The rounds of the world

Global Trade

In the class of global perspectives we had discussed global tread and then we were asigned to answer the following questions with the topics we discussed and the following text.

Many of the manufactured goods purchased in Europe or North America are made in China or the Indian subcontinent. Sometimes this means that an item of clothing might cost more to repair, or even to dry clean, than it was to buy in the first place. For many electronic items, such as laptop computers or smartphones, the price of the individual product may be many times more than the monthly wage of the worker who assembled it.

Yet, especially for electronic devices purchased on contract, it can often make more financial sense for the consumer to throw it away after a couple of years in favour of a slightly upgraded model. Those discarded phones often end up back in the developing world, in vast waste dumps, where the metals and chemicals used in their manufacture slowly pollute the environment and make people sick.

Do you consider these sorts of relationships to be an inevitable part of global trade?

No, I don’t think the relations mentioned are inevitable in the global trade. These relations emerged because of the multinational’s ambition to have more and more money no matter what they have to do. If people instead of focus on making more money, focus on more equality or at least be concern about how these sorts of relations damage people and the environment all over the world, they would be avoidable.

Should factors such as the environment, human health, or the gap between rich and poor play a greater role in international relations, whatever the cost?

Yes, these factors must play a greater role in international relations; these are all things that affect us directly and in the worst way possible every day. If countries all over the world keep ignoring the fact that we are destroying the only place we can live and at the same moment killing ourselves or avoiding talking about the enormous difference you can see between poor and rich people in every aspect, the whole world is going to collapse one day.

 What is your own opinion about the issue?

What I think is that even though it is very difficult to fight against the ambition of these multinationals for money it is not impossible. Although they have a lot of power and influence to do whatever they want, the consequences of all these issue sooner or later would affect them and at that moment the desire of equality in the world would be more than their ambition for money and that is when the world could change for better.

What more can you find out about this issue? Make a summary of  the different opinions you find.

Here I found some opinions to think about how some people encourage global trade describing it as an oppportunity of greatness. And also I found how others are aware and try to make people realise  about the consequences it generates, in particular it talks about how it increase the debts of nations to more powerfull ones and how it increase global poverty.

"Laurel Delaney writes in a tremendous spirit of service to entrepreneurial and small business leaders navigating the opportunities of globalization. Whether leading a fresh startup, a small business, or an entrepreneurial growth company seeking greatness, the question of whether—and how—to go global must be addressed. Delaney shows yet again her passionate dedication to serving her readers with deeply practical guidance." 
— Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and co-author of Beyond Entrepreneurship

“When imports exceed exports, a nation’s trade deficit rises. Using the U.S. as an example, Bivens wrote that each year the U.S. runs a trade deficit it must borrow from overseas lenders to finance the difference, which increases foreign debt that the nation must pay with interest. Higher foreign debts and their accompanying interest payments threaten long-term living standards, according to the EPI.” From the article “Negative effects of global trade”

“The World Trade Organization and the World Bank report that the years since 1980 have seen the most growth in liberalized trade, in which international trading activities expand as trade barriers fall. However, world poverty has risen during that same period. The World Bank reports that the number of people throughout the world living on less than $2 a day has risen by about 50 percent since 1980. In addition, a growing number of people are living on less than $1 a day.” From the article “Negative effects of global trade”