In The News

China is Just Catching Up

Yasheng Huang June 8, 2004
China’s so-called 'rise' in the last two decades must be put into perspective, says Yasheng Huang, associate professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and author of "Selling China". In recent times, Huang notes, blaming China’s buoyant economy for financial uncertainties in other parts of the world has come into vogue. But the hysteria and exaggeration expressed by...

Trade Theory vs. Used Clothes in Africa

Carter Dougherty June 3, 2004
In Uganda the seemingly ubiquitous struggle between free traders and protectionists is played out in the debate over used clothes. Like so many other cities in Africa, Uganda's capital, Kampala, is the destination for millions of dollars worth of second-hand garments from the developed world. But while myriad jobs have sprung up in Uganda's used clothes trade, those involved in the...

No Lack of Fake Luxuries

Jin Hyun-joo June 3, 2004
Cartier, Rolex, DKNY… Brand-name items are all the rage on the streets of South Korean cities. But buyer beware, says this article in the Korea Herald; a great deal of these 'luxury goods' are fakes. Counterfeit items generate billions of won a year in sales, though, because savvy buyers don't seem to care that they aren't getting the real thing. Two out of three university...

The $40-a-Barrel Mistake

Edward L. Morse May 25, 2004
The ever-swelling prices for crude oil worldwide have many consumers and governments concerned. The authors of this article – a former US energy official and an oil adviser to Saudi Arabia – attribute the problems to ineffective policies pursued by the United States and Saudi Arabia over the past year. According to them, the initial catalyst for these policy decisions was the 2003-2003 Venezuelan...

Russia Backs Kyoto to Get on Path to Join WTO

Peter Baker May 22, 2004
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Russia would support the Kyoto protocol on limitation of emission of green house gases into the atmosphere marks an important step. The Kyoto Protocol received a big blow when the Bush administration refused to support it. Given that there was a strong campaign by some elements in Russia against supporting the protocol the future of Kyoto...

WTO Hands a Critical Victory to African Farmers

Gayle E. Smith, Susan E. Rice May 21, 2004
Last September's WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun failed to produce a substantive trade agreement after a group of developing countries banded together to demand the EU and the US discontinue their multi-billion dollar subsidy programs. When the EU and US resisted, the talks fell apart. But the latest ruling by the WTO against US cotton subsidies may help push through the Cancun...

A Tree That Supported Sudan Becomes a War's Latest Victim

Marc Lacey May 15, 2004
Sudan has long been the world's leading producer of gum arabic, a substance necessary to manufacture such diverse products as shampoo, pills, and soda. The Sudanese terrain and climate produce a "resin that cannot be reproduced" artificially or elsewhere. This specialized locale of one of the modern world's most important products is now becoming a serious trouble spot as...