International Business report

The Industrial Relations Act of 1990 contains almost all of the regulations governing trade disputes and industrial action. There are numerous trade conflicts going on right now between different nations all around the world. Trade conflicts exist, among instance, between China and the United States between North America and Europe. In this study, four publications on global trade disputes will be summarized and analyzed.

In this article titled “For Commerce Pick Wilbur Ross, ’Inherently Bad’ Deals Paid Off,” the president of the United States, Donald Trump, recommends Wilbur Ross to be the country’s secretary of commerce. However, Mr. Ross is being criticized for promising to fight against bad trade practices between the United States and other countries such as Mexico and china. Some of the individuals have said that he used the same trade deals to accumulate the wealth he has today (Malkin, 2017). They also criticize President Trump for choosing him yet the methods Mr. Ross used to get what he has today do not rhyme well with Mr. President’s view. Some of the bad practices mentioned include shipping hundreds of jobs to Mexico, therefore, contributing to the economic growth of Mexico rather than the United States. Trump highly condemns such practices.

Analysis

The article is well presented because the author has provided evidence against Mr. Ross by giving the direct quotations from various individuals who mostly worked with Ross. I agree with the article 100% that the move to make Mr. Ross commerce Secretary is hypocritical and it could have a massive blow to several companies in the United States because of the imminent increased production cost due to expensive raw materials and labor.

Summary

The article “Tens of thousands protest in Europe against Atlantic free trade deals,”

is about the protests carried out by the individuals and unions in different countries in Europe accusing the United States and Canada of planning to implement free trade law known as Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) (Michael, 2016). The opponents of this law argue that such deals would not promote democracy and would lead to lower food safety, labor and environmental standards (Michael, 2016). Nevertheless, some proponents in countries like Germany say that these trade deals would be highly beneficial to their country and people should embrace them.

Analysis

The author has presented the sentiments of the opponents of the trade deals very well. He has also given the views of those who are supporting the law catering for both sides adequately. In my opinion, the deals could benefit the importers as the importation duties will be removed hence large profits will be realized. It will also lead to decreased production cost for some companies because they will opt to use cheaper raw materials and labor from developing countries.

Summary

In the article ”South Africa and US resolve agricultural products trade dispute” the author talks about solving of a trade dispute between the United States and South Africa where the latter had restricted importation of beef, pork and poultry from the US due to fears that these products could be having some safety issues such as avian influenza and salmonella. United States contends that its product are safe and if South Africa does not lift the ban the US will also decline some of its trade deals with South Africa (Andrew & Shawn, 2016). Finally, South Africa lifts the ban and US are allowed to exports its products to South Africa.

Analysis

The author has presented his facts very well providing the numerical evidence where necessary. He has also used graph at some point to explain his point clearly. In my view, it seems that the United States is giving South Africa ultimatum that if South Africa fails to call off the ban, there will no trade deals between the two countries. This is very sad because its warrants big economy countries to bully smaller economy countries in the event that bigger countries do not offer high quality products.

Summary

The article ”Guest Post: New raw materials dispute revives trade tensions between China and the US/EU” is about a dispute between China and two parties, US and EU where these two parties have separately petitioned china for violating WTO exports law concerning various products such as antimony, cobalt magnesium, copper, graphite among others. China is also the main producer of rare earths (Lester, 2017). The author says that China is an easy target because some other countries have also imposed stringent export restrictions. He says that the main reasons why china is being targeted are its production of materials that are crucial in construction, electronics as well as telecommunication. China also produces these materials in higher quantities than any other country.

Analysis

The dispute between these two parties is purely an economic competition where both US and EU fear the rate at which China is growing economically. China imposing export restrictions is justified because it is preventing illegal importation of their vital products to the developed countries whose aim is to halt the china’s economic growth. The implication of this is that some smaller countries producing valuable goods will become enlightened and follow china’s footsteps to protect the misuse of products by first world countries.

Conclusion

It is clear that international trade disputes exist at different levels and between different countries. Trade disputes may result from the exported and imported goods ranging from valuable metals, minerals, labor and agricultural products.

References

Andrew, E. & Shawn, D. (2016). South Africa and US resolve agricultural products trade dispute. (2017). Ft.com. Retrieved 28 February 2017, from https://www.ft.com/content/55babca6-b559-11e5-8358-9a82b43f6b2f

Lester, S. (2017). Guest Post: New raw materials dispute revives trade tensions between China and the US/EU. International Economic Law and Policy Blog. Retrieved 28 February 2017, from http://worldtradelaw.typepad.com/ielpblog/2016/09/guest-post-new-raw-materials-dispute-revives-trade-tensions-between-china-and-the-useu.html

Malkin, A. (2017). For Commerce Pick Wilbur Ross, ‘Inherently Bad’ Deals Paid Off. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 27 February 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/25/world/americas/wilbur-ross-trump-commerce-secretary.html?_r=0

Michael, N. (2016). Tens of thousands protest in Europe against Atlantic free trade deals. (2017). Reuters. Retrieved 28 February 2017, from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-usa-ttip-idUSKCN11N0H6