U.S. Judge Blocks Chinese Textile Quotas
In late December 2004, Judge Richard Goldberg of the U.S. Court of International Justice blocked the United States from imposing emergency quotes on the import of textiles from China.
In order to appease U.S. textile companies, the Commerce Department prepared to impose a number of emergency quotas on the import of jeans, underwear and other clothing products from China. U.S. clothing retailers filed a lawsuit arguing that they would suffer irreparable damage if the emergency quotes were to go into effect.
Goldberg issued a temporary injunction barring the quotas from going into effect, agreeing that retailers would suffer irreparable harm from the quotas and that the quotas should be blocked while the court heard the case.
Under trade agreements that the United States is signed, this year it must remove its textile quota system. Textile companies fear that once the artificial barriers against Chinese textiles are removed, that Chinese textiles will flood the U.S. market. And that would be bad how?
The textile companies created this very situation. Rather than gradually phase out the quotas, they clung to them to protect their anti-competitive products, and now face the prospect of the quotas disappearing with one fell swoop.
The U.S., meanwhile, continues to play the role of preaching the wonders of free trade and the importance of adhering to international trade agreements . . . unless U.S. special interests find this inconvenient, in which case all bets are off and suddenly protectionism is all the rage.
Sources:
U.S. Judge Bars Limits on Imports of China Textiles. Reuters, December 31, 2004.
US Textile Makers Lose Bid to Cap Chinese Imports. Xinhua News Agency, January 2, 2005.
Tags: China, Free Trade
UN Releases Report Recommending Ways to Achieve Millennium Development Goals
In 2000, most nations signed on to the Millennium Development Goals which committed those nations to cutting in half poverty and related problems by 2015. Of course the world is nowhere near achieving those goals. Enter former Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs who recently authored a report for the United Nations, Investing In Development, which offers an analysis of the current state of the Millennium Development Goals and makes recommendations to reach the goals by 2015.
In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the report notes,
The region is off track to meet every Millennium Development Goal. It has the highest rate of undernourishment, with one-third of the population below the
minimum level of dietary energy consumption. Sub-Saharan Africa has the
lowest primary enrollment rates of all regions. Despite recent progress, gender
disparity at the primary level is 0.86, the lowest of all regions
In West Asia,
This region, which includes many countries typically classified as part of the
Middle East, is off track for a majority of the Goals. Both income poverty
and hunger are increasing, and progress toward gender equality has been slow.
Primary enrollments increased only from 81 percent in 1990 to 83 percent in
2001, and under-five mortality fell only slightly from 68 per 1,000 live births
to 61 in the same period. Maternal mortality remains high, and infectious diseases
such as TB are still a threat. While urban areas are on track to meet the
water and sanitation Goal, rural areas are lagging behind. Youth unemployment
is a significant concern in the region.
Certainly there are some success stories, but even these are moderated by mixed results. North Africa, for example, is on target to meet the development goals of halving poverty, but its economic growth has had little to no impact on the rate of undernourished children which remains today at roughly the same level it was 25 years ago!
Sachs sites four reasons that the world has failed to make more progress. First and foremost is governance failure. As Sachs’ report blandly puts it,
Economic development stalls when governments do not uphold the rule of
law, pursue sound economic policy, make appropriate public investments,
manage a public administration, protect basic human rights, and support civil
society organizations
To put it a bit less politic, if you’re stuck in Zimbabwe, you’re screwed.
Another reason for the failure is what Sachs calls “poverty traps” — essentially areas of the world that are too poor to do anything about their poverty. Finally there are pockets of poverty, where certain areas of a country persist in poverty while the rest of the nation prospers, and specific policy neglect (South Africa’s bizarre approach to the AIDS crisis over the past decade, for example).
The report then offers a complex analysis which can be boiled down to this: past efforts at aiding countries to climb out of poverty have failed because they have been misdirected and based on incorrect assumptions. So donor countries and NGOs should stop making those mistakes and everything will be right as rain. Specifically, the report recommends concentrating any aid dollars on low-income countries which have good governance in place.
Of course the report includes as such potential good bets countries such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Nepal, all three of which have serious internal political problems which pose a formidable problem for would be aid donors.
Which ultimately explains why most developed countries don’t come close to the Millennium goal of donating 0.7 percent of their GDP to foreign aid. Given all of the complexities that developing nations face, its just not easy to predict what the effects of aid will ultimately be. Given the failures of external aid projects over the past 3-4 decades, aid these days seems to be directed at what is politically popular in the donor country rather than what makes sense for the receiving country (which is why, for example, money for HIV amelioration is such a hot topic in the United States, but the word “malaria” is hardly ever heard in public discourse about foreign aid).
If you’re as likely to fail as succeed anyway, might as well get some votes out of it.
Source:
UN urges rapid action on poverty. The BBC, January 17, 2005.
Investing In Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Millennium Project, 2005.
Tags: United Nations
Developed Countries Should Lower Trade Barriers, Period
In the wake of the devastating tsunami that parts of Asia in December, the World Trade Organization’s Supachai Panitchpakdi urged developed nations to lower trade barriers with nations hit by the tsunami.
How pathetic. The developed world should eliminate their ridiculous trade barriers with developing nations permanently. Such barriers have done far more long-term damage to the developing world than the tragic — but one-time — horrors created by the December 2004 tsunami.
Along with further worsening poverty in those countries, trade barriers directly contribute to corruption and other problems in developing nations by making it difficult for enterprising individuals to succeed in the market.
Anti-free traders shouldn’t worry, however — special interest groups here in the United States were quick to defend their particular fiefdoms from liberalization.
Deborah Long, the hack in charge of speaking for the Southern Shrimp Alliance, argued that suspending duties on Asian shrimp imports would be unfair. Lloyd Woods, who serves the same role with the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, argued that the best way to help Sri Lanka, Thailand and India wasn’t to eliminate textile tariffs against those country, but rather impose import quotes on Chinese textiles!
Straight from the land of the tariff and the home of the scared s–tless by the prospect of truly free trade.
Source:
Rich nations are urged to ease trade with affected countries. Elizabeth Becker, The New York Times, January 15, 2005.
Tags: Free Trade, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, World Trade Organization
Will Polio Ever Be Eradicated?
The World Health Organization maintains that it will eradicate polio worldwide, but the disease is beginning to re-emerge in African countries that had previously been polio-free. Will anti-polio campaigners ever manage to eradicate polio?
The current outbreak in Africa is directly traceable to a decision by religious extremists in northern Nigeria to suspended polio vaccinations in 2003.
Shortly after that decision, polio cases in Nigeria began to spike. That was soon followed by cases popping up in nearby countries including Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, and Sudan. All five of those countries had been free of polio until 2003. Along with Nigeria, polio still persisted prior to 2003 in Egypt and Niger.
Polio has since spread to an additional seven African countries that had been free of polio, and the disease could spread further.
Admittedly the number of cases is still very small — Nigeria reported the most cases in Africa in 2004 at 763, but the outbreak of cases in previously polio-free countries is jacking up the costs of immunization. According to Dr. David Heymann, who heads up WHO’s polio eradication program, the resurgence of cases in polio-free countries will add at least $150 million to immunization efforts on the continent.
Source:
Health Officials Say They’ll End Polio In Africa, Despite Its Spread. Lawrence Altman, The New York Times, January 16, 2005.
Tags: Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Polio, Sudan, World Health Organization
Research Suggests Close Link Between Cholera Outbreaks and Phage Levels
Research published in the February 2005 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science provides intriguing insight into cholera outbreaks, and may someday lead to a method of predicting or even preventing such epidemics.
After studying levels of cholera bacteria (Vibrio cholerae) in water, researchers at the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research and Harvard Medical School noticed a relationship between the level of cholera bacteria and the presence of phage — a virus that uses bacteria to reproduce itself.
There was an inverse relationship between the two: as the level of phage increased, the number of cholera bacteria declined. Similarly, when phage levels fell, cholera bacteria levels increased.
It is somewhat of mystery why cholera plagues are self-limiting and tend to end of their own accord. This research provides one possible answer, namely that cholera outbreaks might begin when phenomena such as monsoons dilute the amount of phage in water, and then end of their own accord once phage levels again increase.
Much more research needs to be done to establish the precise relationship between phage and cholera bacteria, but this study provides intriguing clues that may help to predict and ultimately prevent cholera outbreaks.
Sources:
Cholera understanding ‘improved’. The BBC, January 16, 2005.
New insights: Why are cholera epidemics self-limited?. Press Release, International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, March 7, 2005.
Tags: Cholera, International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research
2004 Was Deadly Year for Journalists
At least 129 journalist and other media workers were killed in 2004 — likely the largest number since the International Federation of Journalists kept keeping records of media killings in the 1980s. That number is expected to rise as more information about journalist deaths is collected.
According to the IJF’s annual report (emphasis added),
The IFJ casualty toll includes all employed staff, including freelance who work in all sections of the media industry. Our list includes all journalists and support staff as well as employees who are in the firing line and who are victims because their media have been targeted. We include personnel such as drivers, fixers and translators who died during newsgathering activities. We also include people who have been killed because of
accidental causes while on duty. We recognize that other organizations do not include some of the victims we have identified. We believe that by ensuring all media employees involved in the support and promotion of journalistic activity are covered by this report it is possible to give a fuller picture of the extent of casualties within the media workforce.
Iraq was, not surprisingly, the most dangerous place for media workers, with almost 50 reporters and other media workers killed in that country. Most of those killed were the victims of terrorist attacks that indiscriminately target civilians, but the IFJ also criticized the United States for failing to conduct thorough and open investigations of killings of media employees by its soldiers.
The next most dangerous place for journalists was the Philippines where 13 reporters were killed in 2004. Not a single person has been detained in the murders of journalists in that country according to the IFJ.
In the United States, the IFJ recorded just a single on-the-job death — a journalist who was killed in Texas when a mobile news van’s broadcast mast collided with powerlines and 23-year-old Matthew Moore was electrocuted.
Sources:
‘Deadliest’ year for journalists. Chris Morris, The BBC, January 18, 2005.
Journalist and Staff Killed in 2004. International Federation of Journalists, 2005.
Tags: International Federation of Journalists, Iraq, Philippines, United States
Gambian Journalist Murdered in Apparent Hit
Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara was murdered in December 2004 in what Reporters Without Borders claimed was a well-organized operation that bears a resemblance to the murders of other journalists in that country.
Hydara, who edited Gambia’s Point newspaper and worked for Agence-France Presse and with Reporters Without Borders, was an outspoken opponent of new laws designed to curtail freedom of expression in Gambia. The laws allow journalists to be jailed for up to six months for writing ‘libelous’ articles. In order to publish in Gambia at all, newspapers have to prove to the satisfaction of the government that they have the finances to pay new fines the government has also instituted for ‘libelous’ articles.
Leonard Vincent, who heads up Reporters Without Borders’ African unit, told The BBC, that witnesses to Hydara’s killing were afraid to talk to police and that an independent commission was needed to look into his murder.
In addition, according to the African Independent newspaper, both the business offices and homes of prominent newspaper editor and journalists have been the targets of a series of arsons over the past few years. So far, no one has been arrested in connection with any of the arsons.
It is, of course, difficult for countries to overcome poverty and corruption when government’s and their allies can slap odious restrictions on newspapers and kill reporters with impunity.
Source:
‘Hitmen killed Gambia journalist’. The BBC, January 6, 2005.
AFP and Reporters Without Borders correspondent gunned down in Banjul. Press Release, Reporters Without Borders, December 17, 2004.
Veteraln Jouranlist Shot Dead in The Gambia. African Independent, December 17, 2004.
Tags: Free Speech, Gambia, Reporters Without Borders
Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda Trade Bloc Accord Goes Into Effect
A treaty between East African nations Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda went into effect in January creating a trade bloc that over the next few years will create a free trade zone.
A similar East African free-trade zone was set up in 1967, but collapsed in 1977 as wars devastated the region.
Under the terms of the agreement creating the East Africa Community Customs Union, Kenya, which has a more industrialized economy than Tanzania and Uganda, will pay duties on goods it exports to the other two until 2010, when such duties will disappear.
The three countries will also set identical tariffs for imports from outside the three countries.
Source:
East Africa trade accord launched. The BBC, January 1, 2005.
Tags: Free Trade, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
China’s Population Surpasses 1.3 Billion
In January, China’s population officially passed the 1.3 billion mark according to that country.
Oddly enough, China state-run news media used the birth of the 1.3 billion child to trumpet the success of the one-child policy. But, all things considered, the one-child policy has been an abject failure. It did little to slow China’s population growth — most of the decline in China’s birth rate occurred before the one-child policy was instituted, and the birth rate actually briefly increased after the one-child policy was introduced. Certainly other nations in Europe and Asia have demonstrated that very low birth rates can be achieved without such Draconian measures.
Even China’s state-run media makes very modest claims for the one-child policy, claiming that without the one child policy reaching the 1.3 billion mark would have occurred in 2001 rather than 2005. A typically inefficient policy for the Communist state.
The major effect of the one-child policy has, however, been the highly skewed sex ratio. Currently about 120 boys are born in China for every 100 girls — an astoundingly high imbalance that will likely cause severe social shocks and problems. The one-child policy helped exacerbate this imbalance by giving urban residents an incentive to abort female fetuses.
China could have achieved much more rapid economic growth and lower population growth if the dictatorial Communist Party had simply tried a little more freedom instead of micromanaging the lives of its subjects.
China’s population is not expected to continue to grow much longer. Although demographics mean that it will continue to grow even with very low birth rates, China’s population is expected to top off at 1.46 billion sometime in the 2030s.
Source:
China’s population passes 1.3bn. The BBC, January 6, 2005.
Policy Comes of Age as Population Hits 1.3 Billion. Press Release, Family Planning Commission of China, January 6, 2005.
China’s population reaches 1.3 billion. Associated Press, January 6, 2005.
Transparency International: 1 in 10 Families Worldwide Pays Bribes
To mark UN Anti-Corruption Day in December, Transparency International released the results of its 2004 Global Corruption Barometer highlighting ongoing corruption, especially in the developing world. The survey found that worldwide, 1 in 10 people said they or a member of their household had paid a bribe in the previous year.
The survey polled more than 50,000 people in 64 countries people between June and September 2004.
The rate of bribery was, not surprisingly, much higher in developing countries. For example, in Cameroon more than 50 percent of respondents said they or a member of their household had paid a bribe.
In Nigeria, Kenya, Lithuania and Moldova, 1 in 3 respondents said they or a household member had paid a bribe.
There was some good news, such as surprisingly low levels of bribe paying in South Africa, as well as a surprising level of corruption in Greece where 11 percent of those polled admitted they or a household member had paid a bribe.
Transparency International board member Akere Muna, who heads up the organization’s Cameroon branch, said in a press release,
It is time to use international co-operation to enforce a policy of zero tolerance of political corruption, and to put an end to practices whereby politicians put themselves above the law — stealing from ordinary citizens and hiding behind parliamentary immunity.
Political parties and politicians they nominate for election are entrusted with great power and great hopes by the people who vote for them. Political leaders must not abuse that trust by serving corrupt or selfish interests once they are in power.
According to the BBC, the World Bank estimates that as more than $1 trillion is paid out annually worldwide in bribes.
Source:
One in 10 families ‘pays bribes’. The BBC, December 9, 2004.
Political parties are most corrupt institution worldwide according to TI Global Corruption Barometer 2004. Press Release, Transparency International, December 9, 2004.
Tags: Cameroon, Corruption, Kenya, Lithuania, Moldova, Nigeria, South Africa, Transparency International, World Bank