IS GLOBALIZATION DEAD?

Before the rise of China as a global economic power, it was just an agrarian economy, then came the Great Chinese Miracle, and China began to rise. China became known for its superlarge population and its excessive supply of labour. As a result of this, foreign manufacturers began to flock to China because the cheap labour gave them a competitive edge. I remember hearing someone say "God made the world, but everything in it is made in China". Especially for a guy who lives in Africa, almost everything was made in China? Gadgets, tv sets, clothes, shoes, even packaged food. I remember arguing with a friend back in school who said Nike was a chinese company. Not surprising, since all the nice sneakers at our school were made in China. At the time, 'Made in China' was a common sight on almost everything.

I remember Barack Obama being put under intense pressure to bring back jobs to America. The US was bleeding jobs, and the unemployment rate was rising. It's no doubt, many American politicians detest China so much. Even Mitt Romney said in his 2012 Presidential Debate, that he would label China a 'currency manipulator'.

China was getting under the skin of US politicians, and some of them were being chastised in their constituencies, some even being voted out of office. That was GLOBALIZATION, the fact that goods, and even some services were being made in one part of the world, and consumed in other parts of the world. The only problem is, not all were seing the benefits.

Meanwhile China was reeping the benefits of globalization, others such as the US and UK were seing more and more jobs being shipped out to China, and that almost tipped the balance of power back home.

However, all this would somehow change as many countries hwould begin placing restrictions on the imports of certain goods, preferring they be produced back home. These have been seen by some analysts as retaliatory moves, meant to stem the massive outflow of jobs to China. Trade Protectionism has stepped in, as most countries want to protect their home industries. This was the case when the EU imposed a ban on solar panels from China, and China retaliated by placing a ban on european wines. 

Protectionist policies could either be in form of import restrictions, or in form of excessive subsidies given to home companies.

Sweden provided US$3.4 billion to Volvo and Saab in loan guarantees and support for research and development, France promised US$7.8 billion in loans and loan guarantees to its car companies, and the German finance minister said it is "fatal" not to support German auto companies when the US is giving its own firms billions of dollars in aid.

Although protectionism is spreading in the manufacturing sector, it has arrived with incredible force in services, where the United Stares and European governments have doled out more than US$1 trillion in various types of aid to banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions, such as house-mortgage companies.

Trade protectionist policies have hit emerging economirs the hardest, as they depend more than any other on foreign investment. Companies now find it disadvantageous to manufacture in these economies, if their products will not be imported by other markets.

The fall of globalization is very apparent in the US were there has been what is termed the 'Made in America' campaign. This issue seems very sensitive, due to the fact that thousands of americans lost their jobs when their companies shipped their jobs to China. A good example of a city that felt the effect of 'Made in China' is Detroit.

     But perhaps, globalization is not to blame, as the average wage in China has gone up significantly in the last five years. This has resulted to many companies shipping jobs to other countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia or back to their countries of origin.

In the case of the US, it may have been  due to the increasing disgust with the quality of chinese made goods and the increasing health risks, and even deaths caused by chinese made food products. It always seems like there's an economic thug-of -war between these two economic powers.  No matter what happens, no country can exist without the others, after all, the world is a global village.