In The News

European Sugar Policy Works to Undermine Trade With Asia

April 19, 2004
A recent report by Oxfam, an international non-governmental organization, has concluded that the European Union's skewed sugar regime is heavily subsidized, benefits several big companies, and generally hurts poorer countries. "This is a sugar scandal, and there is nothing sweet about it. The system rewards big companies and rich farmers with EU taxpayers' and consumers'...

Looking for a Villain, and Finding One in China

Eduardo Porter April 18, 2004
A couple years ago, economists warned that China was exporting deflation to the US. Now that is over, but many still see China as the problem. To some, China is a big cause of inflation, and economists, businessmen and politicians have blamed it for every economic woe. "China is choking off the profits of American companies with its hunger for commodities pushing up the price of raw...

Topsy-Turvy World

R Ravimohan April 16, 2004
When R. Ravimohan, a columnist for India's Business Standard, reads anything about the American outcry over the outsourcing of jobs to low-wage countries, he blames one root cause: the wide economic disparity between the developed and developing world. "Given the unshakeable viability of the differences in cost structures of different economies," he writes, "it is but natural...

World Set Back 10 Years by Bush's New World Order, Says Blair Aide

Paul Brown April 14, 2004
In a recent statement, the British prime minister's senior advisor Jonathan Porritt says US President George W. Bush has had a "devastating impact" on the world's work on sustainable development. Porrit accused the Bush administration's bad policies in a wide range of issues related to sustainable development, including climate change, international aid, family planning,...

Outsourcing, Turned Inside Out

Ken Belson April 11, 2004
While most Americans today have heard about and many already been alarmed by the outsourcing of jobs overseas, some others might not be as worried; those include the employees of South Korean semiconductor company Samsung in Austin, Texas. The company just announced that it would pump another $500 into its Texas plant, adding an additional 300 jobs to its 700-people workforce. Samsung is not...

Globalization Alone Isn't Enough

Stephen Haber April 11, 2004
At a recent Summit of the Americas meeting in Mexico, US President George W. Bush urged Latin American countries to adopt a Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement so that the region could become even more integrated into the global economy. Latin American leaders, however, are cautious. In the 80s and 90s, most Latin American countries opened their economies to foreign trade and investment...

How Indonesia Should Respond to U.S. Economic Saber Rattling

Patrick Guntensperger April 9, 2004
Recently, the US has begun pursuing a number of threatening trade initiatives meant to end what it calls the "unfair trading practices" of other nations. Indonesia, one of the 55 nations named, is accused of hurting the US economy with excessive trade barriers. According to Jakarta-based business consultant Patrick Guntensperger, the accusations are groundless. To counteract any...