In The News

Some Lost Jobs Never Leave Home

Jessica M. Vaughan May 2, 2004
With global trade expanding to all sectors, the US is now witnessing not just its goods being produced abroad, but increasingly, services as well. Many American companies, seeing the advantages of hiring foreign workers, have moved a step further – instead of moving service centers abroad, many companies are now importing foreign professionals into the US to do the job. This kind of outsourcing...

Farmers to Gain in Trade Blow to US

Josh Gordon April 28, 2004
After losing $600 million to American farmers in cotton sales in 2001, Brazil filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) that may result in substantial changes in US policy. Brazil recently announced that the WTO had ruled in favor of its complaint that American farm subsidies distorted world cotton prices and hurt farmers in the developing world. However, an order for the US to...

Danube Blues

Ben Aris April 26, 2004
Soon to become part of the European Union (EU), Hungary is now "busily trying to dump its Soviet-era trappings," says this article in the Guardian. Symbolic moves, like canceling Stalin's honorary citizenship and prohibiting the public display of communist red stars, are being taken to distance Hungary from its communist past. But economic concerns aren't so easy to legislate...

Free Trade and Outsourcing Are Not the Same

Clyde Prestowitz April 25, 2004
Financial theorists, politicians, and labor groups in the US have recently butted heads over the nature of free trade. Theorists credit skyrocketing amounts of global trade with increased standards of living worldwide, whereas many politicians have decried the loss of jobs overseas due to outsourcing and unrestricted competition. Clyde Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute...

Asean to push for free trade talks with Australia, NZ

Chuang Peck Ming April 22, 2004
With free trade agreements with China, India, and Japan due to go into force over the next ten years, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is now proposing FTA deals with Australia and New Zealand. In the most recent ASEAN trade meeting, economic ministers of the ten member states also decided to further lower the tariffs within the region under the ASEAN Industrial Cooperation...

Losing Our Edge?

Thomas L. Friedman April 22, 2004
After talking to high-tech entrepreneurs in California's Silicon Valley, New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman felt "a real undertow of concern that America is losing its competitive edge vis-à-vis China, India, Japan and other Asian tigers, and that the Bush team is deaf, dumb and blind to this situation." Executives "complained bitterly" that the...

The Shrimp Wars

Christina Hoag April 19, 2004
When American wild pink shrimp caught in the ocean are sold for $18.99 a pound while farmed shrimp from Thailand are only sold at $7.99, the market is going to tilt. In recent years, American shrimpers have found it increasingly difficult to maintain their business – ten years ago there were 5,000 shrimp trawlers in the Gulf of Mexico, but today only about 1,900 are left. The Southern Shrimp...