In The News

Prepare Now for Sino-Indian Trade Boom

Niraj Dawar October 31, 2005
China and India are natural trading partners, but years of political hostility have prevented the two from taking full advantage of their complementary relationship. That is changing: Sino-Indian trade may skyrocket from $14 billion annual in 2004 to as much as $450 billion in 2010. Multinational corporations now need to change their business models if they hope to profit from this new surge...

Global Europe

Gordon Brown October 27, 2005
As European leaders meet at Hampton Court, British chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown writes about a need for a drastically new approach to the EU. After all, the EU was founded to make intra-European trade successful and to integrate the economies of the member countries, not specifically to deal with challenges from outside economic competitors. Brown argues that many of the EU's...

Brazil Regrets its China Affair

Matt Moffett October 12, 2005
Two years ago, to much fanfare, China and Brazil entered into a bilateral trade partnership, hoping to propel both populous, ambitious nations to the top of the development heap. With increased exports to China, Brazil made modest economic advances since entering the trade agreement. But in the same period, the world's textile quotas expired, leaving many world economies vulnerable to China...

To Save Global Trade Talks, Act on Agriculture

Kevin Watkins October 7, 2005
The Doha round of trade talks has the potential to significantly reduce global poverty – that is, if the talks are successful. According to the author, the key issue is agriculture. He urges the US and the EU to seriously investigate the propriety of their outsized farming subsidies and high agricultural tariffs, as these policies effectively block farmers in developing companies from enjoying...

A Trade Fiction

Ernesto Zedillo September 8, 2005
Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, outlines in this Forbes Magazine commentary a fictional triumph for the Doha Round of trade negotiations. In the fantasy, the Doha Round sets the stage for a multilateral trading system that will soon lift all protectionist trade restrictions, a liberalization of services, and worldwide acknowledgement of the principles...

The Legacy of Lee Kyung Hae

John Feffer August 29, 2005
The organic farms that line the Han River in South Korea may be the country's agricultural future – and sadly, they tell the story of its troubled past and present. More broadly, the Korean agricultural crisis is a story of small farmers forced to negotiate among the shifting currents of globalization. The industrialization of South Korea's agriculture, the Green Revolution, rendered...

The Creative Evolution of World Trade

Susan Esserman August 23, 2005
Often subject to accusations of inadequate transparency and insufficient accountability, the World Trade Organization took a big step toward more open practices. A dispute panel on hormone-fed beef in the EU has decided to open hearings to the public – allowing closed-circuit television cameras to record the proceedings. Many delegates oppose the move, contending that some level of secrecy is...