Prime Minister Abbott visit to Japan, South Korea and China. Is Australia really benefiting from the FTA's?

Hi all,

Since this week we have to focus on the Employment Relations in East Asia (particularly in Japan and South Korea), I wanted to address in this weeks post the International Employment Relations between Australia and both of these countries.

As it was broadcasted on the news, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had a very important first trip overseas to Japan, South Korea and China earlier this year (in April to be exact). In crossing these 3 countries in a week, he visited three of the Australian largest trading partners and export markets with a combined population of 1.5 billion and a combined GDP of $15 trillion, a collective force responsible for almost a fifth of the worlds trade.

He sealed Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with South Korea and finalized another with Japan and move into last phase of negotiations with China after 9 years all of this despite the risky comments that Prime Minister Abbott made saying that ‘Japan was Australia’s best friend in Asia’ which analysts said could create anger among the Chinese government.

This blog aimed to emphasize of the efforts of the Australian government in building strategic economic alliances with these three countries but at the same to be critical with the fact that Australian businesses are not benefiting as much as ‘they could’ from these Free Trade Agreements. 

As bellows graph sourced from HSBC shows, we can see that due to legal complexities, perception of unfairness and a lack of understanding are contributing to far too few Australian companies acting to unlock the financial and export benefits offered by bilateral free trade agreements. 

Source: 

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/freetrade-agreement-benefits-going-to-waste/story-e6frg8zx-1227029887641?nk=ed1073ff4457dee2e1c33128ef0cb26e

This leaves us with the question... How can the government help the Australian Companies to exploit the FTA in a better way?

Best regards,

Alex

Is the storm approaching Germany?

Many researchers have stated that without doubt Germany’s is the strongest economy in the EU and probably what keeps it afloat. In the group of 28, Germany’s economy constitutes 25 percent of the union outputs. The employment rate is at a record highest with only a 5.4% of unemployment (the second lowest in the EU).

In 2012 the overall budget balance edged into surplus and last year government debt fell below 80% of GDP for the first time since 2009.

These economic and fiscal successes continue to make Germany a bastion of strength in the fragile euro zone. Nevertheless, Germany has generally taken pride in their imposing current-account surplus, this can also be interpreted as a sign of weakness. Total investment has fallen from 21.5% of GDP in 2000 to 17.2% in 2013.

The government is investing to little in new infrastructure such as roads, buildings, broadband, etc, as well as in energy power. Germany has currently dropped the use of Nuclear plants and favored Solar and Wind energy which comes at a price 3 times higher as the price of energy in the USA. 

The shortfall in capital is human as well as physical. In Berlin, as elsewhere in Germany, employers report skills shortages in many industries. Spending on education is lower than it is in other rich countries, with only part of that gap warranted by the dwindling number of children. An OECD survey of working-age adults in rich countries found that Germans were a little more numerate than the average but a bit less literate—a surprisingly poor result. The share of young people getting a tertiary qualification (such as a university degree) is less than a third, below the average for advanced countries.

Higher productivity growth will require a better performance on the part of the services sector, which makes up 69% of the economy. It lacks the dynamism of Germany’s manufacturers despite an encouraging surge in internet startups in Berlin. Reforms to enhance competition, especially among professional services, worth 10% of GDP, would help to gin up productivity more generally. The OECD advocates an array of reforms such as loosening the grip of notaries over commercial registration and the removal of regulated prices for the services of architects and building engineers—a restrictive arrangement unique to Germany within the EU.

But with things going so well, there is little appetite for a new wave of reforms. According to a recent poll by Eurobarometer, 84% of Germans are satisfied with the state of their economy, the highest share in the euro zone.

The resilience of the German economy should not be underestimated. But for the euro zone’s good and its own, Germany cannot afford to become complacent.

Adapted from:

The Economist ‘Clouds ahead the German Economy’ on June 07^th 2014

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21603439-recent-vigour-hides-underlying-weaknesses-europes-leading-economy-clouds-ahead?zid=295&ah=0bca374e65f2354d553956ea65f756e0

Challenges of International Trade Union Movements

This week's article is about the challenges of the international trade union movements. As seen in all the research we (the students) have done throughout our emplyoment relation studies, it's been clear that since the 1980's through privatisations, deregulation of the financial sector and of employment relations and the expansion of neoberalism's new era. These changes were followed by a massive expansion of financial markets along with their normal speculative excesses that then led to severe economic crises as the GFC currently happening which generates a catastrophic social and very ugly political consequences. Spain for example, currently carries an unemployment rate of 24,5% and 6,7% in the USA, these rates increase dramatically when analysed the 18-25 year old workers which raises to 53,4% in Spain and 13,5% in the USA. These numbers are important to note as the global context has certainly changed from the 1980's where 18-25 year old workers had a much easier access to jobs.

On a global context it can be said that the right-wing populist parties have gained much greater influence than the left-wing odd parties. The economy has been switching from a national states economy to a global financial economy, the labour has been shifting to capital, the industrialised countries of the northern hemisphere are being overtaken by emerging economies of the southern hemisphere which in many cases have very weak trade unions systems and are not being strengthening by the former super-powers in which unions were a major force. 

Finally, over the past 30 years an unprecedented technological advance has been witnessed in the communication and transport sector, which many researchers find as a pre-requisite and the primary engine of the ongoing process of a capitalist globalisation. Some scholars say that the ultimate colonisation is underway with the domination of companies rather than governments. As a result capital is in a position to internationalise itself as never before while avoiding the pressure of trade unions and of progressive political forces at the level of the individual nation states. 

In such a context, times are tough for the international trade union movement; much harder than they were 25 years ago. The challenges are gigantic given the inability of nation states to control international capital, the sentiment of helplessness, the frustration spreading among people resulting in the rise of xenophobic and right-wing populist forces. 

At least at a continental level, nations should unite themselves and fight for a vision of equality, social justice and sustainable development.

Post based on article 'The Right Challenges Of International Trade Union Movement' by Vasco Pedrina written on: 04/12/2013 and published on: The Social Europe Journal. http://www.social-europe.eu/2013/12/international-trade-union-movement-challenges/

Apologies for the delay and welcome to my blog!

Hi all, I'm Alexander Zimmermann (21273274) I've been away for a few weeks due to a sailing competition in the USA as well as training with the National Squad in Peru (bellow a picture of last training session). I want to apologise for my delay and mention that I had a lot of trouble creating this blog as google has been denying access with my student account (hence I had to create a new email address,

PLEASE FOR ALL OF YOU WHO DONT HAVE A PUBLIC PROFILE ON YOUR BLOGS, ALLOW MY NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: 21273274uwa@gmail.com. Sorry for all this hassle!!

I will be posting some articles and commenting on yours over the next weeks in this semester. So I guess its happy blogging haha!