The article reviews the chronology and analyses the causes and possible consequences of the trade war between the US and China. The authors identify four main reasons that led to the greatest trade conflict between the two economies in history associated with intentions of the US: a) to reduce the deficit of bilateral trade and increase the number of jobs; b) to limit access of Chinese companies to American technologies and prevent digital modernization of the industry in the PRC; c) to prevent the growth of China’s military strength; and d) to reduce the federal budget deficit. It is confirmed and concluded that trade wars have no winners. Taking into account the two countries’ GDP scale and export volumes, the US-China trade war will come amid a slowdown in the global production and international trade. The article analyses the outcomes of the trade confrontation based on the scenario methodology. The authors identify 4 scenarios by making assumptions about the response pattern and conjectural variation in the bilateral economic relations. The US protectionist policy has its political dimension. The constraints of the bilateral trade is one of the tools for slowing China's military and economic power growth.

The paper´s objective is to analyse a certain influence of using creative potential of employees on the innovation processes management in the transportationlogistics companies. An important part is the presentation of partial results of a survey (conducted between 2013 and 2016) regarding particular development of orientation towards the level of motivation and support of employee creativity in Slovak companies with over 50 employees. These results revealed significant deficiencies in the employees' motivation to be creative and in the extent of their involvement in innovations. In the process of creating an appropriate environment, a particular point evaluation is then provided recognizing the actual level of the organizations' orientation towards the discussed issue. In order to identify certain barriers to improve the innovation processes, a case study was also used to classify the current state of the three selected transportation-logistics companies operating in the Slovak Republic.

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Abstract. The article examines the "One Belt -One Road" initiative of China aimed at the development of transport and logistics infrastructure on the trade route from China to Europe. The authors pay special attention to the history of the Silk Road, which serves as an ideological basis for the modern initiative. The scale of the new project allows the authors to expect that its impact on the international trade will be comparable with the contribution of the historical Silk Road to the development of the global economy as we know it. The authors analyze the prospects of the development and implementation of the initiative in terms of China's economic interests. The most significant threats associated with the initiative are identified.

УДК 339.9 Л. М. Капустина а) , Л. Липковá б) , О. Д. Фальченко а) а) Уральский государственный экономический университет