Anti-globalisation sentiment has found political voice in many developed economies since the global financial crisis, most loudly in the US, where not one major contender for president advocated freer international trade throughout the primaries process.
Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have all expressed anti-globalisation views, most notably opposing the Trans Pacific Partnership, the most far reaching trade agreement ever to affect the Pacific region and which, ironically, provides an opportunity for the US to bolster its diminishing influence in the Asia-Pacific. Sanders even voted against the US-Australian free trade agreement in the US Senate in 2004.
Globalisation, or the international integration of economies’ goods, services and financial markets, intensified sharply from the early 1980s until the GFC in 2008-10, dramatically affecting lifestyles, production, consumption and work practices in all hemispheres of the world. With the exception of the short-lived belle epoque that lasted from the late 19th century to World War I, the world had previously not experienced an economic phenomenon like it.
No story about the recent globalisation era can ignore the leading role played by China, both as a key driver and beneficiary of it.
China’s astounding emergence as an economic superpower confirmed Napoleon Bonaparte’s prescient observation that: “China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world.”
To read the full “Blocking trade paths hurts economies and makes everyone a loser” article by Griffith Asia Institute APEC Study Centre Director, Professor Tony Makin, please visit The Australian.
