In The News

Global Trade Entering “Era of Fragmentation”

Finbarr Bermingham June 3, 2015
Trade is gradually becoming more fragmented and less global in scope, with a drop in cross-border capital flows, as countries form exclusive trade coalitions and agreements, writes Finbarr Bermingham for Global Trade Review, a publication that covers commodity, export and supply-chain finance industries. “The WTO, for its part, has failed to reach the stated aim of the Doha Round, which set out...

China's Unprecedented Investment Offensive in Latin America

Juan de Onis May 29, 2015
The United States is paralyzed by partisan divide, particularly over the Trans-Pacific Partnership that could boost trade with Asia. Meanwhile, China continues to build trade ties, including “an unprecedented investment offensive in South America,” as described by Juan de Onis for World Affairs Journal. Li Keqiang, China’s premier, signed 35 bilateral agreements with Brazil totaling $53 billion...

The Broken Link Between Global Trade and Emerging Market Growth

Dan Bogler May 26, 2015
Growing global trade is no longer going hand in hand with GDP growth in emerging markets, reports Dan Bogler for Financial Times. Investors have anticipated growth in developing economies, but instead, the pace is in decline since 2010 due to lower commodity prices, the rise in the US dollar value and slowing growth in China. Domestic factors including high debt contribute to the slower pace. “...

Fair Trade for the Global Garment Industry

David Welsh May 22, 2015
Profits and fast-changing styles in the global garment industry depend on low wages, long hours and dangerous workplaces in countries like Cambodia. Writing for the New York Times, David Welsh, country director of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center in Cambodia writes: “the big brands reap billions of dollars chasing the lowest production costs they can find, moving from one country to another when...

China’s Factory Workers Are Becoming More Restive

Anita Chan May 21, 2015
Migrant workers in South China are increasingly more assertive. A once relatively compliant workforce is staging more and bigger strikes prompting authorities to escalate suppression. Anita Chan, author and research professor, analyzes the internal and external forces behind the unrest. Labor activism is most intense in Guangdong Province, near Hong Kong with its NGOs that spread the word about...

Headwinds as the US Moves Toward Secretive Trade Agreement

David Dapice May 19, 2015
The very notion of global trade would suggest openness – and certainly a lack of secrets. But the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a new kind of agreement, one that pushes deep integration and focuses on regulations for corporations as well as lower tariffs, explains economist David Dapice. Twelve nations including the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, Mexico – but not China – are...

Move Over, France – Here Comes China

Wei Gu May 15, 2015
China is shaping tastes in wine as both consumer and supplier. “China has edged ahead of France in the amount of land devoted to vineyards, according to the International Vine and Wine Organization, although France still produces more than four times the volume of wine that China does,” reports Wei Gu for the Wall Street Journal. Spain ranks first in land devoted to vineyards. For now, the world...