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    Trade cost and its impact on agri-food trade growth among China, EU and ASEAN : in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of AgriCommerce, Massey University, Palmerstone North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Fang, Ling
    Trade cost is broadly defined to include all costs incurred in getting a good to a final user other than the marginal cost of producing the good itself. According to Anderson and van Wincoop (2003), a rough estimate of the tax equivalent trade costs for industrialized countries is 170 percent. While compared to industrial products, agricultural goods suffer more from trade cost due to its low value to volume ratio and perishable characteristic as well as high protection in both developed and developing economies. By using the trade cost index developed by Dennis Novy (2013), this study examines the trade costs and its relationship with trade growth among China, EU, and ASEAN in agricultural sector. The results indicate that first, although the bilateral agricultural trade among these three economies have been growing steadily over last fifteen years, their trade costs are still high. In particular, the average trade cost between China and EU is about 633 percent tax equivalent. Secondly, economic growth is still the key driver of trade expansion. The contribution of trade cost reduction varies among trading pairs. In the case of China & ASEAN and EU & ASEAN, its impact is limited. But, in the case of China and EU, it contributes over half of the overall trade growth. Combined with the fact that China now has converted from a net exporter to a net importer of EU’s agricultural products, a further trade liberalization between these two could possibly increase bilateral trade significantly. Thirdly, the reduction of multilateral trade barriers diverts large amount of bilateral trade. The trade diversion effect of regional trade agreement is one possible reason. Finally, compared to distance, which is a static number, the trade cost index has a better explanatory power. It is time sensitive, more comprehensive, and not hard to compute.
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    The Prospect for an Australian–Asian Power Grid: A Critical Appraisal
    (MDPI AG, 15/01/2018) Halawa E; Shi X; Nepal R; Sari NH; James G
    Australia is an energy net self-sufficient country rich in energy resources, from fossil-based to renewable energy. Australia, a huge continent with low population density, has witnessed impressive reduction in energy consumption in various sectors of activity in recent years. Currently, coal and natural gas are two of Australia's major export earners, yet its abundant renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, and tidal, are still underutilized. The majority of Asian countries, on the other hand, are in the middle of economic expansion, with increasing energy consumption and lack of energy resources or lack of energy exploration capability becoming a serious challenge. Electricity interconnection linking two or more independent grids within a country or at cross-border or regional levels has found its way into electricity markets worldwide. This concept allows for electricity exchanges that lead to optimized use and sharing of electricity generated from different sources. The interconnection also enables the long distance exploitation of renewable energy which would otherwise be physically impossible. ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and other regional groupings in Asia have initiated a number of interconnections to gain economic benefits. Asian's hunger for energy for its economic development, climate change that has become a global and urgent issue to be solved, and Australia's abundant renewable energy resources have all prompted increasing interest in a super-grid interconnection linking Australia to Asian grids, the Australian-Asian (Power) Grid (AAG). This paper overviews the existing grid interconnections as well as current initiatives at domestic, sub-regional, and regional levels worldwide, with a particular focus on Asia. The paper concludes with a critical appraisal on the benefits, potential, challenges and issues to be encountered by the AAG initiative.