Global Experiences

Gio and Latif's story is fictional but very plausible since it is, in fact, based on the real-life
experience of one of the authors. It was through such friendships that one was able to
appreciate the meaning and impact of globalization. We begin our definition of globalization with
this narrative to illustrate how concrete the phenomenon is. The story shows how globalization
operates at multiple, intersecting levels. The spread of Filipino TV in Malaysia suggests how fast
this popular culture has proliferated and criss-crossed all over Asia. The Model UN activity that
Gio and Latif participated in is an international competition about international politics. Gio met
Latif (a Malaysian involved in the model UN) in Sydney, a global city that derives its wealth and
influence from the global capital that flows through it. Sydney is also a metropolis of families of
international immigrants, or foreigners working in the industries that also sell their products
abroad. After the two had gone back to their home countries, Gio and Latif kept in touch through
Facebook-a global social networking site that provides instantaneous communication across
countries and continents. They preserved their friendship online and then rekindled it face-to-
face in Singapore, another hub for global commerce, with 40 percent of the population being
classified as "foreign talents."

What other hints of globalization did you find in the story?

Some Descriptions of Globalization

Our discussion should begin with this intuitive sense that something is happening, and it is not
affecting everyone in the same way. Gio's story is a very privileged way of experiencing global
flows, but for other people, the shrinking of the world may not be as exciting and edifying. For
example, it is very common for young women in developing countries to be recruited through
the Internet as "mail-order brides" for foreign men living in other countries. After being promised
a good life once married to a kind husband in a rich city, they end up becoming sexual and
domestic servants in foreign lands. Some were even sold off by their "husbands" to gangs
running prostitute rings in these cities. Like Gio, they have also experienced the shrinking of the
world, albeit negatively.

Governments that decide to welcome foreign investments in the belief that they provide jobs
and capital for the country, offer public lands as factory or industrial sites. In the process, poor
people living in these lands, also called "urban poor communities," are being evicted by the
government. The irony is that these people

forcibly removed from their "slums" are also the labor force sought by foreign companies. They
had to be kicked out of their homes, and then told that they could take an hour or two of bus
travel from their relocated communities back to their "old home" for minimum wage work. Since
different people encounter globalization in a variety of ways, it is deemed useful to ask simple
questions such as: "Is globalization good or bad? Is it beneficial or detrimental?" The discussion
begins with two premises. First, globalization is a complex phenomenon that occurs at multiple
levels. Second, it is an uneven process that affects people differently.
Globalization: A Working Definition

Most accounts view globalization as primarily an economic process. When a newspaper reports
that nationalists are resisting "globalization," it usually pertains to the integration of national
markets to a wider global market signified by an increase in free trade. When activists speak of
the "anti-globalization" movement in the 1990s, they refer to the act of opposing trade deals
among countries facilitated and promoted by international organizations such as the World
Trade Organization (WTO). 07

Scholars who study globalization do not necessarily contradict people who criticize unjust
international trade deals or global economic institutions. As a matter of fact, many scholars are
sympathetic to the criticisms about economic globalization. However, in contrast to political
activists and journalists, academics view globalization in a much broader context. They view the
process through various lenses that consider multiple theories and perspectives. Academics call
this an interdisciplinary approach, and it is the approach used in the general education (GE)
courses that you will be taking alongside this one.

The best scholarly description of globalization is provided by Manfred Steger who described the
process as "the expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across
world-time and across world-space." Expansion refers to "both the creation of new social
networks and the multiplication of existing connections that cut across traditional political,
economic, cultural, and geographic boundaries."2 These various connections occur at different
levels. Social media, for example, establish new global connections between people, while
international groups of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are networks that connect a
more specific group-social workers and activists- from different corners of the globe. In the
story, Gio was able to join a Model UN competition because his university was part of an
international network.

Intensification refers to the expansion, stretching, and acceleration of these networks. Not only
are global connections multiplying, but they are also becoming more closely-knit and expanding
their reach. For example, there has always been a strong financial market connecting London
and New York. With the advent of electronic trading, the volume of that trade increases
exponentially, as traders can now trade more at higher speeds. The connection is thus
accelerating. Apart from this acceleration, as the world becomes more financially integrated, the
intensified trading network between London and New York may expand and stretch to cover
more and more cities. After China committed itself to the global economy in the 1980s,
Shanghai steadily returned to its old role as a major trading post.

It is not only in financial matters that you can find these connections. In 2012, when the
monsoon rains flooded much of Bangkok, the Honda plant making some of the company's
critical car parts temporarily ceased production. This had a strong negative effect on Honda-
USA that relied heavily on the parts being imported from Thailand. It resulted in the company
not meeting its sales goals as well as the inability of its service centers nationwide to provide
assistance to Honda owners. Thus, the global profits of the Japanese car company plummeted.

The last feature of this definition involves the people's perceptions of time and space. Steger
notes that "globalization processes do not occur merely at an objective, material level but they
also involve the subjective plane of human consciousness."

In other words, people begin to feel that the world has become a smaller place, and distance
has collapsed from thousands of miles to just a mouse click away. One can now e-mail a friend
in another country and get a reply instantaneously; and as a result, they begin to perceive their
distance as less consequential. Cable TV and the Internet have also exposed individuals to
news from across the globe; so now, they have this greater sense of what is happening in other
places.

Steger posits that his definition of globalization must be differentiated with an ideology he calls
globalism. If globalization represents the many processes that allow for the expansion and
intensification of global connections, globalism is a widespread belief among powerful people
that the global integration of economic markets is beneficial for everyone as it spreads freedom
and democracy across the world. It is a common belief forwarded in media and policy circles. In
the next lesson, you will realize why it is problematic.

For now, what is crucial to note is that when activists and journalists criticize "globalization,"
they are, more often than not, criticizing some manifestations of globalism. Often, these
criticisms are warranted. Nevertheless, it is crucial to insist that "globalization" as a process
refers to a larger phenomenon that cannot simply be reduced to the ways in which global
markets have been integrated.

Conclusion: Globalization from the Ground Up

All this talk of large, intersecting processes may be confusing. Indeed, it may be hard to assess
globalization or comment on it because it is so diffuse and almost fleeting. Some scholars have,
therefore, found it simpler to avoid talking about globalization as a whole. Instead, they want to
discuss "multiple globalizations," not just one process.

For anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, different kinds of globalization occur on multiple and
intersecting dimensions of integration which he calls "scapes." An "ethnoscape," for example,
refers to the global movement of people, while a "mediascape" is about the flow of culture. A
"technoscape" refers to the circulation of mechanical goods and software; a "financescape"
denotes the global circulation of money; and an "ideoscape" is the realm wherein political ideas
move around. Although they intersect, these various scapes have differing logics. They are,
thus, distinct windows into the broader phenomenon of globalization.
Appadurai's argument is simple: there are multiple globalizations. Hence, even if one does not
agree that globalization can be divided into the five "scapes," it is hard to deny Appadurai's
central thrust of viewing globalization through various lenses.

Depending on what is being globalized, a different dynamic (or dynamics) may emerge. It is
important to ask the question: "What is globalization? It is likewise important to pose the
question: "What is/are being globalized?" Depending on what is being globalized, the vista and
conclusions change.

The structure of the lessons that follow will reflect this multidimensional understanding of
globalization. Each of the lessons will focus on a particular kind of globalization. Every one of
them will be about different networks and connections that are expanding and intensifying in the
contemporary world.

Treat each lesson not as an end in itself but as a window to the broader phenomenon of
globalization.

How Globalized Is Your Home?

Go to your room and do an inventory of everything you have in your possession. Among the
most essential things found in your room could be footwear, clothes, computers, cell phones,
television radio, etc. If you are a student, you may also consider books, newspapers, news
magazines, school supplies, and equipment.

Organize your inventory into two types: "things" that are made in the Philippines and those that
are of foreign brands. List the countries of origin of your internationally purchased items.

Do the same thing for your kitchen and living room. These should include appliances.
In class, compare your lists with those of your classmates to determine which countries make
the most household and personal needs or items you and your families have. Make a similar list
for Philippine-made items. In the process, discuss why certain products are made in the
Philippines while others are produced abroad.

The Globalization of World Economics

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) regards "economic globalization" as a historical process
representing the result of human innovation and technological progress. It is characterized by
the increasing integration of economies around the world through the movement of goods,
services, and capital across borders. These changes are the products of people, organizations,
institutions, and technologies. As with all other processes of globalization, there is a qualitative
and subjective element to this definition. How does one define "increasing integration"? When is
it considered that trade has increased? Is there a particular threshold? The World Bank, on the
other hand, is an international development organization owned by 189 countries. Its role is to
reduce poverty by lending money to the governments of its poorer members so that they can
improve their economies and the standard of living of their people. Since 1947, the World Bank
has funded over 12,000 development projects via traditional loans, interest-free credits, and
grants.

Even while the IMF and ordinary people grapple with the difficulty of arriving at precise
definitions of globalization, they usually agree that a drastic economic change is occurring

throughout the world. According to the IMF, the value of trade (goods and services) as a
percentage of world GDP increased from 42.1% in 1980 to 62.1% in 2007. Increased trade also
means that investments are moving all over the world at faster speeds. According to the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the amount of foreign direct
investments flowing across the world was US$ 57 billion in 1982. By 2015, that number was
$1.76 trillion. These figures represent a dramatic increase in global trade in the span of just a
few decades. It has happened not even after one human lifespan!

Apart from the sheer magnitude of commerce, we should also note the increased speed and
frequency of trading. These days, supercomputers can execute millions of stock purchases and
sales between different cities in a matter of seconds through a process called high-frequency
trading. Even the items being sold and traded are changing drastically. Ten years ago, buying
books or music indicates acquiring physical items. Today, however, a "book" can be digitally
downloaded to be read with an e-reader, and a music "album" refers to the 15 songs (in an mp3
format) an individual can purchase and download from iTunes or other music platforms. This
lesson aims to trace how economic globalization came about. It will also assess the
globalization system and examine who benefits from it and who is left out.

International Trading Systems

International trading systems are not new. The Silk Road is the oldest known international trade
route. It had a network of routes that connected different parts of the ancient world from China
to what is the Middle East today and to Europe. It was called such because one of the most
profitable products traded through this network was silk, which was highly prized, especially in
the area that is now the Middle East as well as in the West (today's Europe). When the Han
dynasty of China opened trade to the West in 130 BCE, traders utilized the Silk Road regularly.
This continued until the Ottoman Empire closed it in 1453 BCE.
Although the Silk Road was considered international, it was not exactly "global," as it did not
include routes to the American continents. Thus, this results in the question: "When did full
economic globalization start?" This was addressed by historians Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo
Giraldez, stating that globalization began when "all important populated continents began to
exchange products continuously-both with each other directly and indirectly via other continents
and in values sufficient to generate crucial impacts on all trading partners."10 Flynn and
Giraldez trace this back to 1571 with the establishment of the galleon trade that connected
Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco in Mexico." This was the first time that the Americas
were directly connected to Asian trading routes. For Filipinos, it is crucial to note that economic
globalization began in the country's shores.
gnignado 51s babant bas

The galleon trade took place during the age of mercantilism. During the 16th century until the
18th century, countries, mainly in Europe, competed with one another to sell more goods in
order to increase their country's income (which was soon termed monetary reserves). These
regimes, particularly the monarchies, applied various ways to defend their products from
competitors who sold goods at cheap prices. They imposed high tariffs, prohibited colonies from
trading with other countries, limited trade channels, and subsidized exports. Therefore,
mercantilism was also a global trade system that had multiple restrictions.

A more open trade system emerged in 1867 when, following the lead of the United Kingdom,
the United States and other European nations adopted the gold standard at an international
monetary conference in Paris. Its overall purpose was to establish a common system that would
enable more efficient trade and, at the same time, prohibit the isolationism of the mercantilist
era. As a result, the countries developed a common basis for currency prices as well as a fixed
exchange rate system that are all based on the value of gold.

The gold standard, though making trade easier, was nonetheless an extremely limiting system
because it required governments to back their currencies with set gold reserves.

The First World War forced countries to use their gold reserves to support their armies; thus,
several were obliged to abandon the gold standard. Since European countries had limited gold
reserves, they adopted floating currencies that were no longer redeemable in gold.

In the 1920s until the 1930s, a global economic crisis occurred called the Great Depression.
This significantly depleted government resources, which led to the difficulty of going back to a
pure standard. This economic depression was considered the worst and longest experienced by
the West. Some economists argued that it was largely caused by the gold standard as it limited
the amount of circulating money; therefore, reduced demand and consumption. If governments
could only spend money that was equivalent to gold, its capacity to print money and increase
the money supply was severely curtailed.

According to Barry Eichengreen, an economic historian, the United States began to recover
when it abandoned the gold standard. The US government was able to free up money to spend
on reviving the economy." Other major industrialized countries followed suit during the height of
the Second World War.

Though more indirect versions of the gold standard were used until as late as the 1970s, the
world never returned to the gold standard of the early 20th century. Today, the world economy
operates based on what are called fiat currencies-currencies that are not backed by precious
metals and whose values are determined by their cost relative to other currencies. This system
allows governments to freely and actively manage their economies by increasing or decreasing
the amount of money in circulation as they see fit.
The Bretton Woods System
Following the two world wars, international leaders endeavored to establish a global economic
system that would guarantee longer-lasting global peace. They believed that one of the ways to
achieve this goal was to set up a network of global financial institutions that would promote
economic interdependence and prosperity. Thus, during the 1944 United Nations Monetary and
Financial Conference, the Bretton Woods system was inaugurated with the goal of preventing
past catastrophes from happening again and impacting international connections.

It was the ideas of John Maynard Keynes that greatly influenced the Bretton Woods system.
The British economist believed that a country experiences economic crises not when it does not
have sufficient funds; rather, it happens when money is not being spent; thus, moved. When
economies slow down, according to Keynes, governments have to reinvigorate markets with
infusions of capital. This active participation of governments in managing economic crises
became the foundation for what would be called a system of global Keynesianism.

Delegates at Bretton Woods agreed to create two financial institutions. The first was the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) or the World Bank, the one
responsible for funding postwar reconstruction projects. It was a critical institution at a time
when many of the world's cities had been destroyed by the war. The second institution was the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global lender of last resort to prevent individual countries
from spiraling into credit crises. If economic growth in a country slowed down because there
was not enough money to stimulate the economy, the IMF would step in. To this day, both
institutions remain key players in economic globalization.

Shortly after Bretton Woods, various countries also committed themselves to further global
economic integration through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947.
GATT's main objective was to reduce tariffs and other hindrances to free trade.

Neoliberalism and Its Discontents

From the mid-1940s until the early 1970s, global Keynesianism was at its pinnacle.
Governments pumped money into their economies during this time, thus allowing consumers to
buy more products; in turn, increase the demand for such. As the demand grew, so did the cost
of the products. This increase in prices was tolerated by Western and certain Asian economies,
such as Japan, because it resulted in general economic expansion and lower unemployment.
The notion was that when prices rose, businesses would make more money and be able to
employ more people. According to Keynesian economists, these were necessary trade- offs for
economic progress.

In the early 1970s, however, the price of oil rose sharply as a result of the Organization of Arab
Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OAPEC, the Arab member-countries of the Oganization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC) imposition of an embargo in response to the decision
of the United States and other countries to resupply the Israeli military with the needed arms
during the Yom Kippur War. Arab countries also used the embargo to stabilize their economies
and growth. The "oil
embargo" affected the Western economies that were reliant on oil. To make matters worse, the
stock markets crashed from 1973 to 1974 after the United States stopped linking the dollar to
gold, therefore, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system. 14 The result was a phenomenon
that Keynesian economics could not have predicted-a phenomenon called stagflation, in which
a decline in economic growth and employment (stagnation) takes place alongside a sharp
increase in prices (inflation). Anubisibal

Around this time, a new form of economic thinking was beginning to challenge the Keynesian
orthodoxy. Economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman argued that the
governments' practice of pouring money into their economies had caused inflation by increasing
the demand for goods without necessarily increasing the supply. More profoundly, they argued
that government intervention in economies distorts the proper functioning of the market.

Economists like Friedman used the economic turmoil to challenge the consensus around
Keynes' ideas. What emerged was a new form of economic thinking that critics labeled
neoliberalism. From the 1980s onward, neoliberalism became the codified strategy of the United
States Treasury Department, the World Bank, the IMF, and eventually the World Trade
Organization (WTO)-a new organization founded in 1995 to continue the tariff reduction under
the GATT. The policies they forwarded came to be called the Washington Consensus.

From the 1980s through the early 2000s, the Washington Consensus controlled global
economic policies. Its proponents argued that government expenditure should be kept to a bare
minimum in order to minimize debt. They also advocated for the privatization of government-run
services such as water, electricity, communications, and transportation, thinking that the free
market can deliver the best results. Finally, they pressured governments, particularly in the
developing world, to reduce tariffs and open up their economies, arguing that it is the quickest
way to progress. Although proponents of the Washington Consensus acknowledged that
particular industries would be harmed or would die in the process, they believed that this "shock
therapy" was necessary for long-term economic success.

Neoliberalism's attraction was in its simplicity. Its proponents, such as Ronald Reagan of the
United States and Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom, justified their cuts in government
expenditures by equating national economies to homes. Thatcher, specifically, presented
herself as a mother who controlled expenditures in order to lower the national debt.

However, the comparison has a flaw in that governments are not households. For example,
governments have the ability to print money, whereas households do not. Furthermore, regular
taxing systems provide governments with a regular stream of revenue, allowing them to pay and
restructure debts in a timely manner.

In spite of neoliberal politicians, such as Thatcher and Reagan experiencing initial success, the
Washington Consensus' flaws became apparent almost quickly. Post-communist Russia is an
excellent early example. After Communism had collapsed in the 1990s, the IMF called for the
immediate privatization of all government industries. The IMF hoped that by doing so, corrupt
bureaucrats would be removed from these industries and that they would be passed on to more
active and independent private investors. What happened, however, was that only individuals
and groups who had accumulated wealth under the previous communist order had the money to
purchase these industries. In some cases, the economic elites relied on easy access to
government funds to take over the industries. This practice established an oligarchy that
continues to rule the Russian economy today.m

The Global Financial Crisis and the Challenge to Neoliberalism

Russia's case was just one example of how the "shock therapy" of neoliberalism did not lead to
the ideal outcomes predicted by economists who believed in perfectly free markets. The
greatest recent repudiation of this thinking was the global financial crisis of 2008-2009

Neoliberalism came under significant strain during the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 when
the world experienced the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. The crisis
can be traced back to the 1980s when the United States systematically removed various
banking and investment restrictions.

Regulations continued to decrease into the 2000s, which was leading to a looming crisis.
Government officials failed to regulate risky investments in the US housing market in their
efforts to promote the free market. Taking advantage of "cheap housing loans," Americans
began building houses that were beyond their financial capacities.

To mitigate the risk of these loans, banks that were lending houseowners' money pooled these
mortgage payments and sold them as "mortgage-backed securities" (MBSs). One MBS would
be a combination of multiple mortgages that they assumed would pay a steady rate.

Since there was so much surplus money circulating, the demand for MBSs increased as
investors clamored for more investment opportunities. In their haste to issue these loans,
however, the banks became less discriminating. They began extending loans to families and
individuals with dubious credit records-people who were unlikely to pay their loans back. These
high-risk mortgages became known as sub-prime mortgages.

Financial experts wrongly assumed that, even if many of the borrowers were individuals and
families who would struggle to pay, a majority would not default. Moreover, banks thought that
since there were so many mortgages in just one MBS, a few failures would not ruin the entirety
of the investment.

Banks also assumed that housing prices would continue to increase. Therefore, even if
homeowners defaulted on their loans, these banks could simply reacquire the homes and sell
them at a higher price, turning a profit, guulidt aint to notteitarat Jisant
Sometime in 2007, however, home prices stopped increasing as supply caught up with demand.
Moreover, it slowly became apparent that families could not pay off their loans. As a result,
MBSs were quickly resold, as banks and investors wanted to get rid of their disastrous assets.
This risky cycle came to a breaking point in September 2008, when big investment banks such
as Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, wiping off large investments.

The crisis spread beyond the United States since many investors were foreign governments,
corporations, and individuals. The loss of their money spread like wildfire back to their countries.

These series of interconnections allowed for a global multiplier effect that sent ripples across the
world. For example, Iceland's banks heavily depended on foreign capital; so when the crisis hit
them, they failed to refinance their loans. Three of Iceland's largest commercial banks have
defaulted because of this credit crunch. Iceland's debt climbed by more than seven times
between 2007 and 2008.

Until now, countries such as Spain and Greece, have been deeply indebted (nearly similar to
Third World countries), and debt relief has come at a heavy cost. To be specific, Germany and
the IMF have compelled Greece to reduce its social and public spending. Affecting services
such as pensions, health care, and various forms of social security, these cuts have been felt
most acutely by the poor. Moreover, the reduction in government spending has slowed down
growth and ensured high levels of unemployment.

The United States recovered relatively quickly; thanks to a large Keynesian-style stimulus
package that President Barack Obama pushed for in his first months in office. The same cannot
be said for many other countries. In Europe, the continuing economic crisis has sparked a
political upheaval. Far-right parties, such as Marine Le Pen's Front National in France, have
recently gained popularity by unjustly blaming immigrants for their troubles, saying that they
steal jobs and take advantage of welfare. These movements combine popular discontent with
outright racism and bigotry. Their rise will be discussed further in the final lesson.

Economic Globalization Today

The global financial crisis will take decades to resolve. The solutions proposed by certain
nationalist and leftist groups of closing national economies to world trade, however, will no
longer work. The world has become too integrated. Whatever one's opinion about the
Washington Consensus is, it is undeniable that some form of international trade remains
essential for countries to develop in the contemporary world.

Exports, not just the local selling of goods and services, make national economies grow at
present. In the past, those that benefited the most from free trade were the advanced nations
that were producing and selling industrial and agricultural goods. The United States, Japan, and
the member-countries of the European Union were responsible for 65% of global exports while
developing countries only accounted for 29%. When more countries opened up their economies
to take advantage of increased free trade, the shares of the percentage began to change.
However, the share of developing economies, such as the Philippines, in global exports rose
from 42.7% in 2016 to 43.4% in 2018 while their share of global imports rose from 39.9% in
2016 to 41.1% in 2018.15 COVID-19 slowed down global trade considerably, and major
economies recorded negative trends. Developing countries, however, experienced a relatively
lower decline mainly because of the resilience of East Asian economies. Between January and
September 2020, China, the Russian Federation, and South Korea had single-digit negative
declines in imports (-4%, -6.6%, and -8.7%, respectively), and only the United States among the
developed economies had the same number (-9.6%). Japan and the European Union had
double-digit negative imports (-11.55% and -12.77%, respectively), and only India, among Asian
economies suffered a similar fate (-28.77%). The Russian Federation, China, and India suffered
the largest negative decline in exports (-23.33%, -20.88%, and -17.55%, respectively) during the
same period and so did the United States (-15%), followed by Japan (-13.22%) and the
European Union (-11.22%). Among the Asian economies, only South Korea had a single-digit
decline in exports (-8.44%), 16 The WTO-led reduction of trade barriers, known as trade
liberalization, has profoundly altered the dynamics of the global economy. aastusroy TOR

In the recent decades, partly as a result of these increased exports, economic globalization has
ushered in an unprecedented spike in global growth rates. The gross world product per capita
was $5,498 in 2000. By 2010, this rose almost double to $9,551 (or 73.7%); and by 2019, it
stood at $11,436, or a 108% increase since the start of the 21st century. The World Bank
estimated that the gross world product per capita averaged only 1.241% in the 1990s. This rose
to 16.19% between 2000 and 2010 (or a rise of 1,204 percentage points) before settling to
13.70% between 2011 and 2019 (or a 1,003 rise in percentage points since 1990).1" It was this
growth that created large Asian economies such as Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, and
Singapore. 18

However, economic globalization remains an uneven process, with some countries,

corporations, and individuals benefiting a lot more than others. The series of trade talks under
the WTO have led to unprecedented reductions in tariffs and other trade barriers, but these
processes have often been unfair.

First, developed countries are often protectionists as they repeatedly refuse to lift policies that
safeguard their primary products that could otherwise be overwhelmed by imports from the
developing world. The best example of this double standard is Japan's determined refusal to
allow rice imports into the country to protect its farming sector. Japan's justification is that rice is
"sacred." Ultimately, it is its economic muscle as the third largest economy that allows it to resist
pressures to open its agricultural sector.

The United States likewise fiercely protects its sugar industry, forcing consumers and sugar-
dependent businesses to pay higher prices instead of getting cheaper sugar from the
plantations of Central America.
Faced with these blatantly protectionist measures from powerful countries and blocs, poorer
countries can do very little to make economic globalization more just. Trade imbalances,
therefore, characterize economic relations between developed and developing countries.

The beneficiaries of global commerce have been mainly transnational corporations (TNCs), not
governments. Like any other business, these TNCs are concerned more with profits than with
assisting the social programs of the governments hosting them. In turn, host countries ease tax
regulations, preventing wages from rising while sacrificing social and environmental initiatives
that safeguard society's most vulnerable citizens. The phrase "race to the bottom" refers to the
practice of countries decreasing their labor standards, especially worker protections, in order to
entice international investors looking for big profit margins at the lowest possible cost.
Governments weaken environmental laws to attract investors, thus, creating fatal consequences
on their ecological balance and depleting them of their finite resources such as oil, coal, and
minerals.

Localizing the Material

Many Philippine industries were devastated by unfair trade deals under the GATT and
eventually the WTO. One sector that was particularly affected was Philippine agriculture.
According to Walden Bello and a team of researchers at Focus on the Global South, the US
used its power under the GATT system to prevent Philippine importers from purchasing
Philippine poultry and pork-even as it sold meat to the Philippines.

Although the Philippines expected to make up losses in sectors like meat with gains in areas
such as coconut products, no significant change was realized. In 1993, coconut exports
amounted to $1.9 billion; and after a slight increase to $2.3 billion in 1997, it returned to $1.9
billion in 2000. satare betini od

Most strikingly, Bello and company noted that the Philippines became a net food importer under
the GATT. In 1993, the country had an agricultural trade surplus of $292 million. It had a deficit
of $764 million in 1997 and $794 million in 2002.

- Bello, Walden, Herbert Docena, Marissa de Guzman, and Mary Lou Malig. The Anti-
Development State: The Political Economy of Permanent Crisis in the Philippines. London and
New York: Zed Books, 2006, 140-142

Conclusion
International economic integration is a central tenet of globalization. In fact, it is so crucial to the
process that many writers and commentators confuse this integration for the entirety of
globalization. It should be noted that economics is just one window into the phenomenon of
globalization; it is not the entire thing.

Nevertheless, much of globalization is anchored on changes in the economy. Global culture, for
example, is facilitated by trade. Filipinos would not be as aware of American culture if not for
trade, which allows locals to watch American movies, listen to American music, and consume
American products. The globalization of politics is likewise largely contingent on trade relations.
These days, many events of foreign affairs are conducted to cement trading relations between
and among states. T

Given the stakes involved in economic globalization, it is perennially important to ask how this
system can be made more just. Although some elements of global free trade can be scaled
back, policies cannot do away with it as a whole. International policymakers, therefore, should
strive to think of ways to make trading deals fairer. Governments must also continue to devise
ways of cushioning the most damaging effects of economic globalization while ensuring that its
benefits accrue for everyone.