in the process of international labor division by industries. The export pattern of Ukrainian industries has been analyzed, and the industries that have a significant export share in total exports and in the output composition have been identified. The main indicators of the country’s participation in global value-added chains have been calculated, namely: the national value added in the country’s exports by industry; the contribution of certain sectors of the economy to the national value added of gross exports; the share of the total national gross exports value added accounting for the national value added in specific industries. The positioning of industries in the plane of coordinates ‘share in the exports pattern – share in the national value added in exports’ has been carried out. It has been determined that the share of national value added in the exports of Ukrainian extractive industries is higher than the average one in the countries surveyed, while in the manufacturing sphere it is lower, which confirms the nearly total lack of knowledge-intensive and innovative stages of manufacturing in the latter, thus raising the share of low-grade products in exports. Several directions of the rational integration of Ukraine’s economy into global value added chains have been suggested. State policy measures to intensify the involvement of Ukrainian producers in global value added chains have been designed

The non-conservative distribution pattern of organic matter in Rajang, a tropical river with peatland in its estuary

South-east Asian peatland-draining rivers have attracted much attention due to their high dissolved organic carbon (DOC) yield and high CO2 emissions under anthropogenic activities. In August 2016, we carried out a field investigation of the Rajang river and estuary, a tropical system located in Sarawak, Malaysia. The Rajang has peatland in its estuary while the river basin is covered by tropical rainforest. DOC δ13C in the Rajang ranged from −28.7 ‰ to −20.1 ‰ and a U-shaped trend from river to estuary was identified. For particulate organic carbon (POC), the δ13C ranged between −29.4 ‰ to −31.1 ‰ in the river and a clear increasing trend towards more δ13C -enriched with higher salinity existed in the estuary. In the estuary, there was a linear conservative dilution pattern for dissolved organic matter composition (as quantified by D/L amino acids enantiomers) plotted against DOC δ13C, whereas when plotted against salinity dissolved D/L amino acids enantiomers values were higher than the theoretical dilution value. Together, these data indicate that the addition of DOC in estuary (by peatland) not only increased the DOC concentration, but also altered its composition, by adding more bio-degraded, 13C-depleted organic matter into the bulk dissolved organic matter. Alteration of organic matter composition (adding of more degraded subpart) was also apparent for the particulate phase, but patterns were less clear. The Rajang was characterized by DOC / DON ratios of 50 in the river section, with loss of DON in the estuary increased the ratio to 140, suggesting the unbalanced export pattern for organic carbon and nitrogen, respectively. Under anthropogenic activities, further assessment of organic carbon to nitrogen ratio is needed.