DOCSLIB.ORG

Review of the Trade and Foreign Investment (Protecting the Public Interest) Bill 2014

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Review of the Trade and Foreign Investment (Protecting the Public Interest) Bill 2014 Submission by Civil Liberties Australia CLA TO: Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee Review of the Trade and Foreign Investment (Protecting the Public Interest) Bill 2014 Contents 1) Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, has developed expanded legal rights for investors which do not exist in national legal systems. 2) The effect of creating special rights for foreign investors has led to the unintended consequence of offshoring jobs as corporations move offshore to acquire the rights of foreign corporations. 3) ISDS provisions dilute the competitive advantage enjoyed by developed economies characterised by the rule of law. 4) The number of cases pursued against countries for introducing measures to protect public health, the environment and other socially beneficial legislation has increased. 5) Costs to government and taxpayers and ongoing “chilling” effect on proposals for socially beneficial legislation. 6) ISDS procedures lack legal protections of the kind found in domestic legal systems 7) Recent “safeguards” included in ISDS clauses to protect health, environment and other public interest legislation have not been effective. 8) Increasing numbers of governments are withdrawing from ISDS. 9) ISDS provisions apply not only to the Commonwealth Government, but to state and local governments also. Yet there is no evidence of any consultation with state and local governments on this issue, or on this Bill. 10) ISDS provisions would weaken our sovereignty by removing the rights of the Commonwealth of Australia to make its own binding laws. 11) Arising out of all of the above effects, ISDS provisions are shown to be inherently anti- democratic. References with annotations (Roman numerals in the text refer to the numerical sequence of the references) Civil Liberties Australia Inc A04043 TPP sub – Senate FADT Committee 1 1) ISDS has developed expanded legal rights for investors which do not exist in national legal systems. ISDS enables foreign investors to sue governments for compensation in an international tribunal if they can claim that a domestic law or policy “harms” their investment or threatens their profits. ISDS clauses were originally intended to ensure payment of monetary compensation to foreign investors in the event of the actual expropriation or taking of their property by host governments. They were designed to protect companies investing in countries with unstable governments or inadequate legal systems. Over time, corporation interests have expanded legal concepts such as “indirect expropriation” and “fair and equitable treatment” beyond the scope of their meaning in national legal systems, enabling investors to lodge claims against countries on the grounds that a domestic law, regulation or policy reduces the value of their investment. This violates the principle of “equal treatment” in trade law. (See VIII United Nations Committee on Trade and Development, (UNCTAD), 2000, p. 11) 2) The effect of creating special rights for foreign investors has led to the unintended consequence of offshoring jobs as corporations move offshore to acquire the rights of foreign corporations. (See XXIII NAFTA at 20: 1 Million Lost Jobs, 580% Increase in Trade Deficit – 2013) 3) ISDS provisions dilute the competitive advantage enjoyed by developed economies characterised by the rule of law. By removing the perception of risks to investing in developing countries, advanced economies lose their attractiveness to foreign investors. Even think tanks such as the US Cato Institute, which have long been bastions of free trade, are beginning to advise against pursuing ISDS provisions in free trade agreements. (See XXIV Daniel J. Ikenson (2014). A Compromise to Advance the Trade Agenda: Purge Negotiations of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (Cato Institute)) 4) The number of cases pursued against countries for introducing measures to protect public health, the environment and other socially beneficial legislation is increasing. With increasing frequency, foreign investors are suing governments for hundreds of millions of dollars over health, environment and other public interest legislation. Recent examples include: • In 2009, on recommendations from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Uruguay increased the size of health warnings on cigarettes packets. The Uruguayan government was subsequently sued for US$2 billion by Philip Morris which claimed Uruguay had expropriated its trademark • The Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company suing the Canadian national government over a court decision to refuse a medicine patent • When an Ecuadorian court ordered Chevron to pay US$18 billion in damages for contaminating areas of the Amazonian rainforest, Chevron responded by suing Ecuador Civil Liberties Australia Inc A04043 TPP sub – Senate FADT Committee 2 on the grounds that simply by allowing its court case to continue, it breached an investment treaty with the United States. • The US Lone Pine mining company suing the Québec provincial government of Canada over environmental regulation of shale gas mining • The Swedish energy company, Vattenfall, sued the German government over its decision to phase out nuclear energy • Argentina has been plagued with over 40 law suits for millions of dollars after freezing electricity and water charges during a time of economic crisis. (See I Ken Sievers (2013); IV Gaukrodger and Gordon OECD, 2012, p. 7, and VII Public Citizen Table of Cases, 2014).; XX Mike Seccombe (2013) Abbott: open for business and multinational law suits, 20 Sept. 2013 (The Global Mail; XVIII Martin Khor (2013) The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA): When Foreign Investors Sue the State (Third World Economics); XXII United Nations Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Investor-State Disputes arising from Investment Treaties: a review. UNCTAD Series on International Investment Policies for Development – 2005) 5) Costs to government and taxpayers and ongoing “chilling” effect on proposals for socially beneficial legislation. The costs of running cases (OECD estimates an average of $8 million per case, with some cases costing up to $30 million) and the compensation awarded to foreign investors (often hundreds of millions and in some cases billions of dollars), can dissuade governments from pursuing legitimate domestic legislation. The highest amount awarded to date is $1.8 billion against the government of Ecuador. This is damaging for any government, but particularly damaging for developing countries. Many foreign corporations have greater financial resources to draw on than the countries they are suing. It has been documented that the Canadian Government withdrew plain packaging legislation after it was threatened with legal proceedings by a foreign corporation. When corporations are allowed to exercise such power over governments, the effect is far worse than mere lobbying. Such behaviour is destined only to increase if ISDS provisions are included in the TPP. They amount to standover tactics on a grand scale by foreign corporations. (See IV Gaukrodger and Gordon, OECD, 2012, p. 19; IX UNCTAD, 2013a, p. 3; XVI Peter Henning (2014) and XVII TTP Australia. Investor-State Dispute Settlement) 6) ISDS procedures lack legal protections of the kind found in domestic legal systems. The disputes are heard by international investment tribunals, operating under different sets of rules, but all of which lack the safeguards of national legal systems in the following ways: • The proceedings are not made public unless both parties agree and even the results of proceedings can remain secret, unlike national legal systems, where both the proceedings and the results are made public. • The arbitrators may be practising advocates, and so lack the independence of judges in national legal systems. • There is no system of precedents, so decisions lack consistency. Civil Liberties Australia Inc A04043 TPP sub – Senate FADT Committee 3 • There is no avenue for appeal against decisions even when the decisions ignore treaty wording. • third-party funding of cases, described by the OECD as “a new industry composed of institutional investors who invest in litigation by providing finance in return for a stake in a legal claim” has encouraged a growing industry of investment law firms which actively solicit business and encourage large claims. (See X UNCTAD, 2013b, p. 1; IV Gaukrodger and Gordon, OECD, 2012, p. 36) 7) Recent “safeguards” included in ISDS clauses to protect health, environment and other public interest legislation have not been effective. It is often claimed that recent changes to the wording of ISDS clauses in trade and investment agreements such as the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA), provide safeguards to prevent foreign investors from suing governments over health, environment or other public interest legislation. However, the initial “safeguard” sentence in the KAFTA reads: "except in rare circumstances non- discriminatory regulatory actions by a party that are designed and applied to protect legitimate public welfare objectives, such as public health, safety and the environment, do not constitute indirect expropriations" (KAFTA chapter 11, annex 2B). It has been pointed out by many legal experts that the phrase "except in rare circumstances" leaves a giant loophole, which has been utilised in recent cases. The second “safeguard” limits the definition of "fair and equitable treatment" for foreign investors (KAFTA chapter 11, clause 11.5.2 and
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Civil-Military Relations and Democratization: a Cross-Regional
    CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS AND DEMOCRATIZATION: A CROSS-REGIONAL ANALYSIS OF ALGERIA AND SOUTH KOREA By Alexa Arevalo A capstone project submitted for Graduation with University Honors May 13, 2021 University Honors University of California, Riverside APPROVED Dr. David Pion-Berlin Department of Political Science Dr. Richard Cardullo, Howard H Hays Jr. Chair University Honors ABSTRACT The comparative literature on democratization commonly focuses on intra-regional analysis to study similar cases. Considering the diverse literature on democracy, the necessary variables for causality remain widely disputed. In political science, a growing body of scholarship has qualitatively analyzed the relationship between civil-military relations and democratization. This study aims to examine the observed variance in authoritarian durability. It analyzes the interactions between four independent variables and the observed effects on prospects of democratization in South Korea and Algeria. To set a strong foundation for a controlled comparison, the analysis utilizes case studies to increase the number of within case observations. Using a Most Different Systems Design (MDSD), the study tests four hypotheses corresponding to the variables of interest—foreign aid, regime type, societal fragmentation, and military withdrawal. My findings indicate consistent support for military withdrawal and regime deterioration. By contrast, there is inconsistent support for foreign aid, regime type, and societal fragmentation. Overall, these findings suggest that future research should include on large-n quantitative analysis to address concerns with generalizability. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. David Pion-Berlin for his guidance and for giving me independence to conceptualize this research. I am immensely grateful for having the opportunity to take part in his graduate seminar on the Armed Forces and Politics.
    [Show full text]
  • The Impact of Outsourcing and Brain Drain on Global Economic Equilibrium
    International Forum Vol. 12, No. 2 October 2009 pp. 3-23 FEATURE The Impact of Outsourcing and Brain Drain on Global Economic Equilibrium Khin Maung Kyi Abstract: Outsourcing and brain drain are two popular phenomena that have captured the interest of researchers in academia and the business world. Numerous studies have been conducted on these two topics but little research has related them to global economic equilibrium. This paper presents the effects of outsourcing and brain drain that the researcher believes have an impact on the improvement of the global economy. The study assumes that the more positive the outcomes created by outsourcing and brain drain, the greater the possibility to achieve global economic equilibrium. Globalization has opened up ways for businesses to share their excess resources in order to maximize benefits on return to all parties involved. In the process of sharing resources and utilizing benefits, however, not all entities benefit equally. There will be those that acquire more wealth, while others will experience diminished capital and resources. Nations with advanced economies focus their attention on industrialization and manufacturing of goods and services and therefore are able to provide a good selection of employment opportunities. These nations have not, however, shown a similar inclination to increase their population. The result is a labor shortage. Data from Germany (“Marriage and Family” 1995, para. 1), for example, shows that “like most other advanced countries in the postwar era, Germany recorded fewer marriages, more divorces, and smaller families.” Individual choice is not the only cause of this labor shortage. Government policy in some countries also affects human reproduction.
    [Show full text]
  • Offshoring and Its Effects on the Labour Market and Productivity: a Survey of Recent Literature
    Offshoring and Its Effects on the Labour Market and Productivity: A Survey of Recent Literature Calista Cheung and James Rossiter, International Department, Yi Zheng, Research Department • Firms relocate production processes ver the past couple of decades, the lower- internationally (offshore) primarily to achieve ing of trade and investment barriers as well cost savings. As offshoring becomes an as technological progress in transportation O and communications have facilitated the increasingly prominent aspect of the globalization of production processes. Firms increas- globalization process, understanding its effects ingly take advantage of the cost savings and other on the economy is important for handling benefits that result from making or buying inputs the policy challenges that arise from structural where they can be produced more efficiently. This phenomenon of production relocation across national changes induced by globalization in general. boundaries is generally known as offshoring.1 Under- • In advanced economies, offshoring of materials standing the implications of offshoring in the current used in manufacturing has risen steadily over context is an important step towards handling the opportunities and challenges of globalization as it the past two decades. The scale of offshoring matures. This article contributes to such understand- in services is much smaller, but has grown ing by summarizing some key findings in the litera- faster than that of materials since the mid- ture on the impact of offshoring on employment, 1990s. The intensity of offshoring in Canada wages, and productivity in developed economies. Note that while offshoring of services is still in its has been higher than in many other advanced infancy, it merits as close a study as that of manufac- economies, probably because of our close turing offshoring, given its unique characteristics and economic relationship with the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • The Policy Implications of Third-Party Funding in Investor-State Dispute Settlement
    Columbia Law School Scholarship Archive Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment 5-2019 The Policy Implications of Third-Party Funding in Investor-State Dispute Settlement Brooke Guven Columbia Law School, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, [email protected] Lise Johnson Columbia Law School, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/ sustainable_investment_staffpubs Part of the Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons, International Law Commons, Litigation Commons, Securities Law Commons, and the Transnational Law Commons Recommended Citation Brooke Guven & Lise Johnson, The Policy Implications of Third-Party Funding in Investor-State Dispute Settlement, (2019). Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/sustainable_investment_staffpubs/8 This Report/Policy Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment at Scholarship Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Policy Implications of Third-Party Funding in Investor-State Dispute Settlement Brooke Guven and Lise Johnson* May 2019 CCSI Working Paper 2019 *Brooke Guven is a legal researcher at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) and Lise Johnson is head of Investment Law and Policy at CCSI. The authors would like to thank Richmund St. Lucia, Stephen Dietz and Ana Valls for their research assistance, the participants of the roundtable hosted by CCSI and The International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA)-Queen Mary Task Force on Third-Party Funding on October 17, 2017 for their open discussion of the issues presented, and Frank Garcia for his thought leadership and effort to broaden discussions on the issue of third-party funding.
    [Show full text]
  • Megatrends the Deglobalization Myth(S)
    Vanguard Research: Megatrends The deglobalization myth(s) About the Megatrends series Megatrends have accompanied humankind throughout history. From the Neolithic Revolution to the Information Age, innovation has been the catalyst for profound socioeconomic, cultural, and political transformation. The term “Megatrends” was popularized by author John Naisbitt, who was interested in the transformative forces that have a major impact on both businesses and societies, and thus the potential to change all areas of our personal and professional lives. Vanguard’s “Megatrends” is a research effort that investigates fundamental shifts in the global economic landscape that are likely to affect the financial services industry and broader society. A megatrend may bring market growth or destroy it, increase competition or add barriers to entry, and create threats or uncover opportunities. Exploring the long-term nature of massive shifts in technology, demographics, and globalization can help us better understand how such forces may shape future markets, individuals, and the investing landscape in the years ahead. Vanguard Investment Strategy Group’s Global Economics Team From left to right: Joseph Davis, Ph.D., Global Chief Economist; Roger A. Aliaga-Díaz, Ph.D., Americas Chief Economist; Peter Westaway, Ph.D., Europe Chief Economist; Qian Wang, Ph.D., Asia-Pacific Chief Economist Americas: Jonathan Lemco, Ph.D.; Andrew J. Patterson, CFA; Joshua M. Hirt, CFA; Maximilian Wieland; Asawari Sathe, M.Sc.; Adam J. Schickling, CFA Europe: Shaan Raithatha, CFA; Roxane Spitznagel; Griffin Tory Asia-Pacific: Beatrice Yeo, CFA; Alexis Gray, M.Sc. 2 Megatrend The deglobalization myth(s): Why slowing trade growth shouldn’t concern investors ■ While economists and policymakers have historically emphasized globalization’s benefits, the consensus is fracturing.
    [Show full text]
  • Presents the Inaugural OPEN ECONOMY LECTURES "Offshoring
    presents the inaugural OPEN ECONOMY LECTURES "Offshoring to China: The Local and Global Impacts of Processing Trade" Robert C. Feenstra University of California, Davis April 18-20, 2011 To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the University of International Business and Economics. "With creative and thoughtful research, Rob Feenstra consistently brings to our attention important and interesting insight related to international trade and investment. I have had good fortune to collaborate with him on a book project on China's trade and learned a lot. Through these Open Economy Lectures, Rob presents an analysis of processing trade in China and its implications for the world economy, rich and comprehensive in insight, and yet clear and accessible in style. Anyone interested in international trade, multinational firms, or the Chinese economy will benefit from reading the lectures." Shang-Jin Wei Director of the Chazen Institute of International Business N. T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy Professor of Finance and Economics Columbia University Graduate School of Business "This set of three lectures by Rob Feenstra presents the state-of-the-art literature on offshoring in a very accessible way and with very interesting applications to China, especially to its processing trade. The book looks both at the micro and macro aspects of offshoring. Such a book, written by someone who himself has done path-breaking research on these topics, is going to be a very valuable reference for researchers and a very useful textbook all over the world in graduate courses in international trade that aim to comprehensively cover the literature on offshoring." Devashish Mitra Professor of Economics & Gerald B.
    [Show full text]
  • Evaluating Workplace Democracy in Mondragon Anders Asa Christiansen University of Vermont, [email protected]
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarWorks @ UVM University of Vermont ScholarWorks @ UVM UVM Honors College Senior Theses Undergraduate Theses 2014 Evaluating Workplace Democracy in Mondragon Anders Asa Christiansen University of Vermont, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses Recommended Citation Christiansen, Anders Asa, "Evaluating Workplace Democracy in Mondragon" (2014). UVM Honors College Senior Theses. Paper 31. This Honors College Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Theses at ScholarWorks @ UVM. It has been accepted for inclusion in UVM Honors College Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ UVM. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Evaluating Workplace Democracy in Mondragon Anders Christiansen Department of Political Science Honor’s Thesis University of Vermont May 2014 Committee Members: Jan Feldman, Ph.D. Cornell University Shirley Gedeon, Ph.D. University of Massachusetts Amherst Peter Von Doepp, Ph.D. University of Florida Abstract Following the global financial crisis in 2008, the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation was used as an example of an alternative to capitalist development. At the same time, much of the recent literature on Mondragon has questioned whether Mondragon’s democracy has degenerated, without drawing definitive conclusions. I review how democracy has been defined in the past and conclude that while Mondragon’s conception of democracy is applicable in small homogenous cooperatives, it needs to be reformulated in order to apply to large, diverse groups. In its current state, Mondragon cannot be considered a democracy.
    [Show full text]
  • Special Economic Zones Public Disclosure Authorized Progress, Emerging Challenges, and Future Directions
    Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized DIRECTIONS IN DEVELOPMENT Trade Special Economic Zones Public Disclosure Authorized Progress, Emerging Challenges, and Future Directions Thomas Farole, Gokhan Akinci Editors Public Disclosure Authorized Special Economic Zones Special Economic Zones Progress, Emerging Challenges, and Future Directions Edited by Thomas Farole Gokhan Akinci International Trade Department Investment Climate Department World Bank World Bank © 2011 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000 Internet: www.worldbank.org All rights reserved 1 2 3 4 14 13 12 11 This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this volume do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgement on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Rights and Permissions The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with complete information to the Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA; telephone: 978-750-8400; fax: 978-750-4470; Internet: www.copyright.com.
    [Show full text]
  • Anthropocene, Capitalocene and Liberal Cosmopolitan IR
    MIL0010.1177/0305829817715247Millennium: Journal of International StudiesChandler et al. 715247research-article2017 Article Millennium: Journal of International Studies Anthropocene, Capitalocene 2018, Vol. 46(2) 190 –208 © The Author(s) 2017 and Liberal Cosmopolitan IR: Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav A Response to Burke et al.’s https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829817715247DOI: 10.1177/0305829817715247 journals.sagepub.com/home/mil ‘Planet Politics’ David Chandler Westminster University, London, UK Erika Cudworth University of East London, London, UK Stephen Hobden University of East London, London, UK Abstract This article is a collective response to ‘Planet Politics’ by Anthony Burke et al., which was published in this journal in 2016, and billed as a ‘Manifesto from the End of IR’. We dispute this claim on the basis that rather than breaking from the discipline, the Manifesto provides a problematic global governance agenda which is dangerously authoritarian and deeply depoliticising. We substantiate this analysis in the claim that Burke et al. reproduce an already failed and discredited liberal cosmopolitan framework through the advocacy of managerialism rather than transformation; the top-down coercive approach of international law; and use of abstract modernist political categories. In the closing sections of the article, we discuss the possibility of different approaches, which, taking the Anthropocene as both an epistemological and ontological break with modernist assumptions, could take us beyond IR’s disciplinary confines. Keywords Anthropocene, Capitalocene, global governance, cosmopolitanism, discipline of IR Corresponding author: Stephen Hobden, School of Social Sciences, University of East London, 4–6 University Way, London, E16 2RD, UK. Email: [email protected] Chandler et al.
    [Show full text]
  • The TPP: More Job Offshoring and Lower Wages
    The TPP: More Job Offshoring and Lower Wages Fast Tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would make it easier for corporations to offshore U.S. jobs and push down our wages by forcing Americans to compete with workers in Vietnam who make less than 60 cents an hour and in Malaysia, where forced labor is widely used. The TPP expands on the incentives to offshore American job that were included in past job-killing pacts like NAFTA. The TPP’s Investment Chapter provides special benefits to firms that offshore American jobs and eliminates many of the usual risks that make firms think twice about moving to low-wage countries, such as TPP member Vietnam. The TPP would gut Buy American policies that recycle U.S. tax dollars back into our economy to create U.S. jobs. The TPP would require us to waive Buy American procurement preferences so that any company operating in a TPP country, including all of the Chinese firms in Vietnam, would have to get equal access to U.S. government contracts. That means offshoring our tax dollars to create jobs abroad. Even the best labor rights provisions would not outweigh those terms. But the administration demanded for the TPP only the same failed terms President Bush used for his infamous U.S.-Colombia trade agreement. Bottomline: The key elements of the TPP text that affect jobs and wages literally replicate and expand on the worst elements of past “free trade” agreements. And, those deals have destroyed millions of good American jobs and pushed down our wages over the last two decades.
    [Show full text]
  • Sea-Risk-Sid-Dir-Bulletin-Globalisation
    6 FEATURESFEATURES The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Globalisation By JANSON YAP & AMANDA HUAN SID DIRECTORS BULLETIN 2018 Q3 SID DIRECTORS BULLETIN 2018 Q3 FEATURES 7 Globalisation was once heralded as the beacon of hope for developing countries, an escape route that would allow them to climb out of poverty. However, an anti-globalisation backlash, tinged with the resurgence of nationalism, has put globalisation into the hot seat. The swing of votes to far-right parties in Germany and other European states, Brexit and the election of US President Donald Trump, has reset the globalisation agenda. SID DIRECTORS BULLETIN 2018 Q3 SID DIRECTORS BULLETIN 2018 Q3 8 FEATURES lobalisation is a word that has meant the year 3,000 BC as its beginning, while others Gdifferent things to different people. say it started in the 15th century. It can simply be defined as the internationalisation While the origins may be disputed, the of relations across borders, which facilitates the common theme among most historians exchange of knowledge, trade, and capital around today is the basis of trade and exploration. the world. From the establishment of the Silk route and the voyages of the Spice traders, Aspects of globalisation tend to be grouped in the multinational trade led to key developments political, economic and social spheres. Drilling in agrarian reform, manufacturing and down, globalisation can be viewed in other industrialisation. buckets, such as health, environmental, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation. The table, “Phases of Globalisation”, captures the main changes that globalisation has Eras of globalisation produced, and that have, in turn, changed the Globalisation has a long history.
    [Show full text]
  • Offshoring and the Internationalization of Employment: a Challenge
    Are job losses and the degradation of working conditions in the developed world due to globalization and the offshoring of jobs? Contrary to popular beliefs and fears, most economic analysis evaluating the long-term and global implications of the internationalization of employment does not support this view. Yet for workers who have been displaced, a positive global and long-term impact does not remove their immediate loss. Offshoring and The Proceedings of the Third Annecy Symposium, which took place in April 2005, discuss this paradox: globalization may have enhanced the overall well-being of the Internationalization those countries that have participated, and globally reduced poverty, but it looks more and more like a monster that devours jobs as there are few mechanisms to compensate those that have suffered. The book analyses trends and patterns in of Employment the internationalization of employment, looks at losers and winners, and proposes new policies of compensation. The latter are based on rights and international la- A challenge for a fair globalization? bour standards, and on a new effort to build an effective employment adjustment system that accompanies a fair globalization. Proceedings Peter Auer, Geneviève Besse and Dominique Méda of the France/ILO s y m p o s i u m A n n e c y 2 0 0 5 International Institute for Labour Studies Offshoring and the internationalization of employment France/ILO symposium 2005 ILO ( ISBN 92-9014-783-0 Liberté • Égalité • Fraternité RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE Ministère de l’emploi, de la cohésion
    [Show full text]