Trends Reshaping International Business Theory and Policy

In this research, the Author focuses on the analysis trends reshaping international business theory and policy. According to the foreign trade policy theory, further trade liberalisation and improved framework policies would increase trade and promote growth. It must be emphasised that openness to trade is associated with higher incomes and growth and there is the necessity for the new approaches towards trade cooperation within the forces that are currently reshaping international business. The introduction of the new models of foreign trade policy and trade interests indicates the importance and innovativeness of the research. First of all, it must be underlined that the specificity factor is crucial in the new theoretical terms in demand for trade policy. The low specificity of factors means that factor returns are equalised throughout a region’s economy. On the other hand, some factors are stuck in their present uses; therefore, factor returns are not equalised throughout a region’s economy but are industry specific. It is important to underline that a few companies are responsible for a major share of the world trade and the rise of global supply chains. On the one hand, these companies should support regulatory harmonisation across different Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) in order to lower trade costs. Differently, they might also resist harmonisation – and encourage specific non-tariff measures – in order to prevent new competitors from entering markets. The previous statement partly explains the persistence of regulatory divergence, and it also suggests that the political economy of regulatory convergence may be more critical and more complicated than it is sometimes suggested, especially in the conditions of the rise of the global supply chains.