Pro globalisation

International trade and investment have been the engines of world growth over the past 50 years. The tonnes of goods traded around the world have grown by 16 times since 1950, reflecting the lowering of tariff barriers. The growth of trade in services is even greater.

The benefits of that growth have been shared. The countries that are getting poorer are those that are not open to world trade, notably many nations in Africa. China’s opening to world trade has brought it growth in income from $1460 a head in 1980 to $4120 by 1999. In 1980, American’s earned 12.5 times as much as the Chinese, per capita. By 1999, they were only earning 7.4 times as much. The gap between rich and poor is also shrinking with most nations in Asia and Latin America.

Many people believe that exports create jobs, and imports cost jobs and that it therefore makes sense to have barriers against imports. This thinking led to the Great Depression in 1930, because so many countries had erected barriers against imports that global trade fell with catastrophic consequences.

Most exports also use some imports. To take a simple example, a country might export packaged sugar, but import the packets. Lowering import barriers makes export industries even more efficient and competitive in world markets. Countries that lower trade barriers concentrate their national energies in industries they are good at, where they have an international advantage. Import barriers encourage countries to focus efforts in industries where they do not have any advantage. It leads to wasteful and lazy investment. There is evidence that developing countries that erect barriers to imports have slower growth in incomes than those that are open to trade.

Companies of all sizes are involved in world trade – the benefits do not just flow to large multi-nationals. In most trading nations, raging from Thailand to France, small firms employing less than 200 people account for between 10 and 25% of exports.

Links

The WTO http://www.wto.org and the World Bank http://www.worldbank.org both have some good resources on globalisation. Particularly valuable at the World Bank is a series of relatively short briefing papers on assessing globalisation.
http://www1.worldbank.org/economicpolicy/globalization/

Worldgrowth.org is an internet site based resource which provides links to reports on major globalisation issues. Its orientation is pro-market and sound science. http://www.worldgrowth.org

The Cato Institute is a long-standing advocate of the benefits of free trade and free markets. Its resources on globalisation are at http://www.cato.org/current/globalization/index.html

One of the best documents on the benefits of free trade is the OECD paper, "Open Markets Matter: The Benefits of Trade and Liberalisation". There is a summary at http://www.oecd.org//ech/special.htm

Management consultants A.T. Kearney established the Global Business Policy Council - http://www.atkearney.com/main.taf?site=1&a=3&b=3&c=0&d=0 - as a strategic service to help chief executives monitor and capitalize on geopolitical, economic, social and technological change worldwide. It is best known for its Globalization Index which views free trade in a positive light.

Famous free-trade business magazine, The Economist, maintains a page on globalisation. Access to some articles is free.
http://www.economist.com/library/articlesBySubject/display.cfm?id=423172

The US Alliance for Trade Expansion is an organisation devoted to answering some of the criticisms raised by critics of globalisation.
http://www.us-trade.org/

The Institute for International Economics has a good page of articles and speeches on globalisation and the WTO, particularly a short paper on the benefits of globalisation.
http://www.iie.com/Publications/category.cfm?category_id=9

The WTO www.wto.org and the World Bank www.worldbank.org have some good resources on globalisation. Particularly valuable at the world bank is a series of relatively short briefing papers on assessing globalisation.
http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/pb/globalization/index.htm

Anti-globalisation

The World Trade Organisation agreements on free trade have functioned principally to prise open markets for the benefit of transnational corporations at the expense of national economies; workers, farmers and other people; and the environment.

The WTO should not solely focus on opening markets but also allow trade to be restricted to support human rights, labour rights and environmental objectives in other countries. The WTO and trade agreements should also allow non-government organisations a direct voice in their governance.

The freeing of financial markets has brought global instability, as evidenced in financial crises in Asia and Latin America and the continuing marginalisation of sub-Saharan Africa.

Links

WTO Watch constantly updates news on anti-globalisation perspectives
http://www.wtowatch.org/

Public Citizen and Canadians provide North American anti-free trade perspectives and materials
http://www.publiccitizen.org http://www.Canadians.org

The Third World Network is a Malaysian based anti-globalisation Website http://www.twnside.org.sg

The International Centre for Trade and Development provides a pro-environmental NGO perspective on international trade. http://www.ictsd.org

The New Internationalist provides an anti-globalisation perspective on trade and development.
http://www.newint.org

Statement of the Top 10 reasons to oppose the WTO from the left NGO organisation, Global Exchange.
http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/rulemakers/topTenReasons.html