Info Nuggets

Bound tariff rate

The Bound tariff rate is the most-favored-nation tariff rate resulting from negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and incorporated as an integral component of a country’s schedule of concessions or commitments to other World Trade Organization members. If a country raises a tariff to a higher level than its bound rate, those adversely affected can seek remedy through the dispute settlement process and may obtain the right to retaliate against an equivalent value of the offending country’s exports or the right to receive compensation, usually in the form of reduced tariffs on other products they export to the offending country.

What is the difference between dominion status and independent?

Dominion refers to one of a group of semi-autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, from the late 19th century. They have included (at varying times) Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State. After 1948, the term was used to denote independent nations that retained the British monarch as head of state; these included Pakistan, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Kenya and Canada.

Dominion status was officially defined in the Balfour Declaration (1926) and in the Statute of Westminster (1931), which recognised these territories as "autonomous Communities within the British Empire," establishing these states as equals to the United Kingdom, making them essentially independent members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Following the Second World War, the decline of British colonialism led to Dominions generally being referred to as Commonwealth realms, the use of the word gradually diminished within these countries after this time. Nonetheless, though disused, it remains Canada's legal title; moreover, the phrase Her Majesty's Dominions continues occasionally in modern legal usage in the UK.

Communism vs Socialism

In a way, communism is an extreme form of socialism. Many countries have dominant socialist political parties but very few are truly communist. In fact, most countries —including staunch capitalist bastions like the U.S. and U.K. — have government programs that borrow from socialist principles. "Socialism" is sometimes used interchangeably with ‘communism’ but the two philosophies have some stark differences. Most notably, while communism is a political system, socialism is primarily an economic system that can exist in various forms under a wide range of political systems.