ECON7530 – Semester 2, 2022
Country Trade Proposal
Deadline: ECON7530 Tuesday 04 October 2021 16:00
Topic: Write a proposal of at least 600 words (excluding references), consisting of two tasks:
1. Select a country and provide a brief overview of its recent international trade with two of its trade
partners, including data and graphs.
2. Suggest a theoretical grounding for the observed trade patterns using the theories developed in the course
(Gravity, Ricardian, H-O, Standard Trade Model or New Trade Theory), and explain your model choice.
This topic provides ample scope for using data. Descriptive statistics, graphs and tables, will be sufficient. You
are not required to do econometric analysis.
You are required to use a good mix of sources including the internet, textbooks, newspapers, and academic
journals, articles from newspapers and business magazines. You must provide a list of full-ranged references
used or referred to in the essay.

Criteria & Marking
Your proposal will be marked on the following criteria:
• Clarity of trade overview (3 marks)
• Use of trade theories and clarity of explanation (6 marks)
• Evidence of research and use of relevant data (3 marks)
• Writing quality (including essay flow, accuracy, spelling, punctuation, grammar) (4 marks)
• Presentation (including identification and compliance of word limit) (1 mark)
• Referencing (3 marks)
In addition, there are some general points to consider:
• Your essay must have a cover page detailing your ID and word count.
• Remember to give a total word count (excluding references) on the cover page.
• Any reference style is allowed, but it must be consistent (i.e. same style throughout the essay).
• Please check you citation’s accuracy, even if it is pre-filled from Google Scholar or UQ Library.
• You cannot cite Wikipedia or Investopedia.
• If graphs/figures are used, remember to quote the source.
• Use academic writing style and not creative writing style.
• Do not plagiarize! It will be dealt with very seriously in UQ and is simply not worth trying.

Common Mistakes
Some common mistakes that lead to mark deduction are:
• Overly relying on a few reference sources which are not that credible, such as newspapers.
• Citing a lot of figures but without pointing out their implications.
• Focusing on a few things only and therefore lack of comprehensiveness in the analysis.
• Inappropriate referencing formats, such as not indicating the article titles or not indicating what points
they referred to.
• Inconsistency between the analysis and the conclusion.
• Student cut and pasted statements/sentences from various sources instead of writing in their own
words. Consequently, those “Frankenstein statements” did not read smoothly and did not provide a
coherent view of what was going on.
Warning: Cutting and pasting materials from any sources is an act of plagiarism; if proven, it could result in a
zero mark and further actions from the School.
Each student should submit a Word or PDF file through the Turnitin link on the Blackboard course website.
Submission through email will not be accepted. All submissions will be run through the Turnitin anti-plagiarism
software.