In The News

Falling Behind in the FTA Race

January 12, 2004
With only one free trade agreement signed, Japan may lose out to its more aggressive competitors, including China and the United States. Although Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi claims, "Japan cannot continue a policy of agricultural isolation," says this editorial in the Japan Times, action has yet to follow his words. At present, Japan has an agreement inked with Singapore...

Bush's Proposal for Immigration Reform Misses the Point

Andres Oppenheimer January 8, 2004
A day after US President George W. Bush announced proposed changes to US immigration policy, some are saying the changes do not go deep enough. If it meets with approval from the US Congress, Bush's proposal would grant identity cards to millions of illegal workers and allow them to continue to work legally for three years. The plans were announced just one week before Bush meets with the...

How to Reduce Poverty: Lessons from China

David Dollar January 6, 2004
Conventional economic wisdom holds that foreign investment and trade boost economic growth and help alleviate poverty in developing countries. So why is it that some countries that seem quite open to the outside world are stagnating economically? David Dollar, Director of Development Policy at the World Bank, writes that a comparison of economic conditions in several Chinese cities points to...

The Likely Surprises of 2004

Moises Naim December 29, 2003
The Iraq war may have dominated headlines, but it was not the only significant geopolitical event of 2003. Moises Naim, the editor of Foreign Policy Magazine, reminds us that while moving forward in 2004 we cannot overlook the fundamental changes that occurred in 2003 within the European Union, the global trading system, the American and Chinese economies, and Russia. As a new year begins, the...

Even Labor Unions Can Gain from Free Trade

Tamara Kay December 23, 2003
In the long negotiations before the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), pundits, politicians, and unions alike predicted that NAFTA would bring increased animosity between transnational unions. They would now be competing for the same jobs, the argument went, and so labor solidarity will obviously break down. Instead, says labor scholar Tamara Kay, North America...

China's "Peaceful Ascendancy"

Yoichi Funabashi December 19, 2003
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, some international observers have predicted that China would be the next major counter-balance to US power and the only country with the potential to challenge American hegemony on a global scale. But, Chinese officials are now at pains to deny that they have any ambition to reign supreme again in Asia or destabilize the world economically, politically, or...

Sugar, Textiles Sour on CAFTA Deal

Jane Bussey December 19, 2003
US trade negotiators had no sooner finished closing a deal with four Central American countries when US textile and sugar industry representatives began crying foul. The Central American Free Trade Agreement would result in sugar industry job losses in the US, say its critics, and permit Chinese, Mexican, and Canadian textiles assembled in Central America to enjoy favorable import rules when...