Politics and Business

Government’s decisions can affect the international business environment which can also put pressure on other political systems to follow and change as well.   With the application of sanctions which stops countries from trading with another country.   Sanctions may not stop all trade between two countries but could restrict some products but in some cases cutting off all trade can occur.   Sanctions which are in place are looked over by organisations such as the United Nations to make sure that the agreement is being enforced or if not overseen by an organisation, the countries’ armed forces can enforce this sanction and block all trade. Now I will show some common sanctions.

US and Cuba

The United States imposed sanctions against Cuba in 1962 shortly after Fidel Castro seized power in a revolution on the island. Before 1962, more than two-thirds of Cuba's international trade had been with the United States, so when the sanction came into effect Cuba had to find alternative markets. This would be increasingly hard for a country because they would of become so dependent on prices and deals previously made with the US, a simple way to look at it is once a business has created a customer base with repeat customers then they are all taken away and not allowed to use the business. That company has to find new customers fast otherwise they won't survive. This sanction still stands to this day and now if you are from the US you are not even allowed to visit Cuba, not even for a holiday. However these sanctions can be beneficial to other countries who they have not previously traded with, it allows them to make new relationships and make deals.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/15/barack-obama-us-embargo-cuba
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/67554.stm

http://rt.com/politics/us-cuba-economic-embargo/

Sanctions against South Africa

The South African people, led by the African National congress (ANC), fought for decades to free themselves of apartheid. International solidarity movements supported the ANC by organizing massive campaigns for sanctions and public boycotts against South Africa to apply pressure to end the apartheid regime. It took almost 20 years of lobbying before strong measures against South Africa were taken. The developing countries played a crucial role, being the first to impose sanctions against South Africa in the 1960s. The United States and the United Kingdom continued their friendly relations with South Africa for a long time, but ultimately also decided to participate in boycott measures. 

http://electronicintifada.net/content/sanctions-against-apartheid-south-africa-should-inspire-palestinian-people/5366

http://electronicintifada.net/content/sanctions-against-apartheid-south-africa-should-inspire-palestinian-people/5366

Other sanctions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_sanctions

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10742109

Exploitation of third world economies and Labour force


Because members of LEDC countries of which many are found in Afica need money more they will are more likely to agree with what MEDC's say, such as something will develop the country further when really the company is just exploiting the country for their cheap labour and cheap resources. It is in international trading where this becomes an issue, many large companies are going to small countries and taking the resources and using their workers simply because they can. Workers in these less developed countries have less working rights, for example in the UK there is a minimum wage that has to be paid workers. In some countries there is no such thing and the company pays as much or as little as they like.


illegal logging in Amazon Rainforest
As recently as 2010 there have been arrests made from illegal logging in the amazon, the company doing this had fake licences and were massively undercutting competitors because they didn't have fee's to pay. This was due to the whole company not being legit. We are not exactly sure if this was a major company or not however it is still a good example of where a third world economy has been exploited for it's natural resources. To meet the law's in Brazil companies have to have documents showing their wood has come from an approved source, this is another document that was faked. This type of trading has a massive affect on international trading because for example one large company could buy this wood not knowing that it's been illegally fell, then because their prices are so cheap they will put the economy down because other legal wood sources can't match their prices. Also buying illegal wood could get a large company a bad reputation and could possibly put them out of business.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8698451.stm

Worker Exploitation

The same form of exploitation can be applied when workers are poor and weak.   Some businesses would rather setup up businesses in countries where work labour is cheaper and would not provide a suitable working conditions or exposing workers to unsafe environments.

Apple recently with the iPad 2 have had a manufacturing disaster by blatant disregard to health and safety of the workers where there has been explosions and exposure to dangerous chemicals without the proper protection for workers to be safe. As previously mentioned Apple made workers use a harmful chemical that poisoned a large amount of workers, this is exploiting workers, In the UK if even one case of this was reported the factory could get shut down. However in this case nothing legal came from it and the factory carried on as usual, similar issues have happened at apples factories more recent;y where there has been several explosions during the production of I pad's. This again is unethical trading because materials and products clearly haven't had suffice safety research. More on this story can be found from the below link.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/970385.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/04/apple-playwright-chinese-worker-abuse

Apple criticized for China supply chain pollution

Pollution


Pollution is an ongoing problem that is being worsened due to international trading, obviously all trading is going to hard the environment because of the production of products using fossil fuels and natural resources then the transportation using more oil and fuel and so on. However some companies contribute a lot more heavily to pollution than others, for example one large contribute is Shell and other fuel producers. 


Shell
Have been documented for their high amounts of pollution, with shell it is not just polluting into the atmosphere with harmful gasses. It is affecting the land of foreign countries that they are trading with, the main damage is being caused by tar sands, a tar sand is what is known as the wasteland after oil has been taken from a site it looks like a large empty space almost as if a bomb as hit the area. Another type of pollution that has arisen due to international trading is regarding Shell's "rusting network of pipes". This is a large pipe networked owned by shell that passes through much of Africa, locals aren't pleased with this becuase it is now in bad condition and leaks harmful substances into their water supply as well has creating a higher risk of fires.

The FoE said 

“'The decades of pollution caused by Shell's rusting network of pipes continue to blight daily life, ruining farmland, poisoning water tables and creating the constant risk of serious fires,' says the FoE report.”

Shell claim to have played their bit in doing good for the environment also, by investing nearly £50 million into projects with schools, hospitals and water projects however it has been said that a lot of these are uncompleted and haven't had the right input. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2004/mar/21/oilandpetrol.money1

http://www.no-tar-sands.org/campaigns/get-the-shell-out-of-the-tar-sands/

Apple

Apple are another company who in the past have been known for polluting during international trade, although Apple's history is slightly different. They were documented for using products with a toxic discharge to clean the screen of their most popular product the I-Phone, this is ethically and morally wrong. Considering Apple said that "127 workers were poisoned in 2009", these workers were in the Wintek factory in Suzouh. In my opinion I can't understand why the company let it get to that number, surely if the company was being "ethically correct" as soon as one case was reported the use of that cleaning chemical would of been stopped. 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e7cad0f4-d381-11e0-9d6a-00144feab49a.html#axzz1Wc7a0rny

http://activistnews.blogspot.com/2011/08/apple-attacked-over-pollution-in-china.html

Apple criticized for China supply chain pollution

Other useful links

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3096893.stm

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15123

Child Labour


How would you feel about your young family members, children, brothers or sisters being forced out of school to work? Child labour is a big problem that is happening as we speak, although not all work completed by children should not be classified as child labour. Child labour is where children are "deprived from their childhood". Imagine, you could of had been much less fortunate during childhood and instead of playing with friends and getting an education you might of had to work day in day out making products for little money. Many companies use child labour to produce products, they get away with it because some countries have much less employee protection and children don't have to have an education. 


Primark
This is a recent company that has been caught out from using child labour to produce clothes, Primark have been able to sell clothing products at a ludicrously cheap price. there is one main reason to this, this is because child labour was used to make products. A Panorama report showed a young Tamil girl sewing buttons onto clothes for Primark's new secret possessions range, It is thought that the shop resorted to child labour in sweat shops because it was impossible to match the time and price that Indian competitors were able to get clothes in for. Below is a video regarding the story.

This is a big issue with international trading because companies believe they can get away with this, however because it is illegal in our country they get found out. Companies exploit the rules and regulations in other countries to get their products at a cheaper cost, shown in the video, this is an ethical problem. The workers know it is wrong and don't agree with it however they have no choice because they need their money to survive, In my opinion child labour needs to stop and is not acceptable from any companies especially companies with such large profits like Primark.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jun/23/primark.children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgJh79xFzxU&feature=player_embedded 

Nike

This is another large well known company that has been reported for using child labour to produce products such as footballs. Nike often assure customers that they complete regular factory checks to ensure that no products are being made unethically however when the BBC program Panorama investigated this further they found it to be different. When the program visited the factory in Cambodia they spoke to over 5 workers and the general working conditions were 7 days a week with days up to 16 hours long, this is not right for children of the age of 12.

Pictured is a young boy of 12, he is stitching Nike footballs. He is one of the thousands of child workers in Pakistan that produce over 5 million footballs a year, research has been made and he earns 60 cent a ball and one ball takes him most of the day to produce think about this compared to the amount UK workers earn from a full days work.

International trading is cheaper that trading within your own country so this is why Nike have chosen to have factories outside the US, however international trading is cheap enough due to the cost of material etc. so why is it that they feel the need to make it even cheaper by employing children to produce products even cheaper. This is greed from large companies because they know this will increase their profits.

http://childlabor.exblog.jp/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/970385.stm

Links to other stories or information

Apple

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7330986/Apple-admits-using-child-labour.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8324867/Apples-child-labour-issues-worsen.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/taiwan/9043924/Apple-attacking-problems-at-its-factories-in-China.html

Adidas

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/nov/19/jasonburke.theobserver

Football manufacturing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh7bZ15qz80

http://human-rights.unglobalcompact.org/case_studies/child-labour/child_labour/combating_child_labour_in_football_production.html

http://www.hurights.or.jp/archives/focus/section2/2001/09/child-labor-and-indias-football-making-industry.html

The Main problems

International Trading can bring a range of ethical problems, the main four that I'll be discussing in this blog are Child Labour, Pollution, Exploitation of third world economies and labour force and politics and business.

Child labour

Companies exploit the economic power of poorer countries by taking children out of education and making them work. They can get away with this because there is less protection for workers and they can pay less for the same or more work being done.



http://katieprocess.blogspot.com/2011/12/no-more-children-on-street-in-equal.html

Pollution

When human activity or natural disasters cause the environment to become contaminated or dirty. There are different kinds of pollution, including air pollution, water pollution and radioactive pollution.

Exploitation of Third world economies and Labour force
This is generally where MEDC's use LEDC's to produce products, they do this for one reason, this is because it is generally cheaper to produce things and with less production and trading rules they can exploit their resources and labour force for a larger self gain.

Politics and Business
Politics can have a big affect on how international business takes place, sanctions are often put into place to limit which countries trade with who. Sanctions are overseen by the UN or EU and aim to maintain international peace and security.