CNN’s Fareed Zakaria recently explored the future of the globalization in the “What in the World” segment of his weekly Sunday program. Please view the video for the complete commentary. He states: “At the start of 2014, let’s take a look at one of the great trends of the last century. You could be sitting in Chicago, Illinois, right now, but your TV was probably made in Japan, your sneakers were likely manufactured in China, and your coffee might be from Kenya. Globalization impacts every single thing around us. So here’s my big question. Have we reached the end of globalization?
Let me explain what I mean. For much of the last 30 years, there has been a steady trend in commerce. Global trade has expanded at about twice the pace of the global economy. For example, between 1988 and 2007, global trade grew on average by 6.2 percent per year, according to the World Trade Organization. During the same period, the world’s GDP was growing at nearly half that pace, 3.7 percent. But a strange thing has taken place in the last two years. Growth in global trade has dropped dramatically, to even less than GDP growth.
The change made me wonder. Has the incredible transfer of goods around the world reached some sort of pinnacle? Have we exhausted the drive toward ever more globalization? It’s a fascinating thesis. The world has seen historical developments in the last few decades.” Check out the video for the complete commentary.
