In The News

A New Era in EU-ASEAN Relations?

Shada Islam July 23, 2003
The two major regional organizations of Asia and Europe are meeting again, this time in Bali, Indonesia. The potential for mutual benefit through increased trade and cooperation between the EU and ASEAN is immense, but Shada Islam wonders if the two regions will be able to realize that potential. Islam, a journalist specializing in EU foreign trade policy, notes that so far there has been...

The Great Catfish War

July 22, 2003
Double standards abound when it comes to the 'catfish war' the US is waging against Vietnam. Eager to engage an old enemy, Washington promoted the decidedly un-Marxist idea of free trade in Vietnam's Mekong Delta and helped transform it into a prime exporter of catfish. But as soon as Vietnam started profiting and Mississippi catfish farmers started losing in the competition, the...

Take Mexico Instead

Abdel-Moneim Said July 21, 2003
If colonial ambitions are really the reason America invaded Iraq, why did it choose such a far-flung and relatively resource poor country, asks Egyptian political scholar Abdel-Moneim Said. Why not invade Mexico or Canada? They're closer, wealthier, and just as poor a military match for the superpower. According to Said, America would have every reason to invade these countries if it only...

Cancun: A Battle for Life

Yanuar Nugroho July 16, 2003
Developing countries must be prepared to wage war on unfair trade regulations at the next round of WTO talks in Cancun, says an Indonesian scholar in the Jakarta Post. Recession has slowed the economies of the developed world and the September meeting in Cancun will likely be aimed at reducing trade barriers and opening the markets of developing countries to rich nations like the United States...

Workers Falling Behind in Mexico

Mary Jordan July 15, 2003
In Mexico, there are too many workers and too few jobs. The country has failed to recover from the financial crisis of the 1990s that sent the peso and the average standard of living plummeting. And, while the number of unskilled laborers remains high – indeed higher than ever before as women increasingly enter the workforce – lower wages in countries like Indonesia and Guatemala have lured...

Your Farm Subsidies Are Strangling Us

Amadou Toumani Toure July 11, 2003
African cotton is the best and cheapest in the world, maintain Presidents Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali and Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso. Yet cotton farmers in their countries remain impoverished. In a jointly written opinion article for The New York Times, the Presidents of these two African nations solicit Western nations to cut the cotton farm subsidies that lead to overproduction, distort...

Bush, in Africa, Promises Aid but Offers No Troops for Liberia

Richard W. Stevenson July 9, 2003
As his first trip to Africa commences, US President Bush is promising to promote democracy, fight AIDS, and increase trade with the continent, but he is offering no immediate assistance in the current bloodbath in Liberia. This reluctance to commit troops to the war torn country belies the emphasis Bush will be placing on the problems plaguing failing states like Liberia over the course of his...