Exchange Control

Since I first published Management of Foreign Exchange Risk (Lexington Books, 1978), financial innovation-spurred, in part, by exploding volatility in currency prices-has revolutionized the theory and praxis of foreign exchange risk management. Old-fashioned forward contracts have surrendered market share to currency swaps and options as well as to their perpetually multiplying derivatives. Interestingly, forex derivatives now provide a low cost and highly efficient method of transferring risk from the firms that are exposed to risk but which would rather not be (i. e. , risk-hedgers) to those which are not exposed but which-in exchange for a fee-would assume some exposure to risk (i. e. , risk bearers). Perhaps more importantly, foreign exchange risk management, which was once a fairly mechanical task confmed to the international treasury function, is now permeating global strategic management. Indeed, since the demise of the Bretton Woods system of pegged exchange rates, the cost of forex hedging instruments has fallen so dramatically that firms can readily avail themselves of hedging products which can reduce unwanted risk, thereby potentially gaining a competitive advantage over rivals that do not. Management and Control of Foreign Exchange Risk has grown out of a fundamental revision of my earlier work published almost 20 years ago. In the process, my thinking about risk and its mathematics has greatly benefitted from my association with John Cozzolino and Charles Tapiero.

Foreign Exchange Control in China lays out comprehensively the compliance requirements, procedures and documentation for the conduct of foreign exchange transactions in China. Written in an easy-to-read format, the book is designed to help readers understand and handle the various complicated aspects and requirements of foreign exchange control in China. Compliance requirements for the current and capital accounts, foreign exchange settlements, use and administration of foreign exchange accounts, foreign debts and guarantees, import, export, service trade, bonded zones and qualified foreign institutional investors are closely examined with a list of the procedures to follow and applicable documentation provided. Contents are specially included to assist foreign investors deal with foreign exchange requirements whilst operating in China, including those for capital movements and remittance of profits and dividends out of China. Foreign Exchange Control in China is an indispensable guide to foreign investors and multinational companies as well as to lawyers, financial, accounting and tax professionals. This title forms part of the Asia Business Law Series. The Asia Business Law Series is published in cooperation with CCH Asia and provides updated and reliable practical guidelines, legislation and case law, in order to help practitioners, policy makers and scholars understand how business is conducted in the rapidly growing Asian market. This book was originally published by CCH Asia as the loose-leaf Foreign Exchange Control in China

Part I of this volume provides an assessment of the lessons that Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) may draw from the past experience of OECD countries with exchange controls. Part II describes the regimes of exchange controls in five CEECs and addresses issues of direct policy concern to them.

The book is divided into five modules: Module 1. Foreign Exchange Management: Introduction Module 2. Exchange Control Module 3. International Payments Module 4. Financing of Foreign Trade Module 5: Foreign Exchange Risk Management

While new conventional wisdom warns that developing countries should be aware of the risks of premature capital account liberalization, the costs of not removing exchange controls have received much less attention. This paper investigates the negative effects of exchange controls on trade. To minimize evasion of controls, countries often intensify inspections at the border and increase documentation requirements. Thus, the cost of conducting trade rises. The paper finds that a one standard-deviation increase in the controls on trade payment has the same negative effect on trade as an increase in tariff by about 14 percentage points. A one standard-deviation increase in the controls on FX transactions reduces trade by the same amount as a rise in tariff by 11 percentage points. Therefore, the collateral damage in terms of foregone trade is sizable.

The Classical economist of the 19th century, with his faith in the ultimate efficiency and equity of free, impersonal markets, would certainly be amazed and dismayed by the developments in foreign exchange markets during the last thirty-five years. With the exception of the United States no important trading nation in the world of today maintains a freely convertible currency. On the contrary, each nation maintains a more or less comprehensive system of controls over the receipts and payments which can be effected in international markets. Recent efforts to reduce the extent and rigor of exchange regu lation, notably in Western Europe, have yielded modest results; it seems unlikely, however, that foreign exchange transactions will ever again be completely free of controL Foreign exchange control, with a greater or lesser degree of bilateralism, is a product born largely of necessity. Two world wars and a major world-wide depression so distorted the pattern of world trade and investment that free markets were simply unable to achieve their "normal" automatic adjustment. Ex change control, on the other hand, has demonstrated its efficiency as a means of maintaining a semblance of order in disorganized international markets. Unfortunately, however, exchange con trol also has great possibilities for further distortion of the pat tern of world trade, for discrimination, and for economic ex ploitation - for economic effects generally considered undesirable.