In The News

Millions of Indians Await Benefits of Globalization

Jessica Einhorn February 25, 2005
At a time when many analysts predict a booming future for the Indian economy, India remains hesitant to fully embrace globalization. India and its neighbor China have been tagged as the world's next economic superpowers. Yet while China industriously makes its shores hospitable to foreign capital, Indian reformers continue to grapple with a long history of intransigent domestic opposition to...

China Shows the Way in a Quota-Free Market

Linda Lim February 21, 2005
The recent end of the textile quota regime introduced freer trade to the global market. Predictably, nations who stood to lose market share - mostly to China - have cried out in anguish. According to Linda Lim, restricting Chinese exports is a short-sighted and ineffective strategy: "One would do better to learn from Chinese example of smart investment and management to thrive in a...

Power Hungry

January 31, 2005
In this comprehensive report, relief organization ActionAid International argues that large food corporations have become too powerful and are undermining the global fight against poverty. Currently, one transnational company controls 80 percent of Peru's milk production, five companies' control 90 percent of the world grain trade, and six corporations control three-quarters of the...

Japan's Laborious Dilemma

David McNeill January 13, 2005
The Japanese approach to immigration has been characterized as xenophobic, at worst, and ambivalent, at best. While a free-trade agreement with the Philippines was celebrated for allowing increased access for overseas caretakers, a subsequent policy restricting entertainment visas may result in a net loss of over 70,000 foreign workers. According to David McNeill, Japan's consistently...

China's African Safari

Paul Mooney January 3, 2005
Since the 1960s, China has been rather consistent in offering assistance to African countries in agriculture, heavy industries, and infrastructure development. In recent years, Sino-African trade has enjoyed particularly rapid growth. As Paul Mooney reports, many African leaders, regarding China as a reliable friend who has suffered the similar imperialist aggression by Western powers, welcome...

A Thaw in South Asia? – Part II

Huma Fakhar December 27, 2004
Improved relations between South Asia's two most prominent states, India and Pakistan, are crucial to the region's ascending global profile, write Huma Fakhar and Jean-Pierre Lehmann. Encouraging diplomatic developments have diluted some of the hostile sentiments of shared by the two countries, which were once on a path to nuclear war. If intra-regional trade would heat up, as well,...

Beyond Cheap Labor: Lessons for Developing Economies

Diana Farrell December 21, 2004
The specter of China and it's massive fleet of low-cost laborers haunts developing economies worldwide. However, for middle-income countries, focusing on cheap labor is not the answer for sustained economic growth, according to The McKinsey Quarterly. Using Mexico as a basis for discussion, this report offers alternative strategies for successful competition. More effective routes to...