In The News

Three Faces of Globalization

Franklin L. Lavin April 30, 2003
US President Bush and Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong met in Washington to sign a bilateral free trade agreement between the two countries. This will contribute to the opening up of barriers to economic globalization and, as Franklin Lavin, US ambassador to Singapore, points out, improve existing cross-border cooperation in the construction of barriers to two other facets of globalization...

Half in Germany, Half in Poland

Frank Pergande April 25, 2003
Poland’s pending membership in the European Union should, in theory, offer great benefits to towns on the border between Germany and Poland. The divisions created in 1945 had severe economic consequences for some small border towns. EU membership for Poland and cross-border trade between these poor German and Polish towns could make a difference. Studies caution, however, that most economic...

If Nike Defends Itself, Is That a Commercial?

Linda Feldmann April 23, 2003
Nike Inc. is the world's largest athletic footwear company. Nike, with its 900 factories in 51 countries and more than 600,000 employees, is currently embroiled in a Supreme Court case in the US. This case stems from a 1998 lawsuit, in which San Francisco activist Marc Kasky charged that Nike had made false statements about sweatshop conditions in its Asian factories. Mr. Kasky asserted...

Indonesia Mulls Euro as Trade Currency

Shoeb Kagda April 22, 2003
With as much as 15% of Bank Indonesia's reserves already held in Euros, the European Union's currency could in future take a dominant role in Indonesia's international trade. A senior government official confirmed that Indonesia was considering making the switch from US dollars to the Euro after the idea was proposed by the country's national oil company. Concerns about a...

SAS nabs N Korea drug ship

Ian Gerard April 21, 2003
Braving rough seas and bodily harm, yesterday members of Australia's special forces boarded a North Korean ship suspected of smuggling over 50 kg of heroin. Although the ship's flag showed it to be registered in Tuvalu, the first land-based arrests in the case included a Singaporean and two Malaysians, with the crew of the smuggling ship believed to be from North Korea. International...

Sars: A New Threat to Asian Prosperity

Michael Richardson April 21, 2003
Greater openness in tourism and trade, on which much of Asia's recent economic growth has been based, is coming back to haunt countries from South Korea to Thailand. The extent of the economic fall-out from the Sars epidemic is only just becoming apparent, but WHO estimates already place the global costs at $30 billion and rising. With China's true infection numbers still unknown and...

Black Money Flowing Back to India

V. K. Raghunathan April 16, 2003
Since September 11 the US has cracked down on bank accounts that might be funding terrorists. It has even asked countries with secrecy laws to disclose information about account holders to help in its fight. An unintended consequence of this policy is that many Indians who have illegally stashed money outside of the country now fear discovery and prosecution, and have begun to bring their money...