In The News

Demonizing China: Pundits Get its Role in Africa Wrong

Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong February 10, 2010
China’s growing trade with, and investment in, Africa have been much decried of late. It exploits African resources, critics have charged, makes shady deals with despots and warlords, and leaves the population no better, perhaps worse, than the Europeans before. But according to professors Sautman and Yan, China’s role in Africa has been much maligned. Though China mainly imports oil and other...

Who Needs Whom More?

Philip Bowring February 5, 2010
Recent US arms sales to Taiwan met a sharp Chinese response that unnerved US business interests. So far, the Obama Administration has preferred accommodation to confrontation with Beijing. Business concerns, of course, fear any disruption to growth in China. But is what is good for business necessarily good for the US in the case of China? According to the author, the US should recognize that...

The Trade Factor

Nayan Chanda January 5, 2010
The precipitous drop in trade last year as a result of the global financial crisis was evidence of the heightened interconnectedness of the world’s major economies. But such interconnectedness was also one reason why trade protectionism – the bogey everyone feared would send the globe into another Great Depression – never rose to a level that threatened a recovery. Indeed, there were many calls...

EU Finds Trade Barriers Rising Since Global Crisis

Stephen Castle November 11, 2009
A new report by the EU’s trade commissioner states that many countries have instituted trade restrictions on European exporters amid the global economic crisis. The report expects some countries to maintain these trade restrictions once the crisis is over. Interestingly, there appears to be a link between membership in the World Trade Organization and countries with restrictive trade measures:...

Black And White

Nayan Chanda November 10, 2009
China’s rising presence in Africa has received increasing notice in the press and increasing concern from the West. Such contact is not a new phenomenon as trade between the Middle Kingdom and the continent first occurred as far back as six centuries ago. Today, raw materials trade continues but it is not all one way – China invests directly in the region through mines, construction, and...

Free Trade Has Enriched the World with More than Diverse Goods

Daniel Griswold October 2, 2009
Amid the rise in unemployment across the globe, trade is the oft-cited cause for the current malaise. Hence, according to populists, restricting trade should be the cure. But, Director for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute Daniel Griswold says the populists have it wrong. If one really wants to help the poor, fostering trade is the key since it delivers the lowest cost staple goods that...

China Spreads Aid in Africa, With a Catch

Sharon Lafraniere, John Grobler September 23, 2009
In recent years, China has greatly increased its presence throughout the developing world by offering loans below market-rates, championing such efforts as win-win for both China and the receiving countries. Whereas Western nations have often attached political and economic reforms as conditions to their aid, China instead offered “no strings attached” assistance, disregarding human rights...