Melting ice caps: implications for Asian trade with North America and Europe

Francois, Joseph; Countryman, Amanda; Rojas-Romagosa, Hugo (2016). Melting ice caps: implications for Asian trade with North America and Europe. International Journal of Trade and Global Markets, 9(4), pp. 325-369. Inderscience 10.1504/IJTGM.2016.10002005

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Arctic ice caps have been melting at an increased pace and projections imply that the extent of the ice cover will be greatly reduced in the near future. Such a climatic phenomenon has important socio-economic implications, as it would open up shipping routes in the Arctic. In this regard, media attention and research has largely centered on the use of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) connecting Northeast Asia with Northwestern Europe and its effect on traffic through the Suez Canal. However, melting Arctic ice caps would also make the North West Route (NWR) a feasible trade route for high volume commercial traffic, reducing the shipping distances between Northeast Asia and the East Coast of the United States. In this paper we analyze the commercial feasibility of the NWR and the economic impact of reducing the trade distances between Asia and the United States East Coast. In particular, we examine the extent to which the NWR would compete with the Panama Canal for certain trade routes. Such competition has significant geopolitical implications linked to both a drop in traffic through the Panama Canal as well as changes in the global supply chains that currently link East Asia and the United States.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Other Institutions > Teaching Staff, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences
02 Faculty of Law > Department of Economic Law > World Trade Institute
10 Strategic Research Centers > World Trade Institute

02 Faculty of Law > Department of Economic Law > NCCR International Trade Regulation

UniBE Contributor:

Francois, Joseph

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics

ISSN:

1742-7541

Publisher:

Inderscience

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pablo Rahul Das

Date Deposited:

04 Jan 2017 12:03

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:00

Publisher DOI:

10.1504/IJTGM.2016.10002005

Related URLs:

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/91751

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