In The News

As China Gallops, Mexico Sees Factory Jobs Slip Away

Juan Forero September 3, 2003
The search for profit drives companies to look for the lowest production costs possible, and that search is taking more and more American companies from factories in Mexico to factories in China. America's southern neighbor received a boom in employment after the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the 1990s, but China's rise as a supplier of cheap labor is now...

How Washington Can be a Hyper-Power and a Hyper-Borrower

Philip Segal September 2, 2003
What kind of a superpower gets into so much debt that it has trouble pushing around countries that it would love to? The American kind, says Philip Segal, Markets and Finance Editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal. China and Japan - two major buyers of US government bonds - could do great damage to the American economy if they decided to stop buying or to suddenly sell their share of the US...

Call Centre Boom is Here to Last

Rashmee Z Ahmed September 1, 2003
Multinational companies seeking lower-wage labor will be increasingly looking to India to run their telephone call centers, concludes a recent survey by a British market analysis firm. Predicting a "21st-century gold rush" of MNCs moving to India, analyst Evan Kirchheimer says five to seven percent of Western agent positions are expected to be outsourced to India over the next few...

Cancun Trade Meeting Should Leave Investment Issue Alone

Susan Ariel Aaronson August 29, 2003
When the WTO meets in Cancun on September 10, representatives of the nearly 150 members will have a lot on their plates. It is their job to negotiate agreements on many divisive issues and to forge new trade policies on agriculture, services, and intellectual property rights to meet the needs of developing countries. These matters are complex and important enough to warrant adding another...

Tough New US Rules a Challenge

August 22, 2003
Seaports have traditionally been very vulnerable entry points to the United States. And, as focus on homeland security has increased since September 11, American officials have sought to impose new security measures to better monitor the goods that are constantly entering US ports. To ensure that biological, chemical, or other weapons are not concealed in incoming cargo, US officials initiated...

Strict CO2 Limits Will Send Work Abroad

David Gow August 20, 2003
Strictly enforcing a new emissions policy could cause a mass exodus of jobs and energy business from Britain. The German-owned energy company Innogy – one of the country's largest energy suppliers – is concerned that the United Kingdom will apply the EU's new carbon emissions trading scheme more stringently than other member states. The new scheme caps the amount of carbon dioxide...

'Hello, this is India. Can I help you?'

Daniel Sneider August 10, 2003
The instantaneous nature of modern communication has allowed the customer service industry to follow its counterparts in manufacturing and move overseas. With numbers that are almost doubling annually, Indians are coming to work in call centers to answer questions about bills, credit cards, and insurance. American companies in particular are eager to take advantage of a cheap, highly educated,...