Introduction
Transport involves the movement of goods, people and services from the point of origin to their final destination. Therefore, freight transport is the physical movement of merchandise, cargo, and goods from the source to their ultimate destination (final consumer) (Rodrigue, Comtois, & Slack, 2016) . Due to improvements in technology, there have been numerous developments in the transport systems thus resulting in a globalized trade. Globalized trade is, therefore, an intercontinental commerce which involves cash transactions for goods and services, and shipping them to the interested marketplaces. Due to the emergence of global trade, there was a need to protect the consumers as well as the sellers. In order to do this, a set of standards guiding the international trade was formulated: Global Policy Implications. These policy implications state the consequences of certain actions against the set global trade standards. For example, it states what would happen if a seller did not meet the right product quotas.
Freight Transport Systems
Transport system refers to the units of carriage and logistics of moving passengers and merchandise from the point of origin to their ultimate destination. It majors in the coordination of the movement of goods and passengers to ensure maximum utilization of transportation routes. A typical transport system has multiple schedules designed to inform the user the whereabouts of each automobile at any time.
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The convergence of terminal, modes, technology, and infrastructure has immensely impacted the universal freight supply systems having containerization as one of the greatest factors behind its standardization ( Owen, & Levinson, 2015). This resulted to the emergence of international supply chain management practices in aspects of operative limitations, price, efficiency, and capacity.
Europe and North America have a lot in common. For instance, both have a strong inbound logistics as well as progressive freight supply systems which link them to universal trade flows. They, therefore, have a well-organized system which schedules the movement of cargo and passengers thus rendering them effective in the global freight supply systems. However, they both significantly differ in how they run their logistics strategies across their respective borders. They both have different approaches to how their logistics are structured and maintained. This is with reference to the intermodal railway terminals and systems, through operational verdicts and the regulatory framework setting. For example; in 1996, Slack demonstrates the existent differences between the intermodal railway terminals and systems in Europe and North America. Also, in 1997, Burton highlighted that the North American transport policy relied more on “ big bang” approaches while Europe had a more incremental nature approach while making policy decisions.
In both Europe and North America, there is the existence of corridors, gateways, and hinterlands which connect them to the global trade flows. Gateways embody the fundamental structure interface amid regional and universal transport structures while corridors are transportation networks backbones linking major articulation centers such as hubs and gateways facing freight convergence and passenger flows. On the other hand, hinterlands are land spaces over which transport terminals such as ports, sell their services as well as interacts with their customers. These three ensure great trade volumes on the basis of economies of scale, enhanced integration between production and distribution as a result of time and cost efficiency, and higher distribution reliability due to coordinated control and transport enactment.
Globalized Trade
Both Europe and North America have bodies which govern trade namely European Union (EU) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These two unions ensure free trade between European and North American traders through the removal of trade barriers, tariffs, quotas, and a number of non-tariff barriers. Also, there is the liberalization of trade ruling for the members. Both countries impose a tariff on non-member countries that want to partake in international trade with them.
However, United States is more advanced than Canada in aspects of population, dimensions, economic value, and universal status. In North America, the NAFTA lacks the standard antitrust policies which are present in the European Union since 1994 (Warleigh-Lack, 2016) . The NAFTA has promoted competition standardization in the European Union but NAFTA has not yet refined its competition strategies as initially anticipated. Also, NAFTA lacks the usual supranational institutions which are found in the EU. For example, they lack commission and court justice thus eludes competition rules from their dispute resolution procedures thus in contrary with the World Trade rules competition guidelines.
Global Policy Implications
Europe has the European Union policy while North America has the NAFTA policy. Both policies are aimed at ensuring smooth and profitable trade amongst the member countries. The EU intends to secure a stronger economic position in the global trade by re-affirming its regional political role which is similar to the objectives of the NAFTA.
However, the implications of NAFTA are said to affect the US and Mexico citizens negatively since it is based on comparative advantage theory, which hypothesizes that trade in competitive marketplaces produces “plus-sum” or in other cases mutually advantageous outcomes. According to this argument, wages are low in Mexico thus increasing productivity will increase Mexican remunerations and their purchase of US commodities. It also implies that the US will lose their low-wage jobs but acquire more exceedingly paid jobs which Mexican employees cannot do due to lack of skills and knowledge.
Conclusion
It is interesting that though the EU and NAFTA were formulated to ensure equal trade between member-states, there are strategies being done by both trade unions to ensure that each acquires more power than the other.
References
Owen, A., & Levinson, D. M. (2015). Modeling the commute mode share of transit using continuous accessibility to jobs. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice , 74 , 110-122.
Rodrigue, J. P., Comtois, C., & Slack, B. (2016). The geography of transport systems . Routledge.
Warleigh-Lack, A. (2016). The EU in comparative perspective: comparing the EU and NAFTA. In Comparative Regional Integration (pp. 65-84). Routledge.
