In The News

Vendors Ready for Enactment of Copyright Law

M. Taufiqurrahman July 29, 2003
The word on Indonesia's streets is that police raids on vendors of pirated goods will begin this week. These raids are meant to show the country – and the United States – that the Indonesian government is committed to enforcing a newly passed law protecting copyrights. The law was created in order to avoid economic sanctions from the United States for gross violations of intellectual...

Textile Industry Seeks Trade Limits on Chinese

David Barboza July 25, 2003
Over the past two years, 270,000 American textile and apparel workers have lost their jobs. The industry is blaming China, accusing the country of unfair trade policies and demanding that the Bush administration take action to protect American manufacturers from being entirely destroyed. According to the agreement made when China entered the WTO, the United States can put quotas on certain...

IBM Explores Shift of White-Collar Jobs Overseas

Steven Greenhouse July 22, 2003
The conventional wisdom on globalization in the US has held that unskilled jobs will gradually shift overseas, leaving American workers free to perform higher-paid, white-collar jobs. But now that IBM is considering moving millions of white-collar jobs to countries like India and China, politicians and technology workers are crying foul. Corporations like IBM argue that moving service jobs...

Wrong on Rights

Harold Hongju Koh July 18, 2003
A powerful recourse for human rights victims is in danger, says Harold Hongju Koh, Professor of International Law at Yale University and former US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. In response to a lawsuit brought by Burmese citizens against the US energy company Unocal, the Bush White House has filed a brief in a California Federal Court to overhaul a...

Cancun: A Battle for Life

Yanuar Nugroho July 16, 2003
Developing countries must be prepared to wage war on unfair trade regulations at the next round of WTO talks in Cancun, says an Indonesian scholar in the Jakarta Post. Recession has slowed the economies of the developed world and the September meeting in Cancun will likely be aimed at reducing trade barriers and opening the markets of developing countries to rich nations like the United States...

Preservation of Asia’s Forests: A Global Hurdle

Takeshi Toma July 9, 2003
The destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests is a local problem with global consequences and solutions, this Jakarta Post article maintains. While forests provide integral resources both locally and globally, curbing their degradation requires a collective effort. The recently formed Asia Forest Partnership (AFP), comprised now of 10 member countries, provides an excellent start. However,...

Closing Doors to Growth

July 8, 2003
Having the most closed markets in the world is nothing to be proud of, this editorial in an influential Indian business daily maintains. According to a recent World Trade Organization report, less globalized countries saw per capita income growth just 0.9 percent per annum, while those that were highly globalized saw annual incomes grow by 4.3 percent. Therefore, the editorial argues, if India...