In March of 2018, 44 African countries signed the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA) to launch what is considered as the largest free trade area in the world. The signing of the agreement has been hailed as a major breakthrough for African development by African countries and organizations as well as external observers of African affairs. This is not the first time African countries have proposed a new organizational and institutional structure for development. African countries have signed at least 13 regional trade agreements (RTAs) for intraregional trade since 1959. However, the track record of these groups has been relatively mediocre compared to RTAs elsewhere. Thus, Africa has the lowest percentage of intracontinental trade in the world.

This contributed volume takes a holistic view of the international waste trade and in doing so argues that the transfer of plastic waste from mainly Global North to primarily Global South countries constitutes a form of 21st Century colonialism. The book first describes the history of the plastic waste trade, from toxic disasters in the 1970s and 1980s through the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal in 1989 through China’s 2018 implementation of a “National Sword” policy that effectively banned importation of plastic waste. From there, the authors explore both the legal trade in plastic waste and the underground illegal trade in waste, arguing that both lead to devastating impacts on ecosystems, workers, and communities in receiving countries and highlighting how countries that receive waste are often less equipped to process it than the countries that export waste. The last section of the book presents cases from countries on the receiving end of the plastic waste trade, highlighting inherent problems from sociological and environmental justice perspectives.

This book explores how New Zealand, a small country almost as far from Western Europe as it is possible to be, assumed political importance in Britain’s accession to the European Community vastly out of proportion to its size, proximity and strategic position. At several points in accession negotiations, the issue of New Zealand’s continued trade with Britain threatened to derail UK Government attempts to join the Community. This issue also interacted with the broader context of the Cold War, economic shocks and decolonisation, materially affecting the terms of entry into the European Community, and altering Britain’s relations with its European partners and the British public’s perceptions of British membership. After entry, New Zealand continued to resurface as a continued source of tension between Britain and an integrating Europe. The role that New Zealand played sheds light on Britain’s attempts to retain global influence after the demise of its formal empire. Contributing to a growing body of research which challenges the traditional historical narratives of British ‘decline’ and colonial ‘independence’ in the second half of the twentieth century, this book fills an important gap in the historiography of Britain following the 1973 enlargement of the European Communities.

This book focuses on input trade liberalization in China and discusses the underlying causes and profound effects of Chinese enterprises facing import liberalization of intermediate input. The content of this book includes ten chapters. The analysis of this book mainly uses academic research, with policy study for a few chapters. Most chapters in this book apply the standard method of contemporary economic systems, integrating into the most advanced economic theories of international trade. The author uses theoretical models to obtain predictions which receive empirical support and carries out strict empirical research using data of China's manufacturing enterprises and China's customs to analyze the causes which affect Chinese enterprises facing import liberalization of intermediate input after China’s reform and opening-up.

In ancient Mediterranean cultures, diamonds were thought to endow their owners with invincibility.