In The News

An Ugly Side of Free Trade: Sweatshops in Jordan

Steven Greenhouse May 4, 2006
The story of abusive sweatshops is familiar, but still haunting. Reports suggest that as quickly as retailers and critics improve conditions in one location, new factories and abuses emerge in other nations. Jordan is the center of attention for impoverished people desperate for work and new criticism. A report from the National Labor Committee, based in the US, points out that workers are...

China Seeks "Strategic Partnership" With Africa

Tom Ashby April 27, 2006
After making economic inroads throughout Africa, China seeks to strengthen political ties. Speaking in Nigeria – Africa’s top oil-producing nation – China President Hu Jintao promised respect for African sovereignty, which contrasts with the ongoing US demands for democracy and a war on terror. The Chinese president’s tour has included stops in the US, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Kenya. "...

Microsoft's Gates Sees Vietnam Outsourcing Potential

Jason Folkmanis April 25, 2006
Vietnam’s economic growth, combined with a young population and high literacy rate, lures potential investors including the richest man in the world, Bill Gates. However, intellectual-property piracy also tends to run rampant in Vietnam and other nations with young impoverished populations. During a visit to the Communist country that eagerly seeks WTO membership, Gates suggested that Vietnam...

US, China Eager to Gloss Over Any Disagreements

Daniel Sneider April 25, 2006
The inevitability of China’s rise has led its Asian neighbors to perform “fine balancing” acts, with the question of how to respond to China’s growth remaining high on every agenda. Even countries that have been historically at odds with China – such as Japan and Vietnam – worry about the threat, but must cooperate with the second largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power. Like...

Currency Manipulator?

Ronald I. McKinnon April 24, 2006
As China’s bilateral trade surplus with the US continues rising in record-breaking fashion, there has been growing speculation that Beijing manipulates currency-exchange rates in its favor. However, Stanford economist Ronald McKinnon argues that China’s motivation for pegging the renminbi is to secure monetary stability rather than achieve an undue mercantile advantage in world export markets....

Has Globalization Gone too Far?

Nagesh Kumar April 11, 2006
Developed nations express growing resistance to foreign takeovers of national enterprises – from Mittal Steel’s bid for Archelor based in Luxembourg to Dubai Ports World plan to take over terminal operations of six US ports. The resistance contradicts WTO proposals from the West that would have allowed foreign investors to establish or acquire any business entity in any country. Developing...

IT Mergers Have Feds Flailing Against Tech Globalization

J. Nicholas Hoover April 4, 2006
The US Department of Defense aims to scrutinize any foreign entity that wants to buy US information-technology (IT) firms. Before Canada-based Nortel Networks purchased government-contractor PEC Solutions, it had to set up a separate subsidiary and allow the Defense Department to monitor e-mails. Election-year politics in the US could lead to more intense scrutiny. In particular, the government...