Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Is economic globalization governed properly? Discuss what globalization is and how things such as trade, finance and multinational corporations are or are not governed.

Economic globalization provides a major challenge for governance. Most laws and legal enforcement mechanisms are national in nature. Thus while nations can, to a degree, police the conduct of multinationals within their own boundaries, when legal and other regulatory issues span national boundaries, establishing laws and regulations for globalized business is difficult. This is especially the case because doing so would involve giving up national sovereignty to a certain degree. Given a political mood of populist and nationalist backlash against globalization, as exemplified by Brexit and the US backlash against NAFTA and the TPP under Trump, it is politically difficult for politicians to argue for giving greater powers to international organizations such as the WTO.
Many regulations, such as environmental and labor laws, are national rather than global. This means that companies wishing to avoid such regulations can use global supply chains to do so. For example, rather than paying a living wage to workers in developed countries, companies can outsource manufacturing to sweatshops in the developing world. Similarly, companies can export toxic waste or move processes that produce it to countries with little environment regulation or lax enforcement. Companies can also avoid paying taxes by using complicated international stratagems like funneling earnings through subsidiaries or choosing domiciles for parent companies in low-tax areas. Tax havens and shell companies can further obscure the global flows of cash and be used to evade fines and sanctions.
Some organizations provide forums for global or regional cooperation on trade and various forms of regulations. The World Trade Organization and the United Nations are among the truly global groups, although their ability to regulate and enforce standards is limited by the need to obtain the consensus of so many national governments. The Paris Climate Agreement is supported by 200 countries and is designed to deal with global climate change. With Donald Trump deciding to leave the accord and Syria joining, the United States is the only country not part of the accord. This is an example, though, of the difficulty enforcing environmental regulations on a global scale.

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