GLOBALIZATION
We live in a time of worldwide change. What happens in one part of the world impacts people on the other side of the world. People around the world are influenced by common developments[1].
The term “globalization” is used to describe this phenomenon. According to Harris, the term is being used in a variety of contexts.[2] In a very broad context, media uses it almost daily to refer to a wide variety of political, sociological, environmental, and economic trends.
The business world, however, uses this term in a much narrower context to refer to the production, distribution, and marketing of goods and services at an international level. Everyone is impacted by the continued increase of globalization in a variety of ways. The types of food we eat, the kind of clothes we wear the variety of technologies that we utilize, the modes of transportation, that are available to us, and the types of jobs we pursue are directly linked to “globalization.” Globalization is changing the world we live in.
Causes of Globalization
Harris indicates that there are three main factors contributing to globalization.
These factors include:
• The reduction in trade and investment barriers in the post World War II period.
• The rapid growth and increase in the size of developing countries’ economies.
• Change in technologies.[3]
Trade Agreements
Unfair originally, each nation established its own rules governing foreign trade. Regulations and tariffs were often the outcome, leading to the tariff wars of the 1930s.
Nations have found it convenient… to agree to rules that limit their own freedom of action in trade matters, and generally to work toward removal of artificial and often arbitrary barriers to trade.[4]
Many trade agreements exist in the world today. Of those agreements (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade [GATT], the European Community and the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA) have had or...