In The News

Harvesting Poverty

November 11, 2003
A rift is splitting the American farm lobby, separating those farmers that can prosper on their own and those that rely on subsidies, this editorial in The New York Times argues. This rupture has been catalyzed by the proposal to cap the amount individual farmers can receive in government aid, a move supported by many smaller farmers but feared by their larger counterparts. Currently, the...

Mysteries of Trade Diplomacy

Ernesto Zedillo November 3, 2003
A month before the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade talks at Cancún, the US joined the European Union in favoring "perpetual agricultural protectionism." Consequently, when trade negotiators met in September in Cancún, the joint US-EU proposal did not seek to eliminate export subsidies. Instead, it aimed to provide legal support for agricultural protectionism. Zedillo argues that...

Following the Pepper Grinder All the Way to Its Source

R. W. Apple Jr. October 29, 2003
If it had not possessed such a monopoly over pepper during Europe’s Age of Exploration, “India might well never have been colonized at all,” remarks the managing director of Cochin Spices. His company is a modern-day link between the world’s most ubiquitous spice and its oldest source. They buy raw pepper from local farmers in southwest India, where the spice originated, and process it....

APEC Acts with Speed on Trade

Achara Pongvutitham October 22, 2003
Thailand wrapped up the summit of APEC leaders in Bangkok on a sharp note. Delivering the summit's Bangkok Declaration to the World Trade Organization's offices in Geneva immediately after the close of the meeting, Thailand and APEC members were “clearly sending a signal to the EU that it should come back to the negotiating table" on the issue of agricultural subsidies....

Bangladesh Faces the Challenge of Globalization

Wahiduddin Mahmud October 22, 2003
Bangladesh's economy grew rapidly during the 1990s as the country liberalized its markets and became increasingly integrated into the world economy. Until the 2001 global recession, Bangladesh ranked third for improvement of human development - behind only Cabo Verde and China - thanks in large part to exports from its blossoming garment industry. Wahiduddin Mahmud, economist and former...

Why Does One Country Draw More Investment Than Another?

David Dollar October 10, 2003
Why do some developing countries enjoy the highest growth rates in the world while others flounder? The World Bank set out to answer this question by comparing four developing nations - China, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh - that have grown at strikingly different rates. Though these countries were equally under-developed at the beginning of the 1990s, China’s economy has since soared, while...

US Business Interest in Singapore Triples Due to FTA: US Officials

October 8, 2003
Terrorist attacks and activity in Southeast Asia have not deterred American businesses from venturing into Singapore, according to the US ambassador to that city-state. In the past year, US small- and medium-sized businesses have been setting up shop in the country at a quick pace, Ambassador Frank Lavin said. Last month, the US and Singapore signed a free trade agreement (FTA) set to take...