Prompts on International Trade

(Q1) 1) Explain the principle of ‘non-discrimination’ in the provisions of the ‘most-favored-nation treatment’ in Article I of GATT, and 2) provide the grounds and conditions for exceptionally allowing Customs Union (CU) or Free Trade Area (FTA) to differentiate treatment between member and non-member countries. (Lecture 9/World Trading System/May 12)

(Q2) Explain the meaningful achievements of the 2019 Nobel Prize laureate in Economics published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in connection with the ‘Big Aid Debate’ between Dambisa Moyo, William Eastery, and Jeffrey Sachs posted in the journal ‘Huffington Post’ during June and July 2009. (Lecture 10/Big Debates in International Development/May 19)

(Q3) Provide figures for multinational companies’ share of the global economy in gross output, GDP, exports and employment, and explain the three main channels that multinational companies are using to avoid taxes, ‘Profit Shifting’. (Lecture 11/Multinational Corporation/May 26)

(Q4) KODAK and NOKIA, which once dominated the global market in the photo film and mobile phone, filed for bankruptcy and sold their business in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Explain the cause of the failure of both global companies’ management strategies using Rita McGrath’s claim in the article “The End of Competitive Advantage”(2013). In addition, there are several failure types classified by Habersang et al. in the article “Four Common Processes to Corporate Failure”(2019). Among these four, which types of management failures do you think KODAK and NOKIA fall into? (Lecture 12/Strategy of International Business/Jun 2)

(Q5) McKinsey, a consulting firm, proposes a systematic supply chain risk management framework to classify supply chain risks into four types based on the magnitude of impact and predictability and to develop countermeasures for each risk type. Using this framework, explain how to manage supply chains against the risks that can be caused by the outbreak of an epidemic, such as Covid-19, from the view of a company that imports parts, processes, and exports finished products. (Lecture 13/Global Supply Chain Management/Jun 9)

(Q6) Explain the ‘Global Standardization’ strategy presented by Theodore Levitt as a marketing strategy of a global company in his article “The Globalization of Market” (1983), in comparison to MNC’s ‘customization’ or ‘differentiation’ strategy. (Lecture 14/Global Resource Management/Jun16)

(Q7) Founded after World War II, the IMF has implemented bailout aid to nearly 40 countries that have faced economic and foreign exchange crises. Introduce the critical view of the IMF’s bailout package so far. (Lecture 15/International Monetary System/Scheduled on Jun 23)