In The News

Trade Rounds a Harder Sell

Guy de Jonquières December 13, 2005
As ministers from all around the world gather in Hong Kong to inaugurate the latest WTO trade round, Financial Times columnist Guy de Jonquiéres sees signs of trouble. The meeting has a relatively modest agenda and is being primarily promoted as focusing on development and poverty. But given that the WTO's raison d'etre is liberalization and the creation of opportunities, not aid or the...

The WTO Can Promote Both Free Trade and Human Rights

Susan Ariel Aaronson December 13, 2005
As protesters flock to the WTO meeting in Hong Kong along with finance ministers and business leaders, many observers, including Susan Ariel Aaronson and Jamie M. Zimmerman, agree with their claims that the WTO should be seeking relevance beyond just trade liberalization. But a wider focus – on human rights, development and labor – need not require any shift away from the WTO's central...

Globalisation's Strange Bedfellows

Alison Maitland December 12, 2005
In an unusual move, Unilever, the global consumer goods giant, has partnered with Oxfam to study its impact on local populations and businesses in Indonesia, with a view to showing that globalization is not necessarily a bad thing for developing countries. Oxfam was allowed unprecedented access to Unilever's Indonesian workers, and also looked at the impact of its consumer sales in that...

Gangsters and Africa's Black Gold

Thilo Thielke December 9, 2005
Hidden off the West African coast, according to estimates, are up to 100 billion barrels worth of oil - a reserve about the size of Iraq's. The US is one interested party, hoping to break the Arab world's vice-grip on prices. China is another, forming what on the surface appear to be mutually beneficial arrangements with African nations in order to fuel its growth.. But there is a...

Mission to Save Planet is “Failing”

December 6, 2005
Two separate groups have recently released dismal assessments of the state of the world, warning that humanity is not doing enough to make life on the planet equitable, sustainable and safe. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has lambasted national governments for failing to act decisively against global warming, warning that unchecked climate change is already exacerbating a host of other human...

The Rise of Nearshoring

December 6, 2005
While India and China are popular destinations for outsourcing, a new trend - “nearshoring” global business concerns to formerly Communist Eastern Europe is emerging. The premise is to move production, research and business to countries that may not be quite as cheap as India or China, but are still cheap and also much closer to home. Western concerns are finding multi-lingual workers and a...

Fuzzy Trade Math

Arvind Panagariya December 2, 2005
As the Doha round of trade talks approaches, the perception that agriculture is the principle issue that will determine success or failure remains accurate. Common assumptions, however, about the magnitude of EU and US subsidies are, in many cases, profoundly inaccurate. The conclusion that the Doha talks are bound to fail because of the obstinacy of developed nations is based on fuzzy math. It...