The passage I chose from The Travels of A T-Shirt in the Global Economy to discuss on is “China had been admitted into the WTO in 2001 and for the first time would be eligible to have its apparel exports removed from quota. Not only did it appear that the Philippines or Sri Lanka or Mauritius would not get a bigger piece of the pie when the quotas were lifted, it appeared instead that China would get everybody’s pie.” (Rivoli, 166)
Globalization is an ongoing part of the world’s economy and helps unify trade between nations. With the trade of goods flowing, every nation from the wealthy United States to even the poorest tribe in Africa have access to goods. However, this access to goods does not equate to progress and prosperity in poorer nation, often the opposite is true. In the Scientific American article ‘Does Globalization Help or Hurt the World's Poor?’ people living in poorer nations often loose jobs and live in poverty. Nations such as China are able to afford to trade goods at a much cheaper price than local goods are sold at. Therefore local industries collapse causing workers to lose their jobs and their income. Globalization, while it helps unify the world and allow easy trade does cause poorer nations, unable to compete with big corporations and cheap prices, to suffer and disappear. Therefore poverty and destitution follows in the wake of globalization for some nations.
While China’s economy thrives today from its enormous amounts of exports to other nations, such as the United States, it has also been buying up the world. In the New York Times article ‘As China Goes, So Goes…’ China has been building up $400 Billion trade surplus in the last 30 years. With this money, China has increased its buying of foreign items, helping spur the world’s economy. However with the current market in a recession, many are looking at China to help stimulate the economy. “As those industrial economies sputter, China is now in a position to pick up some of the slack: selling more of its own goods at home and buying more from the rest of the world.” China’s dominant economy has harmed many smaller nations’ economies, however today, China is the worlds best bet at ending the recession.
As China Goes, So Goes ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/opinion/27mon1.html
Does Globalization Help or Hurt the World's Poor?http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=does-globalization-help-o
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It does appear that Globalization does not always mean progress in some of the world's smaller countries. In class when we quickly researched textiles in various countries, my group found that since 1991 when India opened up the economy to domestic and international competitions many people lost their jobs, espeically poorer individuals that could not compete with more sophisticated technology and cheaper prices.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that the poorer countries do not gain anything from the process of globalization, it can be argued that they are better off. The business world works in cycles, and all countries will eventually get their turn. For example, in class my group did China, and many businesses think China is becoming too expensive, and are moving to countries like Vietnam or Thailand. While the big countries get richer, they are able to aide the poorer nations in their struggles, billions of dollars go out from the US every year to organizations helping the needy around the world. Globalization may not be as helpful as it is made out to be, but it certainly increases the value of poor nations, because cheap labor will always be needed.
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