In The News

China Wary as US Puts Lid on Textile Imports

Edward Alden November 20, 2003
The US can now import only limited quantities of brassieres, knit fabrics, and cotton dressing gowns from China – much to the relief of the US's domestic textile industry and to the ire of Chinese officials. Washington implemented the quotas in response to growing pressure from the US textile industry, which has lost 316,000 jobs in the past two years. Officials in the industry echo the...

Bilateral Pacts Also Goal for US

Jane Bussey November 19, 2003
Six Latin and South American countries – the Dominican Republic, Panama, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru – may enter bi-lateral trade agreements with the United States within the year, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick announced on Tuesday at the FTAA summit in Miami. This is a shift in strategy away from the original demands that Brazil and other reluctant states all fall in line...

Worthy Goal

Eric Farnsworth November 18, 2003
“The negotiations over a Free Trade Area of the Americas are not ultimately about agriculture subsidies, orange juice, or even competing claims of jobs won or lost,” argues Eric Farnsworth, Vice President of the Council of the Americas. “Rather, they are about building a democratic hemisphere consistent with strategic interests.” He explains that direct foreign investment drives economic growth...

US Backs Down Over Free Trade in Americas

Guy de Jonquières November 17, 2003
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement will come under debate in Miami on Thursday. Each of the nations involved is working hard in the days leading up to the negotiations to push its particular vision of what the agreement should look like or whether there even should be a regional trade area in the Americas. The US has advocated a more extreme version of liberalization than what...

Europeans Need Clearer Vision to Revive WTO Talks

Shada Islam November 14, 2003
The US and the European Union helped derail negotiations at the Cancun meeting of the World Trade Organization by refusing to end subsidies to their farmers. Although European leaders talk of building a multi-polar new world order, says Shada Islam, their stand at the WTO betrays a reluctance to deal with the developing world as equals. The deal the European Union struck with Washington is...

The New Leviathans

Nayan Chanda November 12, 2003
One of the major agents of globalization - the multinational corporation - has been alternately portrayed as global villain and global economic booster. In "Global Inc.", a new "atlas of the multinational corporation" by Medard Gabel and Henry Bruner, companies with an extensive global reach are subjected to a more objective critical eye. In this review article, Nayan Chanda...

US Loses WTO Steel Appeal

David Roeder November 11, 2003
A trade war could erupt if US President Bush fails to accept a World Trade Organization ruling that American steel tariffs are illegal. The EU and Japan said they would impose as much as $2.3 billion in sanctions on U.S. products including tobacco, fruit juice, and frozen peas unless Bush complies with the WTO ruling. Bush originally ordered the steel tariffs 20 months ago in order to give the...