Hasil untuk "Trade associations"

Moshe Babaioff, Aviad Rubinstein, Xizhi Tan et al.

A central challenge in mechanism design is to develop truthful trade mechanisms that maximize the expected gains-from-trade (GFT) in two-sided markets with strategic agents. As achieving the full GFT is generally impossible, much of the literature has focused on constant-factor approximations. Existing results, however, are limited to the highly structured settings of bilateral trade and double auctions, in which every buyer can trade with every seller. We consider the significantly more general setting of two-sided matching markets with arbitrary downward-closed constraints on the family of allowed matchings. For this setting, we present a simple randomized truthful mechanism that guarantees a constant-factor approximation to the optimal expected GFT. This result also resolves an open problem posed by Cai, Goldner, Ma, and Zhao (2021).

Douglas L. Larson, Travis O. Brenden, Edward A. Baker et al.

Abstract Long-lived iteroparous organisms vary resource expenditures toward migration and reproduction in response to individual physical factors and conspecific interactions, which can affect future reproductive timing and interval. Reproductive actions can lead to trade-offs associated with allocations to current vs. future reproduction, including longer reproductive interval, require additional study. The objective of this study was to evaluate associations between physical stream characteristics, individual behaviors, and breeding demographics and spawning periodicity in lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens). We used Radio Frequency Identification tags to monitor spawning migration by male (N = 1931) and female (N = 683) adults over seven consecutive years (2016 through 2022) in the Black River, Cheboygan Co., MI. We used ordinal regression models to quantify associations. Male spawning periodicity (1.60 ± 0.63 years; mean ± SE) decreased with increasing body size and intra-sex interactions and increased with increasing cumulative temperature, discharge, number of inter-sex interactions, and complete river migrations in a season. Female spawning periodicity (3.19 ± 0.05 years, mean ± SE) decreased with increasing upstream swimming time and inter-sex interactions. Results demonstrated spawning periodicity shortened as male lake sturgeon age, and future breeding opportunities decreased, while female periodicity may be more individualized and is more likely to be affected by resource acquisition.

Lidia Truxius, Judith Sägesser Wyss, Michelle N. Maurer et al.

IntroductionLearning to write is a complex task involving peripheral (e.g., handwriting speed and legibility) and central (e.g., spelling) processes. Coordinating these processes is particularly demanding for novice writers who have not yet automated their handwriting skills. To better support children in developing handwriting, it is crucial to understand the development and interactions of these peripheral and central processes over time.MethodsThis longitudinal study (n = 363; 49.8% girls) investigated the development and interrelations of handwriting speed (time spent on writing tasks), legibility, and spelling in German-speaking first-grade children (Mage = 7 years) across 12 months. The children were assessed at three time points, spaced 6 months apart, from the beginning of the first grade to the start of the second grade.Results and discussionWhile performance in all domains of handwriting (time, legibility, and spelling) improved over the school year, these skills were particularly strongly interrelated at the beginning of writing acquisition but became increasingly independent towards the second grade. Surprisingly, the results from the structural equation model showed that the relations between handwriting legibility and time reversed over time: Initially, faster handwriting was associated with more legible handwriting, while with increasing practice a trade-off appeared. Furthermore, when considering cross-lagged paths, the structural equation model revealed that handwriting legibility at the beginning of the first grade significantly predicted subsequent handwriting time and spelling abilities at the end of the school year. In summary, handwriting proficiency stabilizes quickly, while patterns of associations between peripheral and central handwriting processes change across the first year of handwriting instruction.

Seyed Mehrdad Mohammadi, Pamela Ling, Dorie E. Apollonio et al.

Introduction The waterpipe tobacco sector is a fragmented and multifaceted part of the tobacco industry, including shisha tobacco, hookah devices, and the hospitality industry. Information on this sector's business structure and its actors is limited. This study aims to develop a framework for understanding the scope, business entities, and key actors in the waterpipe sector in the United States that can facilitate research and public health interventions. Methods We first identified a sample of 87 waterpipe-related business entities through internet searches and business intelligence reports provided by marketing research companies. Using grounded theory, we then identified key business components and themes within the waterpipe sector, which we iteratively refined through successive rounds of analysis. Results We identified and defined eight domains in the waterpipe tobacco sector: 1) waterpipe tobacco growers, 2) shisha tobacco manufacturers, 3) hookah device and accessories manufacturers, 4) waterpipe charcoal manufacturers, 5) shisha/ hookah/charcoal resellers or retailers, 6) waterpipe tobacco service providers and the hospitality sector, 7) waterpipe tobacco networks and trade associations, and 8) aggregated sales. Within these 8 domains, 46 fields of information were identified to construct a detailed information grid for the waterpipe tobacco sector. Conclusions This comprehensive framework and information grid offer a reference base for research, monitoring, and understanding of the waterpipe tobacco sector. Additionally, it can support efforts to improve regulation of the sector in the United States.

Gaetan de Rassenfosse

Intellectual property (IP) rules have the potential to shape cross-border trade far more than their legalistic origins might suggest. Drawing on three decades of evidence, this review shows that stronger IP rights simultaneously create market-power forces that raise prices and market-expansion forces that broaden demand, while dynamic incentives spur quality upgrading and new export varieties. Micro-data and quasi-natural experiments after TRIPS reveal that IP most often boosts trade along the extensive margin and redirects some activity toward licensing and foreign investment. Policy bundling and measurement gaps on the strength of IP rights still cloud causal inference. Future work must map intangible flows and enforcement quality to capture the digital, data-driven frontier of international commerce.

Yan Li, Carol Alexander, Michael Coulon et al.

This study investigates the inherently random structures of dry bulk shipping networks, often likened to a taxi service, and identifies the underlying trade dynamics that contribute to this randomness within individual cargo sub-networks. By analysing micro-level trade flow data from 2015 to 2023, we explore the evolution of dry commodity networks, including grain, coal, and iron ore, and suggest that the Giant Strongly Connected Components exhibit small-world phenomena, indicative of efficient bilateral trade. The significant heterogeneity of in-degree and out-degree within these sub-networks, primarily driven by importing ports, underscores the complexity of their dynamics. Our temporal analysis shows that while the Covid-19 pandemic profoundly impacted the coal network, the Ukraine conflict significantly altered the grain network, resulting in changes in community structures. Notably, grain sub-networks display periodic changes, suggesting distinct life cycles absent in coal and iron ore networks. These findings illustrate that the randomness in dry bulk shipping networks is a reflection of real-world trade dynamics, providing valuable insights for stakeholders in navigating and predicting network behaviours.

Haibo Wang, Lutfu Sua

This study examines the relationship between trade openness, logistics performance, and economic growth within G20 economies. Using a Bootstrap Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model augmented by a dynamic error correction mechanism (ECM), the analysis quantifies both short run and long run effects of trade facilitation and logistics infrastructure, measured via the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index (LPI) from 2007 to 2023, on economic growth. The G20, as a consortium of the world's leading economies, exhibits significant variation in logistics efficiency and degrees of trade openness, providing a robust context for comparative analysis. The ARDL-ECM approach, reinforced by bootstrap resampling, delivers reliable estimates even in the presence of small samples and complex variable linkages. Findings are intended to inform policymakers seeking to enhance trade competitiveness and economic development through targeted investment in infrastructure and regulatory reforms supporting trade facilitation. The results underscore the critical role of efficient logistics specifically customs administration, physical infrastructure, and shipment reliability in driving international trade and fostering sustained economic growth. Improvements in these areas can substantially increase a country's trade capacity and overall economic performance.

Elena Valioniene, Erika Zuperkiene, Birute Placiene

Seaports are pivotal nodes in global trade, under increasing pressure to expedite green transitions while navigating the complexities of modern economic and environmental challenges. This research investigates the intricate relationship between the resilience of port organizational ecosystems and the successful implementation of green transitions. Employing a combination of focus group interviews and participatory observation, the study explores the primary obstacles, particularly the insufficiency of managerial capacity, which hampers the integration of technological innovations. Challenges identified include outdated infrastructure, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and the imperative for sustained investment in new technologies, along with the need to promote a culture of sustainability. Experts highlight the crucial role of managerial competencies and continuous learning in overcoming these barriers. Furthermore, the research underscores the importance of fostering strong partnerships among stakeholders, including government bodies, industry associations, and environmental organizations. The findings offer valuable insights for policymakers, port managers, and other stakeholders seeking to navigate the challenges for ensuring a sustainable future for the maritime sport organizational ecosystems and maritime industry.

A. M. Maksimov, T. A. Blynskaya

Introduction. The purpose of this article is the finding social functions of older Russian citizens in economic, domestic and public domains and also assessment of the expression level of these functions in the Russian Arctic in comparison with the all-Russian situation. The importance of the article's topic is due to the steady trend of aging of the Russian population and the need to rethink the role of older citizens in various spheres of life. The research novelty lies in the systematization of data on the involvement of older Russians in labor, social and domestic and public activities, as well as in the comparison of related allRussian trends with the corresponding processes in the Russian Arctic.Methodology and sources. The theoretical basis of the study is the papers of foreign and Russian authors specializing in the social aspects of aging, social practices in which the older people are involved, their reintegration into the economy and the public sphere. The empirical content of the article is based on a comparative analysis of state statistics, survey research and the authors' own data, obtained as a result of the in-depth interviews with older Russians, who living in the Russian Arctic territories.Results and discussion. Employment of the older people shows declining dynamics until –20 both in Russia as a whole and in the Russian Arctic. At the same time, in the Arctic the proportion of working older citizens has remained consistently higher than the Russian average over the past decade. In the social and domestic sphere, the importance of the elderly in caring for children is high - in Russia in recent years about a 1/3 of the older people perform this function. However, in the Russian Arctic, the share of such people, conversely, has decreased and equal less than 1/5. The activities of public associations involve a minimal number of older citizens. The majority of them are members of trade unions, and in the Russian Arctic they constitute more than half of the total number of those involved in public activity.Conclusion. The implementation degree of social functions of older people has the specific in the Russian Arctic territories, caused by the unfavorable demographic situation, shortage of labor resources and high cost of living. This explains the higher older people employment in the arctic regions compared to Russia on average. Other indicators reflecting the social functions of Russian Arctic' older residents are close in their values to the all-Russian ones.

Fernando Chisnes-Espitia

The paper analyzes the relation between economic elites and the Colombian State around the development credit policy. It explores specifically the term between 1958 and 1974 and studies State capture expression in the developmental period, it deepens in the way in which elites define or influence in the credit policy direction. The case of study allows to reveal the ways in which the State acquire more autonomy regard elites. The argument is that State autonomy depends on two main factors: the level o dependency of high bureaucracies regarding economic elites on one side, and the relational process of the Sate with the social groups involved in the specific policy. Using a Social Network analysis related to the high bureaucracies of the Central Bank of Colombia and the study of interactions between produces associations (as organized agent of the economic elites) with the State it studies the mechanism in which the relation State and economic elites impact the specific policy of development credit.

Emily Crawford Das, Jingzhi Tie, Qing Zhang

This paper is concerned with an optimal strategy for simultaneously trading a pair of stocks. The idea of pairs trading is to monitor their price movements and compare their relative strength over time. A pairs trade is triggered by the divergence of their prices and consists of a pair of positions to short the strong stock and to long the weak one. Such a strategy bets on the reversal of their price strengths. A round-trip trading strategy refers to opening and closing such a pair of security positions. Typical pairs-trading models usually assume a difference of the stock prices satisfies a mean-reversion equation. However, we consider the optimal pairs-trading problem by allowing the stock prices to follow general geometric Brownian motions. The objective is to trade the pairs over time to maximize an overall return with a fixed commission cost for each transaction. Initially, we allow the initial pairs position to be either long or flat. We then consider the problem when the initial pairs position may be long, flat, or short. In each case, the optimal policy is characterized by threshold curves obtained by solving the associated HJB equations.

Yin-Ting Zhang, Wei-Xing Zhou

International food trade is a growing complement to gaps in domestic food supply and demand, but it is vulnerable to disruptions due to some unforeseen shocks. This paper assembles the international crop trade networks using maize, rice, soybean, and wheat trade data sets from 1986 to 2020. We assess the importance of economies using multidimensional node importance metrics. We analyze the correlation structure of different node important metrics based on the random matrix theory and incorporate 20 metrics into a single metric. We find that some metrics have many similarities and dissimilarities, especially for metrics based on the same trade flow directions. We also find that European economies have a significant impact on the iCTNs. Additionally, economies with poor crop production play a major role in import trade, whereas economies with higher food production or smaller populations are crucial to export trade. Our findings have practical implications for identifying key economies in the international crop trade networks, preventing severe damage to the food trade system caused by trade disruptions in some economies, maintaining the stability of the food supply, and ensuring food security.

Chao Pan, Ryan Gabrys, Xujun Liu et al.

Trades, introduced by Hedayat, are two sets of blocks of elements which may be exchanged (traded) without altering the counts of certain subcollections of elements within their constituent blocks. They are of importance in applications where certain combinations of elements dynamically become prohibited from being placed in the same group of elements, since in this case one can trade the offending blocks with allowed ones. This is particularly the case in distributed storage systems, where due to privacy and other constraints, data of some groups of users cannot be stored together on the same server. We introduce a new class of balanced trades, important for access balancing of servers, and perturbation resilient balanced trades, important for studying the stability of server access frequencies with respect to changes in data popularity. The constructions and bounds on our new trade schemes rely on specialized selections of defining sets in minimal trades and number-theoretic analyses.

Sudo Yi, Deok-Sun Lee

We study the structure of the international trade hypergraph consisting of triangular hyperedges representing the exporter-importer-product relationship. Measuring the mean hyperdegree of the adjacent vertices, we first find its behaviors different from those in the pairwise networks and explain the origin by tracing the relation between the hyperdegree and the pairwise degree. To interpret the observed hyperdegree correlation properties in the context of trade strategies, we decompose the correlation into two components by identifying one with the background correlation remnant even in the exponential random hypergraphs preserving the given empirical hyperdegree sequence. The other component characterizes the net correlation and reveals the bias of the exporters of low hyperdegree towards the importers of high hyperdegree and the products of low hyperdegree, which information is not readily accessible in the pairwise networks. Our study demonstrates the power of the hypergraph approach in the study of real-world complex systems and offers a theoretical framework.

Debanjan Datta, Sathappan Muthiah, John Simeone et al.

Timber and forest products made from wood, like furniture, are valuable commodities, and like the global trade of many highly-valued natural resources, face challenges of corruption, fraud, and illegal harvesting. These grey and black market activities in the wood and forest products sector are not limited to the countries where the wood was harvested, but extend throughout the global supply chain and have been tied to illicit financial flows, like trade-based money laundering, document fraud, species mislabeling, and other illegal activities. The task of finding such fraudulent activities using trade data, in the absence of ground truth, can be modelled as an unsupervised anomaly detection problem. However existing approaches suffer from certain shortcomings in their applicability towards large scale trade data. Trade data is heterogeneous, with both categorical and numerical attributes in a tabular format. The overall challenge lies in the complexity, volume and velocity of data, with large number of entities and lack of ground truth labels. To mitigate these, we propose a novel unsupervised anomaly detection -- Contrastive Learning based Heterogeneous Anomaly Detection (CHAD) that is generally applicable for large-scale heterogeneous tabular data. We demonstrate our model CHAD performs favorably against multiple comparable baselines for public benchmark datasets, and outperforms them in the case of trade data. More importantly we demonstrate our approach reduces assumptions and efforts required hyperparameter tuning, which is a key challenging aspect in an unsupervised training paradigm. Specifically, our overarching objective pertains to detecting suspicious timber shipments and patterns using Bill of Lading trade record data. Detecting anomalous transactions in shipment records can enable further investigation by government agencies and supply chain constituents.

Banchev A, Batorova A, Faganel Kotnik B et al.

Atanas Banchev,1 Angelika Batorova,2 Barbara Faganel Kotnik,3 Csongor Kiss,4 Gediminas Puras,5 Ester Zapotocka,6 Silva Zupancic-Salek7 On behalf of the Patient Advocacy Group1Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University Hospital ‘Tzaritza Giovanna – ISUL’, Sofia, Bulgaria; 2National Hemophilia Center, Department of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University and University Hospital, Bratislava, Slovakia; 3Department of Oncology and Hematology, University Children’s Hospital, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia; 4Department of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Institute of Pediatrics, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary; 5Department of Medical Affairs CEER, Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AG, Basel, Switzerland; 6Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, University Hospital Motol, Prague, Czech Republic; 7Department of Medicine, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Zagreb, CroatiaCorrespondence: Silva Zupancic-SalekDepartment of Medicine, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Rebro, Kispatic Str 12, Zagreb, 10 000, CroatiaTel +385 1 337 5199Fax +385 1 332 4650Email silva.zupancic-salek@zg.htnet.hrBackground: Information about the impact of hemophilia on daily living and information preferences for patients and their caregivers in Central Europe has been limited.Methods: This cross-national survey was conducted between April 1 and October 15, 2020 and utilized a self-administered questionnaire to collect data (Typeform™) from people living with hemophilia in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. The questionnaire included 22 questions regarding difficulties in daily life and preferences for receiving hemophilia-related information. Respondents were stratified into two main groups, people with hemophilia (PwH) or their caregivers (CPwH). Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: Of the 364 respondents, 232 were PwH (63.7%) and 132 were CPwH (36.3%). In total, 70.3% of hemophilia patients/caregivers responded that they are kept sufficiently informed about life with hemophilia, with 68.0%, 59.1% and 56.3% of respondents obtaining information from their physicians, patient associations and via digital media (internet and social media), respectively. However, 97.8% of respondents expressed an interest in additional information, particularly new hemophilia treatment options (62.1%), which in contrast to other topics was indicated most frequently by both patients and caregivers in all six countries. Most frequent difficulties in everyday life with hemophilia were identified as mobility problems (41.8%), unexpected bleeding (38.5%), pain (35.4%), and uncertainty with what they can or cannot do (25.0%). During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, 52.5% of respondents reported that they did not experience any major change in daily living with hemophilia.Conclusion: Based on our Central European survey, hemophilia mostly affects peoples’ lives by causing mobility difficulties, unexpected bleeding, pain and uncertainty in daily activities. Although the majority of respondents reported being educated about hemophilia, most PwH and CPwH respondents sought additional information, highlighting the need for continuous personalized patient education to cope with present challenges.Keywords: Central Europe, cross-national survey, hemophilia, patient preference, information sources

Ummuhabeeba Chaliyan, Mini P. Thomas

This study investigates whether a uni-directional or bi-directional causal relationship exists between financial development and international trade for Indian economy, during the time period from 1980 to 2019. The empirical analysis utilizes three measures of financial development created by IMF, namely, financial institutional development index, financial market development index and a composite index of financial development, encompassing dimensions of financial access, depth and efficiency. Johansen cointegration, vector error correction model and vector auto regressive model are estimated to examine the long run relationship and short run dynamics among the variables of interest. The econometric results indicate that there is indeed a long run causal relationship between the composite index of financial development and trade openness. Cointegration is also found to exist between trade openness and index of financial market development. However, there is no evidence of cointegration between financial institutional development and trade openness. Granger causality test results indicate the presence of uni-directional causality running from composite index of financial development to trade openness. Financial market development is also found to Granger cause trade openness. In contrast, trade openness is found to promote financial institutional development in the short run. Empirical evidence thus underlines the importance of formulating policies which recognize the role of well-developed financial markets in accelerating international trade of Indian economy.

Akira Okada, Yasuhiro Shirata

We investigate the formation of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in a competing importers framework with $n$ countries. We show that (i) FTA formation causes a negative externality to non-participants, (ii) a non-participant is willing to join an FTA, and (iii) new participation may decrease the welfare of incumbent participants. A unique subgame perfect equilibrium of a sequential FTA formation game does not achieve global free trade under an open-access rule where a new applicant needs consent of members for accession, currently employed by many open regionalism agreements including APEC. We further show that global FTA is a unique subgame perfect equilibrium under an open-access rule without consent.

AL-Eitan LN, Elsaqa BZ, Almasri AY et al.

Laith N AL-Eitan,1 Barakat Z Elsaqa,2 Ayah Y Almasri,1 Hatem A Aman,1 Rame H Khasawneh,3 Mansour A Alghamdi4,5 1Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Science and Arts, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Jordan; 2Faculty of Medicine, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Jordan; 3Department of Hematopathology, King Hussein Medical Center (KHMC), Royal Medical Services (RMS), Amman 11118, Jordan; 4Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabi; 5Genomics and Personalized Medicine Unit, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Laith N AL-EitanDepartment of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Science and Arts, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid 22110, JordanTel +962-2-7201000 ext 23464Email lneitan@just.edu.joBackground: Cardiovascular disease is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Several cardiovascular diseases require therapy with warfarin, an anticoagulant with large interindividual variability resulting in dosing difficulties. The selected genes and their polymorphisms have been implicated in several Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) to be associated with cardiovascular disease.Objective: The goal of this study is to discover if there are any associations between rs646776 of PSRC1, rs660240 and rs12740374 of CELSR2, and rs602633 of SORT1 to coronary heart disease (CHD) and warfarin dose variability in patients diagnosed with cardiovascular disease undergoing warfarin therapy.Methods: The study was directed at the Queen Alia Hospital Anticoagulation Clinic in Amman, Jordan. DNA was extracted and genotyped using the Mass ARRAY™ system, statistical analysis was done using SPSS.Results: The study found several associations between the selected SNPs with warfarin, but none with cardiovascular disease. All 4 studied SNPs were found to be correlated to warfarin sensitivity during the stabilization phase except rs602633 and with warfarin dose variability at the initiation phase. CELSR2 SNPs also showed association with dose variability during the stabilization phase. Also, rs646776 and rs12740374 were linked to warfarin sensitivity over the initiation phase. Only rs602633 was associated with INR treatment outcomes.Conclusion: The findings presented in this study found new pharmacogenomic associations for warfarin, that warrant further research in the field of genotype-guided warfarin dosing.Keywords: warfarin, SNPs, pharmacogenetics, Jordan

David Bercuson

When U.S. President Donald Trump was elected in 2016 on a promise to cancel the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canada risked losing the free-trade regime that it had enjoyed with the U.S. since the original U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1989. Those who came to Canada’s rescue, by persuading the Trump administration to eventually make a new deal, the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, were Canada’s trading partners in the United States, whose interests were threatened: Nearly twothirds of U.S. states now have Canada as their most important trading partner. This was indicative of a long-term trade pattern of an ever-increasing closeness in trade between the U.S. and Canada. It is a pattern that started since before Confederation and in spite of not a few attempts in Canada to diversify exports away from the U.S. However, that simply cannot happen in any meaningful way: The 170-year-old pattern of Canada-U.S. trade is now so permanent as to be utterly irreversible. Since the decision by Britain to end tariff preferences for its colonies in the mid-19th century, Canada has naturally sought to penetrate the U.S. market for its exports. The desire has not always been mutual: American protectionism has, at times, hampered the export of Canadian products to the U.S., although tariff barriers have failed to stop what is a seemingly natural and, in many ways, necessary north-south flow of goods and services. Even Canadian attempts to reorient its own trade emphasis to enhance domestic east-west trade, or to expand into countries beyond the United States have made little difference. The trading relationship between Canada and the U.S. has endured through wars and in peacetime, through Republican administrations and Democratic ones. It will only continue to grow. Fantasizing about some markedly different trading future is therefore a waste of Canada’s time and energy, which should instead be expended on further penetrating the American marketplace and solidifying ties with state and local governments, local manufacturing associations, Congress and new industries. Canada should take advantage of its new trade deal with the U.S. to integrate the Canadian economy as fully into that of the U.S. as possible. There may be others like President Trump or some like him in Canada, who try to disrupt the trade relationship. That even Trump eventually was persuaded to agree to free trade with Canada is evidence, however, that an ever-closer trading relationship is simply a reality that cannot be stopped.