Today’s world is shrinking. Not literally of course, but the advances in technology make it easy to span thousands of miles of land and sea, so people can immediately communicate with each other. The internet has connected the world instantly, and planes make traveling from one side of the world to the other a piece of cake compared to the long, dangerous sea voyages of the past. People move and migrate constantly, all the while exchanging ideas and goods. Trade has always played an important role in human history. Whether the swapping of an apple for an orange, or $12 million dollars for a new dam, the fluid movement of goods and services from one to another is how humans have been able to receive things they might not have had access to before. In the international community, trade is more important than ever, as it helps nations create camaraderie between each other, while simultaneously building their economies.
Due to this, Africa has felt a burgeoning hope. With the dawning of each new day, it sees a new future. They have decided to look towards the rising sun. They have decided to turn their attention to the East. They have decided to welcome trade with China. However, no one knows exactly what the future holds. This uncertainty mirrors that uncertainty of the partnership itself. Is this just China serving its own interests? Some believe China is engaging in a new type of colonialism, that they are exploiting Africa. Others fear that China’s support is regressing the progress other nations have made with African government and humanitarian issues. However, based on the business that these countries are already participating in, it is unlikely that China is so heavily invested in Africa solely for its own i...
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In this chapter of Naked Economics, by Charles Wheelan, he describes many aspects of trade. It begins by showing the capabilities of trade and how it affects everyone as a whole. It makes it so that everyone is better off than normal. To put it into perspective, he put the image in your head of how hard your life would be without trade, you would have to make your own clothes, find a way to get/make your own food, make your own car, etc... After showing some of the advantages to trade, he applies it to a global persona and begins to introduce his opinion on how global trade (globalization) makes us richer. One of the key explanations of this point is that trade frees up time in our busy schedule, therefore allowing us to use that freed up
Trade, of course, is only part of a larger network of relationships between our two countries. This network evolves in response to many complex influences, and exporters need to consider how our two countries' ever-expanding, ever-changing relationships will affect their activities. To take just a few examples:
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With Europe in control, “the policies of the governing powers redirected all African trade to the international export market. Thus today, there is little in the way of inter-African trade, and the pattern of economic dependence continues.” Europeans exported most of the resources in Africa cheaply and sold them costly, which benefited them, but many Africans worked overtime and were not treated with care.
It is thought-provoking, in the sense that Africa’s need for foreign created a race to the bottom, much like what Pietra Rivoli described in The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy. Due to some African states’ reliance on foreign aid in order to mine and profit on their resources, they allow business standards to be lowered and for Chinese firms to tip the contracts moresoever in the favor of Chinese firms. This lowers the potential earnings of African states by lowering royalty rates, for example. Additionally, Burgis’ research was thorough and transparent. When he did not receive a response or if his questions were dodged, he made it obvious to the readers. Sure, some could view this book as too anecdotal to be used as a credible source of Africa’s situation. However, this is due to the nature of the system Burgis is writing about; after all, they are shadow states for a reason. Some readers will be saddened by this text, others angry, most curious to learn more, but above all, everyone will be intellectually stimulated and
O'Connor, Ernesto A. "Trade With China And Strategy In South American Recent Economic Development." Brazilian Journal Of Political Economy / Revista De Economia Política 32.3 (2012): 513-526. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
The main massage of this book is that Western aid programs in Africa do not work. Moyo, seeks to account for this failure by trying to answer the question of why most sub-Saharan countries ‘flounder in a seemingly never-ending cycle of corruption, disease, poverty, and aid-dependency’. This is the reality, Moyo, concludes after more than one trillion dollars have been transferred from rich countries to African countries over the past sixty years. This aid...
Generally, China has the same motivations to take part in Africa as do other real remote on-screen characters. Beijing needs African oil to enhance its vitality imports keeping in mind the end goal to protect the sound advancement of its economy, and obliges other characteristic assets to maintain producing capacities. Chinese organizations, like their European and American partners, additionally see guaranteeing open doors in coddling African markets. Anyway their separate systems commonly vary on numerous records. China's interest for common assets consolidated with its procedure to expand vitality imports and recognize new markets has brought about quickly expanding Chinese speculations in Africa. In the meantime, Chinese organizations been less hesitant than some of its Western partners as far as creating business engages in nations grieved by inside clash. This implies that China has an obvious need to secure its diversions in Africa. Intere...
Zhang, Jianhong, Arjen van Witteloostuijn, and J. Paul Elhorst. "China's Politics and Bilateral Trade Linkages." Asian Journal of Political Science 19.1 (2011): 25-47. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
Wei-Wei Zhang. (2004). The Implications of the Rise of China. Foresight, Vol. 6 Iss: 4, P. 223 – 226.
Currently, on European Geostrategy’s (Rogers & Simón, 2011) list of the 15 most powerful countries in the world, the United States of America are the world’s lone Superpower while China is the only other country that is a potential Superpower. It is no coincidence that these two states are seen to be the primary economic sites in the world. Of course, these counties have not just become economic leaders by chance. The rise of globalisation has seen countries such as China become prominent, as global trade, solid policy making and controlled growth rates have allowed them to quickly rise through the ranks and now have a seat in the UNSC permanent-5, a signpost of how economically powerful they have become.
The result that China and the Chinese people have had in building business and trade relationships have influenced people in most developing countries. It has compelled and forced some of the developing countries to change their policies and strategies relating to terms and conditions in business and trade within governments and the residents of those countries. Some countries in the so called developed world that relied on giving other people aid under strict and unfavorable terms and conditions have now resulted into using Guanxi to look for partners to conduct and trade with and the citizens, as well. They see the success and the impact that it has had 0n the Chinese people and in terms of trade and business and they have resolved to copy
During the twentieth century, the world began to develop the idea of economic trade. Beginning in the 1960’s, the four Asian Tigers, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, demonstrated that a global economy, which was fueled by an import and export system with other countries, allowed the economy of the home country itself to flourish. Th...