Volume 15, Number 1, 1984 Les processus décisionnels en matière de commerce extérieur : quelques éléments de réflexion à la lumière de l’expérience québécoise

EN:

With the numerous improvements in the field of communication and the recent trends in high technology, changes in international management approach have occured and among the consequences can be found a uch higher degree of international economic dependance between the countries. The governments, in general, have put a lot of emphasis on programs that can help manufacturing businesses get involved in international development since they represent the prime motor to economic development. This article is based on a study whose main objective was to learn about the decision process of businessmen when it

comes to internationalization and to identify some of their perceptions as well as their degree of satisfaction in regard to a certain number of Canadian and Quebec government programs. The results are based on 480 usable returned questionnaires. The conclusions are to the effect that for the businessmen interested in international development, the main motivations are linked to international opportunities, unexploited production capacity and financial help through government programs. There is also indication that the type of government help needed will differ with the level of implications of the business in the international field.

EN:

The literature on the decision-making process s of governments in the field of trade has developped in recent years a number of models that stress different aspects of the subject. One aspect, however, that has rarely been examined closely is the exact role played by studies in this decision-making process. How serious are they, scientifically speaking? How are they considered by governments? What is their impacts? Such questions remain largely unanswered. In this paper, an effort is made to shed some light on this aspect of the decision-making process, the chosen field of enquiry being the Quebec Government's procurement policy. After considering various studies directly related to the implementation of this policy, the conclusion is reached that in general they were not very thorough and had a rather limited role in the final decision to implement the policy. More fundamentally, one is left with the impression that scientific research, as a tool for reaching decision in the field of international trade, is seen by governments with some degree of suspicion.

EN:

The author looks into the stimulations and constraints with regard to the utilization of Hydro-Quebec' s surplus power in the light of the public choice theory. The study tries to establish the merits of four main propositions. Firstly, the reason behind the significant surplus of electrical energy produced lies more with the means of production of hydro-electricity itself ' than with the decision-makers of Hydro-Quebec. Secondly, due to the stimulations and constraints generated by the institutional arrangements, the Quebec decision-makers tend to prefer a strategy of internal consumption to one of exportation. Thirdly, the exportation strategy is adopted only to make up for the impossibility to get rid of all the surplus on internal markets. Finally, the strategy opted for by the decision-makers in Quebec results in sub-optimal conditions which are more to the advantage of those holding the means of production to the detriment of the consumer.

EN:

Resource diplomacy has emerged as a key element in international relations. The controversy over the use of the grain embargo and persistent concern about the Middle East has allowed food and oil to continue to gain a great deal of attention as weapons of resource diplomacy. Other raw materials, nevertheless, also lend themselves to analysis of this sort. Strategic minerals, in particular, have been increasingly looked at as means of influence in both North/South and the East I West contexts. This study hopes to contribute to this growing body of literature by examining the significance (and merger) of the North/South and East I West contexts in regard to strategic minerals with particular reference to the Federal Republic of Germany.

The paper examines the triangular relationship in strategic minerals between the FRG, Southern Africa and the Soviet Union. A number of scenarios have been put forward pertaining to a Soviet threat to Western mineral imports from Southern Africa. The most plausible of these scenarios appears to be that rather than the Soviets initiating action in Africa they respond to events in order to undermine confidence in the West. Such a scenario has serious implications for the FRG. Still, our tentative findings are that dire forecasts about a Soviet stranglehold on the FRG in terms of minerals are overplayed. It is suggested that coping mechanisms do exist for the FRG's supplies of raw materials.