In The News

Why China Should Not Revalue

Francis Scotland October 2, 2003
China should continue to ignore US calls to revalue its currency. At present, the Chinese currency renminbi or yuan is pegged to the dollar at a rate of 8.4 to 1, a rate which many say makes the Chinese currency significantly undervalued. Nonetheless, the author argues that the Chinese currency peg allows the hyper-stimulative US monetary policy to be exported to the rest of the world economy...

Hard Realities: Brazil Drops Resistance to Genetically Altered Crops

Larry Rohter September 28, 2003
Brazil, the world's second largest producer of soybeans and one of the world's most important agricultural exporters, has traditionally outlawed genetically modified (GM) crops. Now, populist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has shifted policy, choosing to allow modified soybean seeds. Some poor Brazilian farmers have already been using GM seeds obtained from neighboring Argentina...

A Swirl of Foreboding in Mahogany’s Grain

Juan Forero September 28, 2003
The towering mahogany tree has long been coveted for its color and strength. Now, fueled by international demand, trade in mahogany wood has become a multimillion-dollar industry that threatens large swaths of the Amazon rainforest. Logging of the wood far bypasses the stringent limits set by international regulations, raising fears that loggers operating outside legal areas will decimate the...

Global Anti-GM Sentiment Slows China's Biotech Agenda

Valerie Karplus September 26, 2003
Genetic modification of agricultural products like cotton, rice, and tomatoes has recently allowed small farmers in China to avoid spraying toxic pesticides on their crops. Pesticides – laborious to apply and proven to be harmful to your health – are now becoming obsolete because genetically modified (GM) crops are automatically resistant to the most common agricultural threats. But despite early...

Connect the Dots

Thomas Friedman September 25, 2003
The US has refused to cut agricultural subsidies to its farmers for years, and it refused again at the recent WTO meeting in Cancún. Thomas Friedman laments that fact, arguing that a real connection exists between US hypocrisy on world trade issues and the roots of anti-American terrorism. Countries like Pakistan, mired in poverty, would produce fewer angry fundamentalists willing to bomb the...

U.S. Business Leaders Demand Won's Rise, Screen Quota Cut

Kim Sung-mi September 25, 2003
Several major obstacles to a bilateral trade agreement between South Korea and the United States were challenged during a meeting this week in Washington. US and Korean business leaders called on Korea to grant greater access to foreign films by lowering its quota of domestic films from 40% to 20%, an issue which some called the "principal obstacle" to a bilateral trade deal....

China May Widen Yuan Trading Band Next Year, Report Says

September 25, 2003
Economists speculate that China will revalue the yuan by the time the Olympic torch is lit for the 2008 games. Under growing pressure from US business interests and other trade partners, China is likely to revalue its currency by making significant changes next year and possibly even floating the currency as early as 2008. "China wants to be a respectable global player," one senior...