In The News

Surge in Protectionist Measures Blamed for Sapping Trade

William Mauldin November 13, 2015
Global trade is in decline in terms of value and volume. “On average G20 exports have fallen 4.5% since world trade peaked in value in October 2014,” notes a report from Global Trade Alert. Countries resort to protectionist measures to preserve growth and jobs. William Mauldin writes about the report for the Wall Street Journal: “India, Russia and the U.S. have imposed the most ‘trade-distorting...

The US and Russia Face to Face as Ice Curtain Melts

Humphrey Hawksley November 5, 2015
The US defense budget for 2014 is more than double that of Russia and China’s combined. Measuring naval strength is trickier as comparisons of hulls or personnel matter less than surveillance and sophisticated weaponry and vessels like ice-cutters. As climate change melts sea ice, countries eye the Arctic for natural resources and trade routes, reassessing naval positions. Journalist Humphrey...

Is China the Next Mexico?

Jorge Guajardo November 5, 2015
China’s political and economic transformations should be compared with that of Mexico, suggests Jorge Guajardo, a former Mexican ambassador to China, in an essay for Zócalo Public Square. In the 1990s, during the negotiations for the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, analysts cheered Mexico’s economic expertise and openness to free trade by the ruling party with its lock on power. “Lost in all...

The Silk Road – Old and New

Nayan Chanda October 26, 2015
In the summer of 2011, the US secretary of state called for a “new Silk Road” throughout Asia, investment in trade and infrastructure to counter extremism. China used the term But then China used the term for its own ambitious plans. “President Xi Jinping launched with fanfare an ambitious New Silk Road project on land and sea,” writes Nayan Chanda for Global Asia, a publication of the East Asia...

TPP Is Surprising Vote of Confidence in Globalization

Greg Ip October 23, 2015
Workers in many countries are suspicious about free-trade agreements for reducing job opportunities. The Trans-Pacific Partnership has won approval of 12 nations, and now requires separate legislative approval from each. US approval could be “precarious,” suggests reports Greg Ip for the Wall Street Journal, even though the country may be sacrificing the least. He explains that trade agreement...

Beyond Hype and Pomp

Nayan Chanda October 22, 2015
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among many world leaders traveling to New York in September for the annual UN General Assembly meeting: “his principal mission was to sell India to US multinationals and tech titans, and to win the support of Indians overseas,” explains Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal’s founding editor in his column for Businessworld. India is a vast, young and developing market...

Pacific Trade Deal Needs to Harmonize With Sustainable Development Goals

Shuaihua Wallace Cheng October 22, 2015
Developed and poorer developing nations often struggle to agree on global initiatives. But two major deals have been announced: The 193 members of the United Nations approved global action on 17 Sustainable Development Goals to reduce poverty, and 12 nations concluded negotiations on the Transpacific Trade Partnership, the largest regional trade agreement in history. The trade agreement supports...