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Cover -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 Concepts and Definitions -- 2 Demand and Supply - Market Mechanisms for Agricultural Products -- 3 Government Intervention in Agriculture -- 4 The Common Agricultural Policy -- 5 Technology and Innovation -- 6 A Wider European Union: Enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe, Cyprus and Malta -- 7 The EU as an Agricultural Trade Partner -- 8 Agricultural Trade Liberalization -- Conclusions: The Future of EU and World Agriculture - The Challenges Ahead -- Index.

Economic dynamism in the People?s Republic of China over the past two decades, in contrast with sluggish growth in an enlarged European Union, makes the examination of contemporary and future EU?China economic relations all the more relevant. This examination is done by highlighting complementary and opposing forces between the two regions. It underlines the asymmetry in the trade relationship ? with a growing EU trade deficit ? and a declining share of EU foreign direct investment since the peak years in the late 1990s.
In terms of trade patterns, a certain degree of complementarity still exists between the two regions, with China relatively engaged in low-knowledge-intensive industries (such as office machinery and computers), although the move up the value chain is rapid. This still leaves scope for a manufacturing?services complementarity. Areas of possible rivalry include the perception, by the EU, of an ?unfair? Chinese competition, the opacity of the Chinese market, and allegations of dumping by Chinese firms, an issue related to its non-market economy status.
In the future, the fifth enlargement may lessen the complementarity (and therefore increase the level of competition), thus generating another challenge. Faced with these numerous challenges, a number of solutions are proffered, among which are multilateralism and cooperation on energy issues.

Since the 1973 publication of Alain Peyrefitte's prophetic When China Awakens, developments in East Asia have outstripped even the wildest predictions. China has undergone the fastest industrialization and urbanization process in history, yet tensions there are rising as some realize how far they have been left behind. This volume explores the applicability of European economic and social models to our analysis of East Asia's and, in particular, China's situation. Though millions of Chinese and other Asian people have been lifted out of poverty, inequality is rising nonetheless, and contemporary Europe and Asia are both witnessing collective action against rampant economic neoliberalism in the former and the exclusion of minorities in the latter. It is difficult to overstate the relevance of this assessment, which seeks answers to some central questions: Can events in Europe serve as a model for those in East Asia? Are there similarities or differences between the two regions? To what extent do political, economic or social systems stimulate or inhibit collective action? How culturally equivalent are the collective actions of marginalized/ disadvantaged people in the two locations, or are events in Europe symptomatic of specific cultural attributes? Comparing and contrasting the research tools and dominant paradigms in the social and economic sciences in East Asia and Europe, as this volume does, throws out some revealing results.

This book looks at the new configuration taken by Asia-Europe economic relations. It is set against the background of the inclusion of China in the WTO, the growth of foreign investors from emerging Asian countries, and the economic reforms in a number of crisis-hit South East Asian economies. It is written by a number of well established European and Asian scholars from the fields of economics as well as management. The different chapters in the book highlight key contemporary issues from theoretical, conceptual and empirical perspectives. Provides an account of the key contemporary issues in the area of Asia-Europe economic relationsBy its interdisciplinary (connecting management with economics), it shows how the linking of the different disciplines is essential to understand the key issues at stake in the areaCan be used by students, researchers, as well as by practitioners

peer-reviewed ; With the September 2014 'Umbrella Revolution' in Hong Kong, China faced one of the biggest political challenges since the Tiananmen Square events. Beijing's proposed electoral reform was perceived as a direct attack to democracy, and the ensuing protest triggered concerns amid local and international investors; the financial sector took the hardest hit, with stocks of companies exposed to the Hong Kong market facing significant losses. Volatility continued to increase to a seven-month high over worries that the student blockade in Hong Kong's streets could drag on for longer than expected. The econometric-based analysis in this paper looks at the implications of the protest and its spillover effect on the Hang Seng Index with a focus on sectoral performance. The ultimate objective is to gain a better understanding of the impact of the protests on different stocks and sectors with the goal of identifying market vulnerability and potential volatility patterns.

peer-reviewed ; Global financial markets have entered a state of collective hysteria triggered by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 suggesting that Covid-19 is a financial market "black swan" event. The impact of Covid-19 on the world's leading stock markets is examined with the help of spectral causality and the well-known Granger causality model. The core research findings indicate that markets did not react to volatility levels exhibited by the Shanghai stock market, with China being identified as the epicentre of the virus outbreak. Markets awoke to the virus global threat when Italy registered its first cases, with the Italian stock market being the one that activated European fears. Global uncertainty escalated to reach a global financial dimension with global markets entering in free fall by the end of February 2020 due to the lack of active and coordinated responses from politicians and monetary authorities.

Global financial markets have entered a state of collective hysteria triggered by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 suggesting that Covid-19 is a financial market "black swan" event. The impact of Covid-19 on the world's leading stock markets is examined with the help of spectral causality and the well-known Granger causality model. The core research findings indicate that markets did not react to volatility levels exhibited by the Shanghai stock market, with China being identified as the epicentre of the virus outbreak. Markets awoke to the virus global threat when Italy registered its first cases, with the Italian stock market being the one that activated European fears. Global uncertainty escalated to reach a global financial dimension with global markets entering in free fall by the end of February 2020 due to the lack of active and coordinated responses from politicians and monetary authorities.

The impact of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as the 45th US president in the context of stock market reactions and economic policy uncertainty (EPU) within three key zones in 'the Greater China Region' (Hong Kong, Taiwan and China Mainland) are examined in this article. The chosen research period is from January 2014 to June 2017, and the EPU Index in the USA and the UK is used as a proxy to measure political uncertainty in two of the world major economies and how they impact on the Chinese stock market. The main contribution of the article can be found in the analysis of how stock market performance can be driven by policy-related uncertainty shocks in the international context. The results show that the stock markets in the 'Greater China Region' did not seem to react either to the uncertainty generated by Brexit or to the election of Donald Trump, implying that the Chinese stock markets appear to be quite resilient to the recent political events that have been disrupting the global economy.

peer-reviewed ; An examination of Brexit and its initial impact on the main stock markets in the Greater China Region (GCR) was conducted using augmented market models that integrate Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) and implied volatility (VIX). The results do not seem to align with research in the field that has suggested that the EPU index helps to identify if market participants are reacting to political events. The main research findings suggest that Brexit does not appear to have an impact on the performance of market returns in the region and the influence of economic policy uncertainty in the GCR appears to be insignificant, except for Hong Kong. Overall, China's stock markets do not seem to be panicking and overreacting to unfolding events in the UK, and market instability in the region appears to be more associated with global and regional events that are better captured by the VIX index.