Prior to this week I was aware of the horrible conditions workers can face when harvesting the raw materials for products (e.g., the dangers of copper mining) and how for a product to be made it undergoes a long process where it can travel across many countries and borders. However, I had little knowledge on trading and current news.
I firstly educated myself on some terminology from a simple Youtube video, which, although may not be the best academic resource, did prove useful for an introduction, The most interesting concept was the dichotomy of mercantilism and specialisation. The first involves a country trying to be self-sufficient by minimising imports and maximising exports, whilst the second involves a country producing and exporting what they are most skilled and abundant with, and importing the rest. The second is more efficient since it means that instead of countries making a lot of low quality items / materials, they can focus their attention on a smaller number and, by importing other high quality products. The end goal is therefore to maximise the quality of products, as well as the diversity of products that countries have access to.
I was then interested in the involvement of more developed countries in world trade and came across this Vox video which explains the Belt and Road initiative set up by China:
This initiative is a development strategy that China implemented in 2013. It is designed to increase other countries’ trade with China by making their access to china easier. It involves an Economic belt along the silk road as well as a Maritime silk road (a chain of seaports spanning from the south China sea to Africa). The countries that are taking part in this initiative are mainly less democratic countries and ones that are more unreliable. China did not make the requirements for this deal very high and also gave the countries large loans to invest. However, since a lot aren’t as developed they are unable to pay back the money and then the outcome is China being given control. This was the case with Sri Lanka, for example, where China now has control over the port through a 99-year lease. The video also hints at the string of pearls theory, which predicts that China is trying to gain strategic control and establish a string of naval bases in the Indian Ocean. This makes me question how beneficial this initiative is to these countries, since they do receive a lot of money and have the chance to improve their economy through increased trade, yet with the high likelihood of China maintaining control afterwards it poses the question of how much and what they really are planning to do with this control. Is it really fair if eventually trade is essentially controlled by a few very wealthy countries, such as America and China?
In light of recent events, I then considered how trade can impact health. In an article I had read (see here) concerning the Eu’s restrictions on the export of vaccines. This is having a direct impact on Australia, where the country is now receiving 1.2 million doses less than it was initially meant to receive (3.8 million doses). The interconnection between trade and health therefore stood out to me and I considered a medical side to trade I had not before; that involving the trade medical products and health-related services. The involvement of globalisation in this area is highlighted in Trade & Health, a book by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Although the health and trade were not historically related, they became increasingly so and due to this tensions slowly arose between two goals: 1) protecting the people’s health and 2) promoting trade in goods, services and investment capital (p. 2).
(Smith et al., 2015, p. 3)
Furthermore, it opened up for me other areas of consideration when looking at health, such as the possibility of spreading infectious diseases from cross-border travel. Relating this to the coronavirus pandemic, it shows how having borders is beneficial as controlling travel between these borders means that pandemics can be kept under control. A world without borders would provide no such control, an alternate solution may need to be put into place. However, from this perspective, a borderless word is not ideal. Realistically as well, I feel that this is just one of the many reasons that make it unlikely for it to be fathomable in the future. Another example being the ability to control and prevent crime. Even if there may sometimes be a sentiment of wanting to erase borders, it is through their existence that globalisation can be considered an occurring phenomenon.
References
McGowan, M. (2021, January 30) Australia's coronavirus vaccine rollout hit as EU gives itself power to block exports. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/30/australias-coronavirus-vaccine-rollout-hit-as-eu-gives-itself-power-to-block-exports.
Smith, R., Blouin, C., Mirza, Z., Drager, N., Beyer, P., & World Health Organization. (2015). Trade and health: Building a national strategy. World Health Organization.
Vox. (2108, April 15). China's trillion dollar plan to dominate global trade. [Video File] Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvXROXiIpvQ
World101. (2019, June 18). International Trade Explained. [Video File]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfN8BnRJryQ
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