VALUE, GLOBALIZATION AND FREE TRADE
by Zhivargo Laing

http://www.pldsystems.com/

The quest for value is powerful, especially when that value is expressed as profits. This quest lies at the heart of globalization and free trade. Individuals and the corporations they create want to do things better, faster and further to increase their wealth. They want to operate globally. Those who create and innovate the world"s technology know that if they can help those individuals and corporations achieve their goals, they will be paid handsomely for it. This has driven rapid advancements in telecommunications, transportation and information systems. The result is globalization, the ability to operate across the globe in real time, somewhat suppressing time and space.

Technological advancements within the last twenty years have enabled many corporations, particularly multi-national corporations to produce their goods and services with such efficiency, that they can supply both local and foreign markets. In fact, they have been seeking to gain increasing access to foreign markets, having filled the needs of their own. Where foreign markets have been closed because of laws, policies or procedures put in place by foreign governments, individuals and corporations have pressed their governments to sign free trade agreements that open up those markets. This is modus operandi of the proponents of the free trade movement and the various economic integration efforts it has created such as the NAFTA, WTO, EU, MERCUSOR and the proposed FTAA.

While this may seem selfish and narrow minded, there are benefits that are broader. The fact is that in capitalist societies such as we have in the western world, basic needs must be financed. Education, health, security, housing and the like cannot be obtained without money. The vast majority of people in our socieities get money to finance their needs through jobs and those jobs are provided by corporations. Corporations can only provide those jobs as they fluourish. Generally speaking, the more the fluourish the more they are able to keep their employees employed and even create opportunities for others. Expansion means supplying a greater share of the market or finding new markets. Hence, the drive to access closed foreign markets. Business is not typically a charitable affair. The conscientious simply work to make it more charitable than not.

The Bahamas has always been subject to global developments. However, for many years it has not had to make any painful decisions in response to them or consider any formal arrangement to participate in their initiatives. It is this formal participation that is prompting the need for changes in a few but meaningful areas.

Free trade and globalization are related but not the same. Globalization is technology driven and is not the outcome of the direct decisions of governments. With or without governments, the human quest to do things better, faster and on a wider scale, driven mostly by profit, will continue. We cannot consider joining or not joining globalization. We are already in. Our two major economic sectors, tourism and financial services, put us in. We must consider how we will maximize benefits from it and minimize losses from it under new rules of participation.

Free trade is another matter. Free trade is a direct decision by governments to open their markets to foreign participation. Joining a free trade agreement is a matter of sovereign choice. The FTAA, WTO and CSME are the most significant arrangements in which The Bahamas must now consider participating.

Remember value is critical. Those who cannot create international value will have tremendous challenges surviving much less excelling in the international market place. This is the quest for our nation, to generate that global value. We have done it in the past with tourism and financial services; we can do it again. It takes vision, leadership, planning, focus and determination. It starts with awareness. We must not be fearful. We must know what we want and learn what it takes to get it. Then we must do what we learn. This is not complicated. This is entirely possible for a people like ours.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Zhivargo Laing is author of "Who Moved My Conch? Understanding the Implications of Free Trade Agreements for the Bahamian Economy"

http://www.WhoMovedMyConch.com