Advantages of Globalization
and ratified in their parliaments. These agreements are the legal ground-rules for international commerce. They are contracts, guaranteeing member countries important trade rights. They also bind governments to keep their trade policies within agreed limits to everybody’s benefit. The WTO has helped to create a strong and prosperous trading system contributing to unprecedented growth. The past 50 years have seen an exceptional growth in world trade. “Merchandise exports grew on average by 6% annually. Total trade in 2000 was 22-times the level of 1950.”
( http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/whatis_e.htm )
It’s a fact that the world economy produced more output in the twentieth century alone than it produced in total over the entire preceding years of recorded human history! (Bradford DeLong,Estimating World GDP, One Million BC - Present, University of Berkeley. Available on the web at http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/1998_Draft/World_GDP/Estimating_World_GDP.html )
But how does globalization affect issues closer to home? According to the Foreign Policy (The Magazine of Global Politics, Economics and Ideas), South Africa has an overall ranking of 38 on their globalization scale. There is obviously room for improvement. The expansion of global companies into South Africa will create thousands of jobs and this will help stifle the ever-increasing unemployment rate. The creation of jobs therefore increases the economic power and living standard of citizens as more people earn a salary and can support their families. Indeed, higher levels of trade and investment tend to increase economic growth and bring other positive effects (such as access to new, better technologies).
There are heated debates about globalization and its positive and negative effects. While globalization is thought of by many as having the potential to make societies richer through trade and to bring knowledge and information to people around the world, there are many others who perceive globalization as contributing to the exploitation of the poor by the rich, and as a threat to traditional cultures as the process of modernization changes societies. “World- changing” processes are not going to be perfect and globalization is no different. But it is not logical to ignore or downplay the positive effects of globalization in order to attack its negative effects. Globalization is an unstoppable process but it is one that we have control over. This means that we should stop wasting our time and resources attacking globalization and should give our all to combat the negative effects of globalization and to enhance its advantages.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Foreign Labor Statistics. On the web at www.stats.bls.gov/flshome.html
2. Gary Burtless et al., Globaphobia: Confronting Fears About Open Trade, Brookings Institution, Progressive Policy Institute, and Twentieth Century Fund, 1998.
3. Keith Somerville; Africa: Globalization or Marginalisation; BBC December 4, 2002
4.The New Wave of Globalization and its Economic Effects (Reader pp 18-27) In World Bank Policy Research Report. Globalization, Growth and Poverty: Building and Inclusive World Economy. A co-publication for the World Bank and Oxford University Press; 2002
5. http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/whatis_e.htm
6. http://www.un.org/ga/president/57/pages/speeches/statement030306-Globalization.htm
7. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/wwwboard/g-index.php
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Foreign Labor Statistics. On the web at www.stats.bls.gov/flshome.html
2. Gary Burtless et al., [next page]