Legal Aspects Of International Trade And Enterprise For Woolworths Limited

Discussion

Discuss about the Legal Aspects of International Trade and Enterprise for Woolworths Limited.

The present study aims to discuss the legal aspects of international trade of and enterprise by considering a multinational organization that operates in Australia. In order to present the discussion on the legal aspects, Woolworths Limited has been selected which is one of the largest retailing companies in Australia. The present study incorporates the identification of company’s operating industry, number of staff employed in the business unit that operates in Australia as well as across the globe. The discussion will include the identification of organization’s location   with respect to the headquarters across the globe. The following study further identifies and discusses the relevant regulatory framework that affects Woolworths Limited in several ways. Regulations with respect to corporate tax, environmental legislations and consumer laws affect the organization’s business operations and performance sustainability. In addition, identification of treaties and agreements with respect to free trade agreements for the business operation of Woolworths Limited has been incorporated in the discussion.

In order to present the analysis on legal aspects for international trade, Woolworths Limited has been selected which is a largest Australian Public Company. The company is involved in the retailing industry and one of the largest carry away liquor retailing organizations in Australian region (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017). The company has several divisions within the supermarket business operations that deal in the products like petrol, liquor, home appliances and improvement, general merchandise, hotel and gambling products. It has been noted that the amount of revenue derived by the company in the latest financial year has been $59 billion while the amount of operating income has been $1.6 billion (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017).

As per the current year data of Woolworths Limited, it has been noted that the organization has approximately 111,000 number of staffs employed in the region of Australia. On the contrary, number of staffs employed by the company across the globe involves 202,000 during the current financial year (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017).

The company has been founded in the year 1924 on September 22 involving key people Gordon Cairns and Brad Banducci in the current year. The headquarters of Woolworths Limited has been situated in Bella Vista, New South Wales, Australia. However, the company operates its business operations in Australia, New Zealand and India with around 961 numbers of locations and stores in different areas (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017).

Business operations within the company involve various regulations and legislations with respect to manufacturing, processing, trading and maintain business records. In order to operate business activities, it is essential to follow the relevant regulatory frameworks that affect the organizational performance. Considering the type of business operations within the company, regulations of competition laws and consumer laws are applicable to ensure the fair business trade within the local country as well as across the globe (Business.gov.au 2017). Regulations under the competition laws incorporates framework for fair- trading between the organizations and customers in order to protect the consumer rights as well as obligations. In order to maintain the sustainability growth in the business organization, it is essential to follow the legislation of fair- trading that affects the exchange of goods and services. Further, consumer laws consider the unfair terms of business contract, rights of consumers, laws to safeguard the products in terms of quality and price and other operational factors, also regulate trading of goods and services (Dfat.gov.au 2017). Similarly, environmental legislation regulatory framework also affects trading of goods and services in terms of environmental concerns as well as cultural concerns. It is significant to follow the environmental regulations that protect the policies related to environment, business operation license and other economic measures to operate the business appropriately. Business operations and trading of goods and services is affected by the regulations of corporate tax that is imposed on the earnings of the organizations and affect the financial performance during the accounting period (Borchert, Gootiiz and Mattoo 2014).  

Accordingly, in case of Woolworths Limited, it has been observed that the regulatory framework of consumer laws, environmental legislations and tax legislations affects the business operation in terms of goods and services. Consumer law affects the business of Woolworths Limited with respect to the transfer of goods and services as per the regulations, which requires conducting of business operations by fair means (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017). The regulations under consumer law provide that the transfer of goods and services to the consumers within the local region or across the border should be considered by fair means. Regulations of consumer law affects the business operations since the pricing structure cannot be same in different geographical regions (Ciuriak et al. 2015). For instance, price of general merchandise stuff in New Zealand will be different from the price of same product in Australian or India. Accordingly, it is difficult to maintain the uniform price structure for all the products and services within the overall business organization (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017).

Environmental legislation is another regulatory framework that affects business operations of Woolworths Limited because, it is essential to protect the environment for the benefit of society and consumers. Environmental legislation involves the factors to protect the consumers and society with respect to the trading of good quality products as well as manufacturing process (Neary 2016). For instance, trading of fuel or petrol products should be considered as per the regulations of environmental legislations so that the price and quality of fuel trading remains uniform. Moreover, environmental regulatory framework affects the business operations because the trading of goods and services is required to be conducted in accordance with the environment protection and consumer protection. Such actions affect the production and trading quantity of goods and services along with the respective price, which results in declining of profit amount (Business.gov.au 2017). Involvement of environmental regulation affects the business income since it associates with several regulatory costs that increase the overall business expenses and reduces the business incomes. Further, regulatory framework on corporate tax affects the business of Woolworths since the income of the organization is subject to 30% tax rate that reduces the distributable profit and increases the current liabilities. In order to nullify the taxation charges and regulations, the income level of the company declines while the expenses rise that affects the overall business operations (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017).

Business operations at international level are conducted in accordance with several treaties and agreements to deal with the trading of goods and services within the local region as well as across the border. There are several treaties and agreements with respect to free trade activities, memorandum of understanding, agreements between the countries and other treaties affects the trading between the organizations and consumers (Yarbrough and Yarbrough 2014). International trade agreement involves agreement in terms of “Free Trade Agreements” to reduce the trade barriers and investment difficulties. The purpose of international trade agreement involves better access of trading markets, improvement in competitive position for export of products as well as improved prospect of investment (Dfat.gov.au 2017). The relevant treaties and agreements are considered to provide the guides for export and import of business products and services representing the related trade policies, costs and product prices. The agreements between the organizations of different countries provide information on treaty as well as schedules of tariff that are essential to conclude the business agreements (Chircop and Novotny-Farkas 2016).

Accordingly, in case of Woolworths Limited, the international trade agreements and treaties impacted the trading of products and services in Australia. It has been noted that the business operations of Woolworths Limited is extended in the regions of New Zealand and India other than the region of Australia hence, it is essential to consider the international treaties while conducting business deals (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017). As the agreement and treaties incorporates trading information in terms of costs, product price, service tenure and other information therefore, transfer of products and services of the company affected. The management of Woolworths Limited required to consider the pricing policy while exporting the retail products to other countries that affected the contribution margin due to involvement of increased value of costs. The company majorly deals in the products of liquor, petrol and home appliances within and outside the region of Australia, which is affected due to international trade policies (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017). Therefore, in order to manage the business operations, Woolworths Limited considered the free trade agreement with other countries that assisted the company by improving the product transfer activities. Consequently, the profit level of Woolworths improved as the free trade regulations helped in improving the trading of products and services.

Considering the trading agreements and conventions, it has been noted that Woolworths created several initiatives by arranging promotional programs with less impact on the environment in an adverse manner. The organization has been considering the Kyoto Protocol to establish the retailing business activities for different range of products, which recognized the responsibility of countries and organizations for greenhouse gas. Accordingly, Woolworths Limited considered the convention in terms of Kyoto Protocol to ensure the minimal emission of greenhouse gas and that the business is conducted by considering the benefits of the society (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017). The agreement and policy of business trade contained the set targets as well as commitments in order to eliminate the carbon emission, which improves the export value and consequently amount of profit. It has been noted that that trading of business involved transportation, packaging as well as distribution centers affected due to the trade policy (Bloomfield et al. 2017). As per the company’s information, it has been noted that the carbon emission has been reduced by around 40% that resulted in growth of business project by around 20% during the current year. In addition, Woolworths Limited experienced reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide approximately by 13% within the new stores that was lower in case of existing stores (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017).

During the current year, it has been observed that the trade agreement and conventions of Woolworths Limited reflected reduction of 25% of carbon emission in terms of service delivery by trucks. Further, the company also reflected improvement in saving water, which amounted to 200 million litres approximately while the amount of food waste reflected almost zero (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017). Such treaties within the trade policy of Woolworths Limited impacted growth in trade of products and services and eventually improved the profitability. Trading agreements and treaties of Woolworths not only influenced the improvement in standards of animal welfare within the supply chain (Wagenhofer 2016). Considering the measures of international trade policies, Woolworths Limited opened several new stores with respect to the environmental sustainability and consumer protection. International trading policy involved the sustainable practices to reduce the use of energy, use of water resources, waste production and other economy that eventually improved the transfer of goods and services (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017).  

Conclusion

In view of the above discussion, it can be said that the operation of business activities by the companies involves various regulations that affect the sale and transfer of goods and services. Imposition of relevant legislations and regulations affect the business operations, staff employment and derivation of profitability that influence the business sustainability. In the present study, Woolworths Limited, an Australian retailing company has been considered to identify the operating industry, employment and location of headquarters. It has been noted that the company has been second largest retailing organization by revenue with highest number of employees. It has been identified that the regulations of companies law, environmental legislations and corporate tax affected the company’s business operations for transferring products and services. It has been contended that the protection of consumer rights, society welfare and elimination of production wastes is essential to improve the profitability and sustainability of the business. In addition, the trade agreement, international treaties and conventions affected the goods and services of Woolworths Limited by developing the export regulations. Considering the international trade conventions, it has been noted that Woolworths Limited followed reduction in the green house gas emission, waste production, release of carbon- dioxide that improved the value of export of goods and services. The present agreement between different countries has been established by Woolworths Limited that affected the transfer of goods and services together with the development of animal welfare resulting in improving the profitability.

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