Christine Shields heads up the Country Risk Research team at Standard Chartered Bank. Her role is to assess the economic and political risks in countries around the world. Christine is supporting World Trade Week UK and was involved in the development of some video scenarios projecting the future of the global economy in 10 years. These video scenarios were shown for the first time at the international conference which kicked off the week on Monday 8 June.
World Trade Week UK couldn’t have come at a more crucial time. Now more than ever, promoting a revitalisation of global trade is a matter of urgency, for the alternatives present a bleak picture. With the world economy struggling to emerge from the worst crisis in decades, keeping trade links open is essential.
The Government’s Trade Policy Unit asked the team at the Foresight Horizon Scanning Centre to explore the possible future courses of world trade to feed into World Trade Week. I was invited by the Centre to join a group looking at four possible global futures depending on different levels of availability of resources versus varying levels of international cooperation. Our research showed that where resources were in short supply, the tendency towards protecting one’s own interests increased. Scarily, it also showed that in some areas, we could easily already be on a road towards greater protectionism.
As a truly global business, international trade is crucial to Standard Chartered Bank. We would see any drift towards protectionism as a serious threat to the world economy and to development and poverty alleviation in the emerging world.
Events like World Trade Week are an important way to ensure that some global architecture evolves to deter countries acting in self interest in a way that harms others, be it in access to finance, free access to markets or in destructive policy initiatives. But crucially, these events are not about words. Countries have to follow rhetoric with appropriate actions.
Today, a group of students traded international products at the London Stock Exchange to begin the count-down to Global Entrepreneurship Week in November and encourage others to trade around the globe.
The young people from Skinners’ School, Hackney, set up a stall selling products exported by the Sophie-Charlotte-Oberschule in Berlin, who they have been trading with for seven months as part of an online enterprise project called Achievers’ International. The students started their global enterprise by selling German snack products such as Corny cereal bars, Knoppers and Yogurettes, and they plan to trade other items such as ‘Berlin bears’, which most of their customers will not be familiar with
Entrepreneurship Week (16-22 November 2009) is a worldwide movement of entrepreneurial people, with millions taking part in events and turning their ideas into reality. Last year, there were 24,966 events and activities run in 77 countries, attended by more than 3.06 million people (644,000 of which were in the UK!).
To find out more about the week and for details of how to get involved, visit www.gew.org.uk.
Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang addresses an audience of over 230 business leaders at a seminar in London entitled ‘Hong Kong and China: A Way out from the Storm’.
Organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the event emphasised the continuing opportunities in China; Hong Kong’s advantages as a means of entering the mainland market; and Hong Kong’s resilience and adaptability during the current global economic downturn.
On Monday, the historic Merchant Taylor’s Hall hosted a gathering of the world’s leadingfigures in global economics, trade and development for the inaugural World Trade Week UK International Conference.
Chaired by the BBC’s Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders, the event included keynote speeches by Gareth Thomas MP, the Rt Hon Lord Mandelson and the Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP.
The first section of the conference was dedicated to announcement and analysis of the government’s plans to create Global Trade Alert (GTA), the new independent watchdog against protectionism. The business perspective on this was provided by Martin Broughton, Deputy President of CBI and Chariman of British Airways plc. Professor Simon Evenett, Professor of International Trade and Economic Development at the University of St Gallen, who has been a leading light in the development of GTA, spoke in depth about the new body’s aims while Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) looked at the issue of monitoring free trade from the perspective of emerging markets.
The afternoon session began with a talk by Baroness Ashton, EU Trade Commissioner, who spoke about the ways in which trade opportunities can be maximised. Baroness Ashton was amongst many throughout the day who highlighted multilateralism, notably attempts to complete the Doha trade agreement, as a crucial measure in defending open markets and providing a route out of global economic crisis.
A video message by Demetrios Marantis of Department US Trade Representative (DUSTR) provided the perspective of the Obama administration. This was followed by a speech by Professor Jagdish Bhagwati of Columbia University giving his perspective on the issues of globalisation, trade and development.
The final session of the day was entitled ‘What next for Trade Policy’ and included speeches by Peter Sutherland KCMG, Chairman BP plc and Goldman Sachs International and Paul Krugman, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University.
New African products will appear on supermarket shelves thanks to a new fund formally launched today by Trade and Development Minister, Gareth Thomas.
The FRICH (Food Retail Industry Challenge fund) will support six projects to bring a range of new tea, coffees and fruit juices from across Africa to the UK, with a total investment of around £3 million. Projects are co funded by FRICH and the companies implementing them.
The six companies chosen to receive funding so far are:
• Blue Skies (fruit juice from Ghana)
• Waitrose LEAF (environmentally-sustainable fruit and vegetables)
• The Co-Operative Group (tea from Kenya)
• Sainsbury’s (coffees from Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Betty’s and Taylors of Harrogate (tea from Rwanda)
• Cafédirect (hot drinks from Sao Tome and Tanzania)
Research shows nearly three-quarters of consumers in the UK want to reduce poverty through their shopping choices. However, statistics show that we still spend only 3 percent of our food shopping budget on products from developing countries. The new funding will help bridge this gap and ensure that everyone involved gets a fair deal.
The launch of the first six FRICH projects takes place during the first ever World Trade Week in the UK (8th-14th June), an event to highlight the importance of trade as a tool for recovery from the global economic downturn.
Speaking at the launch of FRICH today, Minister for Trade and Development Gareth Thomas said:
“Seven out of ten Africans depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and the ability to trade with a large UK retailer will make a big difference to farmers across the continent.
“I am delighted to see that all of the retailers chosen to receive FRICH funding are putting the money to good use, producing an exciting new range of African products which will enable UK consumers to help developing countries with their shopping even more.
“This week is the first ever World Trade Week in the UK, and the work that these companies are doing is a perfect example of how trade can offer a vital route out of poverty to some of the world’s poorest people.”
As World Trade Week UK continues, experts met at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office yesterday to discuss the challenges for women in the global business world; and how sustainable businesses can improve the situation.
A pioneering initiative to help clothing manufacturers improve working conditions for their producers in developing countries was today launched by Minister for Trade and Development Gareth Thomas.
The RAGS (Responsible and Accountable Garment Sector) fund will make £3.5 million available over three years for bids from companies who want to make their clothing business more ethical and contribute more strongly to development in poor countries.
A Challenge Fund will be set up that invites bids for work that will make a real difference – which might include companies working with unions and others to explore responsible business practices, projects to raise workers’ awareness of their rights, and ways of generating more viable and decent jobs in garment making in poorer areas.
The fund will support and encourage “ethical pioneers” in the fashion industry – people and companies who have innovative ideas with the potential to drive change in the garment sector.
Gareth Thomas launched RAGS with a group of models wearing ethical fashion items as part of the first ever World Trade Week UK; an event to highlight the importance of trade as a tool for recovery from the global economic downturn.
Speaking at the launch today, Trade and Development Minister Gareth Thomas said:
“RAGS is a fun name but it carries a serious message. The garment sector has for too long been associated with abuse and exploitation of workers in developing countries.
“I am therefore pleased to be able to launch this new initiative, which will help to make a real difference to how retailers in this country work with producers in developing countries. The benefits of the garment sector for development are huge – particularly for women – and it’s important that we encourage producers here to take more action to make a positive impact.
“Responsible, ethical production should be the norm in the fashion industry, not the exception, and RAGS will help to change the image of the fashion sector.”
RAGS is the first initiative of its kind from the Department for International Development (DFID) and will help to improve the lives of people working in the garment sector, which employs some 20 million people worldwide.
The UK garment industry is heavily dependent on products from developing countries – only 10 % of UK clothing is manufactured here – but the sector comes under a lot of criticism for worker abuses such as unfair pay and forced labour. RAGS responds to calls for action for an end to such practices in the sector.
Oliver Griffiths, from the British Embassy in Washington, speaks about World Trade Week UK in his blog, comparing it to FDR’s plans to launch an annual National Foreign Trade Week in the 1930s:
Monday 08 June, 2009
This week sees the inaugural World Trade Week UK, which aims to highlight the importance of global trade in creating jobs and growth during these difficult economic times. It’s an idea that draws heavily on FDR’s 1933 initiative to designate the third week of May as National Foreign Trade Week, following up on the promise in his Inaugural Address to ‘spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment’. Actually it is surprising to look at the full text of FDR’s language on international trade in the Inaugural Address, where he sees international trade relations as secondary to national economic recovery - as if the two are somehow separate challenges.
Simon Evenett, Professor of International Trade and Economic Development at the University of St. Gallen, has just announced in his talk on ‘Discouraging and unwinding protectionism’ the four key features of the new watchdog, Global Trade Alert:
Christine Shields heads up the Country Risk Research team at Standard Chartered Bank. Her role is to assess the economic and political risks in countries around the world. Christine is supporting World Trade Week UK and was involved in the development of some video scenarios projecting the future of the global economy in 10 years. These video scenarios were shown for the first time at the international conference which kicked off the week on Monday 8 June.
