giovedì 17 ottobre 2024
EU citizens’ rights and human rights, its values and practice, plus EU development cooperation and aid
https://ec.europa.eu/info/aid-development-cooperation-fundamental-rights_en plus the related pages, for example:
https://commission.europa.eu/aid-development-cooperation-fundamental-rights/your-rights-eu_en
https://commission.europa.eu/aid-development-cooperation-fundamental-rights/how-we-provide-aid_en
also
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:12012P/TXT
https://european-union.europa.eu/priorities-and-actions/actions-topic/human-rights-and-democracy_en
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/eu-annual-reports-human-rights-and-democracy_en
A statement by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and
Security Policy
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/2023-annual-report-human-rights-and-democracy-world-0_en?etrans=it
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/2023-annual-report-human-rights-and-democracy-world-0_en
‘2023 Human Rights and Democracy in the World’ the annual report of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
and the Italian
Constitution
La Repubblica riconosce
e garantisce i diritti inviolabili dell'uomo, sia come singolo, sia nelle
formazioni sociali ove si svolge la sua personalità, e richiede l'adempimento
dei doveri inderogabili di solidarietà politica, economica e sociale.
https://www.senato.it/istituzione/la-costituzione/principi-fondamentali/articolo-2
Art. 2 The Republic recognises and guarantees the
inviolable human rights, be it as an individual or in social groups expressing
their personality, and it requests the performance of the unalterable duty to
social, economic, and political solidarity.
You
don’t have to agree with what follows – only to be aware of the issues raised
The Roma or
Romani people and the EU
https://rm.coe.int/the-human-rights-of-roma-and-travellers-in-europe/168079b434
recent criticism
of the EU in the last few years
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/italy
https://reliefweb.int/report/italy/italy-halt-abusive-migration-cooperation-libya
https://www.iusinitinere.it/critiche-onu-alle-politiche-migratorie-italiane-20619
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/european-union
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/21/eus-migration-pact-disaster-migrants-and-asylum-seekers
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/09/21/migration-obsession-killing-eus-commitment-human-rights
https://www.amnesty.eu/asylum-and-migration/
https://www.amnesty.ie/hotspot-italy-abuses-refugees-migrants-eus-approach-managing-migration/
Some other
countries by comparison
https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-asia/afghanistan/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/americas/south-america/brazil/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/east-asia/china/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-asia/india/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/middle-east/iran/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/east-asia/north-korea/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/eastern-europe-and-central-asia/russia/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/americas/north-america/united-states-of-america/
mercoledì 16 ottobre 2024
What are the main characteristics, benefits and drawbacks of globalization and the current trends?
Global trends and questions
2024
WTO Global Trade Outlook revision
https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/wtr24_e/wtr24_ch0c_e.pdf
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/10/globalization-climate-crisis-growth-economy/
The
Economist https://impact.economist.com/projects/trade-in-transition/era-of-new-globalisation
The
IMF Report is due on 22 October
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/5-risks-global-economy-2024/
https://www.imd.org/ibyimd/2024-trends/globalization-in-2024-the-clouds-are-clearing/
Trade
restrictions
https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/voices/global-trade-has-nearly-flatlined-populism-taking-toll-growth
This
next two articles seem balanced in their forecast:
https://www.citigroup.com/global/insights/global-insights/will-globalization-trump-deglobalization
2023
https://hbr.org/2023/07/the-state-of-globalization-in-2023
decoupling and regionalization without deglobalization
Recent trends in the evolution of global trade
The US and EU – reshoring,
friendshoring, nearshoring and securing supply chains
https://blog.qima.com/europe/nearshoring-trends-europe-vs-us
Protectionism
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/opinion/tariffs-us-india-china.html
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/jun/11/protectionism-growth-poverty-world-bank
Can we have global
economic growth and tackle climate change at the same time?
https://climateanalytics.org/comment/will-2024-be-the-year-emissions-start-falling
Investment
https://unctad.org/publication/world-investment-report-2024
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/blog/date/2024/html/ecb.blog240627~2e939aa430.en.html
and
productivity
some
definitions
outsourcing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing
offshoring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshoring
nearshoring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nearshoring
supply
chain security https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain_security
supply
chain diversification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain_diversification#:~:text=Supply%20chain%20diversification%2C%20within%20the,of%20products%20into%20the%20market.
file:///C:/Users/Pc/Downloads/the-state-of-european-supply-chains-survey-2024.pdf
EU trade agreements
The EU and Italy
https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/eu-trade-relationships-country-and-region/negotiations-and-agreements_en ongoing and in place
important examples https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/eu-japan-economic-partnership-agreement/
https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ceta/
http://rtais.wto.org/UI/PublicMaintainRTAHome.aspx
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/region_e/region_e.htm
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_6069
https://www.eu-japan.eu/news/italy-and-japan-signed-mou-to-cross-support-their-start-
.
EU restrictions on trade with Russia
US restrictions
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11869
G7 restrictions
Impact of the Ukraine war on markets
now https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2024/757783/EPRS_BRI(2024)757783_EN.pdf
Trade agreements
https://english.aawsat.com/business/4822066-beijing-china-gcc-complete-90-free-trade-agreement
https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news24_e/rta_02jul24_e.htm
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/region_e/rtafactfig_e.pdf
US and EU sanctions on China
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-eu-s-evolving-china-sanctions-strategy
Trade restrictions and the US elections
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2024/10/what-us-election-means-trade-policy
earlier
The RCEP:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Comprehensive_Economic_Partnership
The CPTPP:
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_and_Progressive_Agreement_for_Trans-Pacific_Partnership
Prospects for a US-Asia-China trade deal
The EU and China
‘The EU sees China as a partner for cooperation,
an economic competitor and a systemic rival. However, EU-China relations
have become increasingly complex due to a growing number of irritants. China
has become less open to the world and more repressive at home, while taking a
more assertive posture abroad, resorting to economic coercion, boycotts of
European goods, and export controls on critical raw materials.’
from https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/eu-china-relations-factsheet_en
https://merics.org/en/comment/expert-opinions-about-eu-china-relations-2024
These notes go with the longer older articles on globalization (Chained
to Globalization/Why Globalization Stalled/Globalization’s Wrong Turn) that will
be in the Dropbox.
Recent events 2020-3
The global economy was hit
by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and although some of the recent trade barriers
were later removed by the Biden administration Covid-19 trade restrictions had
to be put in place. This exposed global supply chains to delays, disruptions
and interruptions.
https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres19_e/pr840_e.htm
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/business/wto-global-trade.html
However, many countries tried to reach new free trade
agreements to boost exports while being forced to adopt a series of Covid-19
trade restrictions, e.g. on transport and travel.
https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news19_e/trdev_21nov19_e.htm
https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news20_e/trdev_11dec20_e.htm
https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news21_e/trdev_28oct21_e.htm
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
led to trade sanctions on Russia and retaliation by Russia in the form of gas
and oil price rises. Western countries have responded by seeking
diversification of suppliers and resources (more investment in the development
of green energies and a greater reliance, at least in the short term on coal
and nuclear power).
Some notes
Globalization refers to
the increasingly global interconnectedness of cultures,
people and economic activity.
https://www.piie.com/microsites/globalization/what-is-globalization
Most often, it refers to economics: the increasingly
global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction
in barriers to international trade such as tariffs,
export fees, and import quotas (as well as invisible
barriers such as complex and slow bureaucracy) and the transfer of such goods
and services to consumers. It also involves the freer movement and circulation
of workers around the world, delocalization or outsourcing (relocation of
factory and service providers from one country to another – see ‘Outsourcing’
and’ Offshoring’) and glocalization of products and services. Globalization
contributes to economic growth in developed and developing countries through
increased specialization and the principle of comparative advantage.
All this helps to lower the price of goods and thus benefits the
consumer and raises the standard of living. Globalization of financial markets
makes money available at low interest rates for investment across the world
(the circulation of capital to where, in theory, it can best be invested)..
The rapid increase in the process of globalization was the result of a
number of factors: the end of the Cold War and the end of the relative
isolation of countries like Russia, the old Warsaw Pact states and China, and
their integration into the global trading system; the work of the World Trade
Organization to eliminate or reduce trade barriers; the work of the World Bank,
which is a lending institution whose aim is to help integrate countries into
the wider world economy and promote long-term economic development; the work of
the International Monetary Fund which aims to promote global monetary
cooperation and financial stability and thus support trade; developments in
transport technologies, infrastructure and procedures and thus reductions in
transport costs, e.g. container ships and ports, low-cost airlines;
developments in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) that
facilitate trade, e.g. the internet, cell phones and satellite technologies. In
many ways, this is all in line with the old Functionalist theory of
international relations.
Many supporters of globalization argue that it also promotes peace. In
the 1960s and’70s there was very little trade between the West and the
Communist bloc. In the 1990s the level of trade between, for example, the US
and China or the EU and the Russian Federation was very high, and it is difficult
to imagine how such trading partners could become involved in a general
conflict without seriously damaging their own economies. However, the start of
the war in Ukraine, the sanctions that followed and the increased tension with
China have made the claim that globalization fosters peace seem much less
convincing.
The countries that gain least from globalization will be those least
integrated within the global trading system, either by choice (by political
decision and the maintenance of strong trade barriers) or through a lack of the
necessary infrastructure (e.g. ports, airports and roads), or know-how and
expertise, or technology, or an adequate industrial base or a secure business
environment (e.g. failed or partially failed states or states with high levels
of corruption, bureaucracy, red-tape and insecurity of ownership or the rule of
law due to weak governance or civl war).
The term globalization can also refer to the transnational circulation
of ideas, languages, and popular culture, particularly via the internet and
social media or on satellite TV across political borders. Many Western
political commentators identify its most positive effects in the spread of
democratic and human rights values at a grass roots level, a phenomenon which
authoritarian regimes may find difficult to control. Paradoxically, cultural
globalization in this sense may actually lead to tension and political
instability, at least in the short term, as the rapid changes which have taken place
in the Arab world (the Arab Spring) and around the globe demonstrate (e.g. the
street protests in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Hong Kong, Venezuela and Chile).Moreover,
globalization may lead to a mixing of cultures and an enriched, more vibrant
multicultural society. This is an important factor both for the EU and for a
city like New York.
Globalization also means the growing role of international
organizations, both global and regional, like the UN, the WTO, the IMF or the
EU and AU, and the diminishing ability of nation states to confront their
problems alone – problems which are now often global challenges requiring
international cooperation at an ever-increasing level e.g. climate change and
migration.
Critics of globalization make a series of points:
Globalization encourages competition to lower prices. This can damage
developed economies with strong social welfare systems which find themselves in
competition with countries like China where social welfare costs for companies
are small or non-existent, and overheads may also be relatively low. Many
Europeans commentators would now argue that this aspect of globalization
outweighs the benefits to Western consumers of low-cost goods because European
companies will be unable to compete and either close, move their factories and
other production facilities abroad where costs are lower, or outsource part, or
all, of the production process to other companies located in low-cost areas.
This will lead to more unemployment in the developed economies. They call for
trade limits on countries like China until those countries provide their own
workers with adequate health care, education and pensions. The freer movement
and circulation of workers around the world has also been criticized as leading
to a decline in salaries as workers from the host state compete with migrants
(often willing, or forced, to work at lower pay rates and usually less
organized in terms of unions), and a rise in social tensions between these two
groups. There may also be rising friction due to cultural and linguistic
differences. Further criticisms in this field concern the risk of increased
threats to security, and from terrorism and epi- or pandemics. The greater
volume of trade makes it difficult for the customs authorities to effectively
check the goods being transported and this has, it is argued, made illegal
trafficking in drugs, arms, organs and human beings easier. The same argument
is made for the increased number of people moving across borders.
The Covid-19
pandemic and the war in Ukraine led to delays and interruption in global supply
chains and to a rethinking of the whole question of globalization. Many
companies, countries and groups, including the EU, NATO, their democratic
allies and other groups have adopted a two-fold strategy: continuing to seek
free-trade agreements with reliable partners while at the same time
prioritizing security, diversification of supplies (e.g. new green energy
sources) and suppliers (gas and oil via Tunisia from Algeria for Italy) and
regionalization (a shortening of supply chains) instead of always prioritizing
short-term efficiency in terms of comparative advantage and the lowest price
available globally. They want to avoid over-dependence on supplies that may be
interrupted by an event like the Covid-19 pandemic, and on suppliers who may
use supplies as an economic or political weapon by imposing price hikes or
reducing or cutting of supplies. All of this was stated very clearly by Christine
Lagarde, President of the ECB in April 2022
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2022/html/ecb.sp220422~c43af3db20.en.html
This has led to trends like ‘reshoring’,
‘nearshoring’ and ‘friendshoring’ moving some production back to the home
country or to a country nearer geographically or politically allied to or more
reliable for the home country.
Globalization is also criticized as producing a tendency towards a
global monoculture (Coca Cola, hamburgers and bland pop music and the
destruction of local cultures) and towards an agricultural monoculture of
crops, which threatens small-scale farmers reduces agricultural biodiversity
and could put the world at risk of sudden reductions in food production due to
crop diseases.
Since the start of the economic recession in 2008 many experts have
argued that globalization makes the spread of a financial or economic crisis
more likely because of the interconnectedness of the world economy, and thus
renders the global trading system less stable, rather than more stable as
supporters claim. However, other economists point out that this
interconnectedness is not a new phenomenon as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and
the Depression of the 1930s demonstrates. In fact, they argue that today’s
global institutions and our awareness of global economic realities made it
possible for countries to react more effectively this time by adopting common
policies rather than pursuing protectionist policies as happened in the 1930s.
However, the globalization of financial markets and the removal of or reduction
in the rules controlling financial and banking transactions, together with the
availability of credit on easy terms to those who were not really credit-worthy
led, in the opinion of many critics, to a financial culture of irresponsibility
based on short-term gains from the stock market and property markets, and
lending to high-risk borrowers rather than sound, long term investment of this
money in industrial and technological projects and research. This, they say,
led directly to the financial bubble and crisis in the US real estate market,
in particular the sub-prime mortgage market (but also in the Spanish and Irish
real estate markets). It also allowed too much lending to some states and then
too much speculation against these states and their currencies (e.g. Greece,
Greek Treasury bonds and the Euro) on financial markets. Critics argue that a
distinction should be made between the real economy (the production of goods and
services) where the bankruptcy of even the biggest company will not create an
economic crisis for a government, and the financial sector where financial
institutions may lend on such an enormous scale that should they face
bankruptcy they put the country’s entire economic system at risk. This argument
leads to the conclusion that financial institutions require much stricter
regulation and oversight than other types of companies and that this is still
lacking.
Critics argue that poor countries, particularly small poor countries
with little or no industrial base, and thus dependent on the export of
agricultural produce or raw materials are under pressure from developed
economies and emerging economies to open up their economies to foreign
companies. They may thus be exploited or face very great fluctuations in the
global price of the commodities that they export.
https://unctad.org/news/commodity-dependence-5-things-you-need-know
This may prevent them from accumulating enough capital to develop and
grow their economies. It is argued that they may need to protect strategic
industries, with trade barriers and national institutions and management, in
the early stages of the development of these industries, as most developed
countries themselves did (e.g. Italy and Japan) and China still does with
technology.
Globalization has also been criticized for prioritizing global economic
growth (in which it has been very successful) over global issues such as
sustainable development, climate change, deforestation, the reduction in
biodiversity and global warming. A series of conferences (including the UN
Climate Change Conference, COP 21, in Paris in November-December 2015 and COP28 UN Climate Change
Conference in November 2023) have attempted to
address these issues, but there is great disagreement among commentators as to
the effectiveness of these conferences and the extent of the real progress
made. Some praise the conferences as a ‘breakthrough’ (the UN) in terms of
commitment, while others see them as too little, too late (many NGOs).
Cultural globalization has also been criticized as leading to a
dehumanized monoculture based on materialist and essentially Western consumer
values. In this context we should note the rising criticism, on the more
traditional fringes of some cultures, of international institutions like the
WTO, the World Bank, the IMF and even the UN itself as Western (i.e. ‘foreign’)
and imperialist.
Globalization is criticized as making it more likely that an epidemic
will become a pandemic. The response of most countries to the Covid-19 pandemic
was to try to isolate themselves. However, there has been growing awareness of
the need for global cooperation
https://www.oas.org/fpdb/press/Declaration-AfM-COVID-final.pdf
Finally, globalization has also given international criminal and
terrorist organizations more space to operate and these threats to security
will require an ongoing, collective response.
More on the EU’s position:
https://www.eunews.it/en/2024/02/14/eu-competitiveness-goes-through-free-trade-agreements/
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2019/639306/EXPO_IDA(2019)639306_EN.pdf
Conclusion – The Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have shown how
globalization exposes countries to potentially fragile global supply chains and
overdependence on a limited range of suppliers and supplies. The EU and many of
its allies and partners are now moving to promote trade deals to achieve diversification
in both areas and a review of their mechanisms and approach to dealing with
globalization. Meanwhile, the EU continues to negotiate trade deals aimed at
liberalization with partners it considers reliable. A re-examination of the
terms of trade between developed, emerging, and developing countries is also
clearly necessary and the goal of ongoing global negotiations. At the same time,
as many of the problems of the 21st century are now on a global
scale, only shared global strategies and cooperation will succeed in dealing
with them (e.g. climate change and the COP21 conference in Paris in 2015, and
COP28 in
Dubai in the United Arab Emirates
in 2023). As Sustainable Development Goal 17 makes clear, in
order to deal with the current economic challenges faced by developing
countries and made worse by climate change, debt levels, disruptions to trade
and population trends, a global partnership will be necessary. However, critics
argue that so far negotiations on global challenges have produced only modest
consensus and even less in terms of practical results. The Covid-19 pandemic and the war in the Ukraine have
damaged, distorted or simply changed global trading patterns and the duration
and extent of the effects on the system are still difficult to forecast. All in
all, it seems likely that countries will become more dependent on local
production or production by friendly states. However, since globalization is
driven by technological progress, which is unlikely to halt, countries, their
partners and allies and the international community as a whole will need to
learn to manage more effectively this largely irreversible process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_objectives_of_the_International_Monetary_Fund
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikecollins/2015/05/06/the-pros-and-cons-of-globalization/#2025f589ccce
old but good
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization_and_Its_Discontents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-globalization_movement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_justice
Some historical and more
recent background to globalization
Prior to World War II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929
http://fortune.com/2018/03/04/did-tariffs-cause-the-great-depression/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_Banking_Act
After World War II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system
https://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2005/08/art-320747/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm%E2%80%93Leach%E2%80%93Bliley_Act#Criticisms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_debt_crisis
https://www.thebalance.com/financial-regulations-3306234
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-14-57_en.htm
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2017/html/sp170313.en.html
https://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/november/banking-regulation-admati-110314.html
President Trump, banking deregulation
and tariffs
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/24/trump-signs-bank-bill-rolling-back-some-dodd-frank-regulations.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_tariffs
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-43512098
Under Biden
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67758395
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/27/1184027892/china-tariffs-biden-trump
and the future?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-07-17/trump-tells-lovely-eu-to-brace-for-tariffs
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/13/politics/china-tariffs-biden-trump/index.html