Asian Business Review

7-12

Authors: Mohammed Nafeez Al Amin

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) could the biggest trade deal in the history. The EU and the USA are in the process of, or contemplating, to sign Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) under TTIP and TPP. As, the European Union (EU) and the USA are the biggest trading partner of all the South Asian countries, such preferential tariff arrangements could lead to significant erosion of preferences enjoyed currently by the South Asian Developing Countries such as, Bangladesh and Nepal. In this backdrop, the main objective of the present study is to investigate the potential economic impacts of tariff eliminations under TPP and TTIP on various macro and trade variables of Bangladesh and Nepal. In this context, a standard computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis has been adopted by using the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model and database to explore the aggregate impact as well as sectoral implications. The analysis evinces that complete integration in terms of tariff elimination under these two mega deals, Bangladesh and Nepal could face tremendous negative impact on their economy. The analysis also suggests that Bangladesh and Nepal may consider joining to the TPP to minimize the negative economic impact due to the mentioned deals.

20-27

Authors: Donatha E. Mwase

In the recent days Sub-Saharan African counties look at floriculture as a viable alternative to boost their foreign earnings through export of cut flowers. However, while the sector is second largest contributor to foreign earnings for Kenya, Tanzania is yet to fully exploit the potential for both production and export of cut flowers. This paper was set with an aim to make comparative assessment of performance of floriculture industries in Kenya and Tanzania. The study relied mainly on secondary data obtained from International Trade Centre (ITC) database, published previous survey reports and several national policies and strategies. The findings revealed that Kenya was performing better than Tanzania in terms of quantity of cut flowers exported to different destinations in the World and in-terms of value of earnings from export of those flowers. It was observed that while the floriculture sector for both countries had been growing in the past nine years, Kenya’s performance was far beyond Tanzania’s. Among the major hurdles to the growth of Tanzania’s floriculture industry included lack of efficient air transportation, absence of a National Horticulture Policy in place, unorganized farming systems without clusters and foreigners domination of the sector. The paper recommended for a number of measures to improve performance of floriculture industry in Tanzania including need to: (a) formulate national horticulture policy to guide expansion of the sector (b)engage in strategic negotiations with big cargo Airline Companies so that they can frequently land at Kilimanjaro International Airport for easy transportation of cut flowers to the different destinations in the world and (c) launch coordinated efforts by experts from the Tanzania’s ministries of agriculture, trade, transportation and finance to draw lessons from Kenya on how to grow floriculture in the country.

33-37

Authors: Fahim Shaker

This paper tries to address various dimensions of the firm relationship that are competing in the same industry. Competitive strategies play important role for a firm's survival and to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. However, firms can also decide to cooperate with each other through mobilization of resources to ensure mutual benefit and thus promote healthy competition. A strategic dilemma may occur for competing firms to cooperate with other who traditionally believe in competition, profit orientation, and self-interest. This paper tries to address firm level responses and interactions amongst each other in various consequences by relying on exploratory method of research. Firms competing in the same industry may opt for four different strategic options named as , competition, cooperation, coexistence and coopetition. Through the literature review, different forms of firm level relationships are explained under these four strategic options. This paper argues that cooperation is beneficial and may complement healthy competition amongst competing firms.