BUSINESS LAW

Business Law

Business Law

Introduction

In this paper, we will discuss the differences in UK after is a membership with EEC. The EEC is an example of Regional Trade Agreements. Such agreements are bilateral in nature and establish different rules for trading with members versus non-members. During the 1960s, several countries applied for membership in the EEC: Ireland, Denmark and the United Kingdom in 1961; Norway in 1962. Negotiations with all four countries were suspended by the EEC in January 1963 after General Charles de Gaulle, then President of France, expressed doubt about the will of the UK to join the EEC. The four countries reapplied for membership in 1967; however, none of the applications were approved in the 1960s. The 1970s marked a dramatic shift in attitudes to "enlargement" in membership (Walter, 1962).

UK membership EEC

In 1960, there was a flight from U.S. dollars to gold as countries sought to protect themselves. In 1961, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, West Germany, the U.K., the U.S. and France formed the Gold Pool designed to hold the U.S. dollar price of gold steady (by pooling gold holdings of members of the Gold Pool). It was recognized that the international financial system needed another key monetary unit to supplement the U.S. dollar and resolve the Liquidity/ Confidence problems. At a 1967 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, the members of the IMF agreed in principle to the creation of a new form of international liquidity called the Special Drawing Right. While agreed to in principle, the first allocation of SDRs did not take place until 1970. "Popular" discussions concerning globalization since the mid-1980s make it sound as if this process is new. However, economic historians point out that the process of globalization actually started in the latter half of the 1800s, and the trade liberalization that started in the 1940s-1950 should be viewed as phase 2 of the process that began in the 1800s and ended in about 1913 just ahead of the start of the First World War in 1914. As shown in Table 1, world exports as a proportion of world GDP more than doubled between 1850 and 1913. The liberalization process stopped in 1913 and would not pick up again until 1950. The proportion of world GDP accounted for by exports in 1950 was below the proportion in 1880! It took until 1973 for the exports/GDP ratio to catch up to where it was in 1913 (Paul, 1971).

Results after membership in EEC

UK growth has been consistently strong. Its powerful demand for natural resource products has impacted world prices. Also, China has been making considerable investments in various regions of the world, especially in Africa, to aid with its need for resources to sustain its strong growth. India has made its growth in computer and information systems and as a call center for firms in various developed countries to take advantage of the low labor costs in India. India's growth has not been as widespread, or as strong, as ...