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Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 16:12:56 -0500
From: Bob Olsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Globalization Book: Star Editorial
http://www2.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/opinion/981228NEW01_ED-GLOBAL.html
Toronto Star Editorial December 28, 1998
Back Issues Rethinking globalization
Globalization seems to have us in its
[Image] jaws.
The International Monetary Fund has just
[Image] cut its forecast for Canadian growth next
year - for the third time in the last 14
[Image] months - citing the impact of the Asian
[Navigation] crisis on the world commodity markets on
[Image] which we depend.
The Canadian banks used the globalization
of financial markets to justify their
attempts to merge.
Finance Minister Paul Martin argues for
the need to change our tax system to make
it more like those of our global
competitors.
Despite these effects and constraints on
the way we do things, most economists see
the growing interdependence in the world
economy as a plus.
But a few wonder whether globalization
has, in fact, gone too far.
In a recent book asking that question,
Dani Rodrik, a Harvard University
professor of international political
economy, blames globalization for
increasing the income disparity in the
U.S. by keeping wages low.
He claims that there are various channels
through which the international economy
impinges on domestic labour markets:
* By giving corporations a great deal more
leverage or bargaining power over their
workers.
* By changing norms and institutions.
* By undermining social support systems.
Globalization effectively forces economies
to restructure. The shake-up that follows
makes some people winners, some losers.
But as Rodrik asks, how can labour expect
to win when employers can credibly say:
``Don't ask for wage increases, don't ask
for improvements in labour standards or in
work conditions, because if you do, we can
go elsewhere.''
Recognizing that some Canadians would lose
because of its free trade deal, the
Mulroney government promised in 1988 to
bring in the best adjustment package ``in
the world.''
But there never was an adjustment package.
And our governments subsequently have
forgotten about the impacts of free trade
- and globalization generally - when they
cut welfare, unemployment insurance and
money for training.
Critics of the Canada-U.S. free trade deal
no doubt would find many parallels between
Rodrik's analysis and the concerns they
raised a decade ago.
As Rodrik's book reminds us, those
concerns, unfortunately, have not gone
away.
Contents copyright � 1996-1998, The Toronto Star.
.............................................
Bob Olsen, Toronto [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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