ResumoO trabalho pretende analisar os circuitos e cenários das dinâmicas comerciais atuais da cidade alta de Salvador, a antiga zona comercial "nobre" que, após várias fases sucessivas de desenvolvimento nas últimas décadas, ainda hoje constitui a zona comercial mais densa da cidade. Em nível prático, nosso objetivo é caracterizar as dinâmicas: organização das empresas; características pessoais e profissionais dos comerciantes bem como suas percepções e opiniões. Em nível teórico, pretendemos discutir a validade das teorias dualistas das economias urbanas do terceiro mundo, através dos resultados empíricos deste caso específico de uma área total, a cidade alta, que engloba dentro de estruturas comerciais a priori modernas -shopping centers e tradicionais -as ruas comerciais. Enfim, para reforçar o caráter pragmático da pesquisa, nosso objetivo é refletir sobre as dificuldades e, por outro lado, as potencialidades da área. As análises mostram uma cidade alta bastante heterogênea em todos aspectos e internamente hierarquizada. Os shopping centers e a Avenida Sete de Setembro apresentam a maior intensidade das atividades e concentram as empresas de grande porte que servem de elo entre os espaços comerciais. Apesar desta semelhança estrutural entre os shopping centers e certos trechos do comércio de rua, os padrões locacionais e as estratégias das pequenas empresas assim como as características dos comerciantes traduzem uma dissociação dos espaços. A predominância das pequenas empresas e a heterogeneidade qualitativa dos estabelecimentos, os problemas de infra-estrutura de segurança e a falta de dinamismo dos comerciantes de rua destacam-se como as fraquezas da cidade alta. Por outro lado o resgate da história e o leque extremamente variado de atividade de áreas turísticas deverão constituir as bases para o desenvolvimento futuro da área.Palavras-chave: comércio varejista, área central, Salvador da Bahia, teorias dualistas. 82.GeoTextos, vol. 1, n . 1, 2 0 0 5. Noora Heinonen 81-116 AbstractThe objective of the present study is to analyze the spatiality of commercial dynamics of the "Upper Town" of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. This former fashionable retail area in the Old Center of the city has gone through several successive phases of development during the last decades, but still today constitutes the densest commercial area of the city. On a practical level, our objective is to characterize the commercial dynamics of the area, based on three interrelated factors in the formation of dynamics: organization of retail firms; personal and professional characteristics of the merchants; perceptions and opinions of the merchants. On a theoretical level, our objective is to discuss the validity of dualist theories of Third World urban economies, based on the empirical results of this specific case of a total area, the Upper Town, that englobes both a priori modern and traditional commercial structures, i.e. new shopping malls and old shopping streets. Finally, in order to stress the pragmatic character of the study, our obj...

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Background Obligations arising from trade and investment agreements can affect how governments can regulate and organise health systems. The European Union has made explicit statements of safeguarding policy space for health systems. We assessed to what extent health systems were safeguarded in trade negotiations using the European Union (EU) negotiation proposals for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the negotiated agreement for the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Methods We assessed if and to what extent the European Union policy assurances were upheld in trade negotiations. Our assessment was made using three process tracing informed tests. The tests examined: i) what was covered in negotiation proposals of services and investment chapters, ii) if treatment of health services differed from treatment of another category of services (audiovisual services) with similar EU Treaty considerations, and iii) if other means of general exceptions, declarations or emphases on right to regulate could have resulted in the same outcome. Results Our analysis shows that the European Union had sought to secure policy space for publicly funded health services for services chapter, but not for investment and investment protection chapters. In comparison to audiovisual services, exceptions for health services fall short from those on audiovisual services. There is little evidence that the same outcome could have been achieved using other avenues. Conclusions The European Union has not achieved its own assurances of protection of regulatory policy space for health services in trade negotiations. The European Union trade negotiation priorities need to change to ensure that its negotiation practices comply with its own assurances for health services and sustainable financing of health systems.