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Asian economic unity likely a model for Europe
By Wolfgang Pape |
November 8, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE gadget might have traveled through a long supply-chain throughout East Asia, but European consumers see only one "Made in ..." from a single country on their phone.
With the pride of the beholder they show off to their friends its design, which is often the only contribution left from the brand in the West, and silence about the rest.
It all started with "Made in Germany" to protect against the continent's cheaper machines from the island - if not isolated - market of the UK, whose inventors had to massively invest in the basic research throughout the Industrial Revolution to succeed during the first wave of globalization that was led by the Brits.
About a century later surfing onto globalization's second wave, we saw the Japanese doing a similar feat worldwide with their German-shaped cars, initially decried as bad copies, but eventually bringing together the best of German "Luxus" brands by changing only one letter when the consumers had accepted "Made in Japan" as a certificate of quality.
But these days, it is rather the trade negotiators between East and West who are frustrated by the true origin of products. The intra-regional trade of mainly semi-finished goods within in East Asia has reached some 60 percent, close to the level of exchanges amongst the Member States within the EU, in percentage of their total trade world-wide.
Single market
It took the EEC, EC and EU half a century of tearing down barriers at European borders and to harmonize and mutually recognize standards in order to facilitate intra-regional trade in Europe, its "Single Market" still being difficult work in progress.
At the turn of the century, the common currency, the euro, in the pockets of the peoples of the EU has further facilitated exchanges across former borders. The euro also soon came to ride high on the crest of the waves of peaceful globalization surpassing the amount of US-dollars in world-wide circulation and in buying value of each of their cents.
Few people expect an Asian version of the Schuman Declaration of 1957 to bring peoples together.
However, the younger leaders have topped the daily rice of de-facto integration through trade with some sweet words.
The cultural along with historical differences often are pointed out as hampering any further integration in Asia.
Economists would just reply "Vive la difference!" as David Ricardo has explained the benefits of trade of English textiles with Portuguese wine.
East Asia confirms to the full his theory of comparative advantages. All five major world religions originate in Asia. Such variety is particularly evident in the East where countries are separated by the Pacific Ocean.
But, anyway, sea routes historically have been cheaper and safer for transport bypassing unstable land areas. Even today when air traffic is much faster, some 80 percent of commerce goes by boat, especially amongst East Asian countries.
No wonder, better balancing world trade, now Asian consumers are prime-pumping an intra-regional trade boom there and thus have pulled those Asian economies faster out of the global crisis.
Robust Asian demand recently started to bolster hopes for a recovery. China, South Korea and Japan account already for about one-sixth of the world economy.
While East Asia grows together economically and becomes less dependent on Western markets, its unseen de-facto union remains invisible in Europe, where euro-centrism has turned into euro-crisis as if the central line were still running through Greenwich and the dateline over the Pacific the end of the world.
Dr Wolfgang Pape is a retired policy officer for Asian issues of the European Commission in Brussels. Belgium. Shanghai Daily condensed the article.
With the pride of the beholder they show off to their friends its design, which is often the only contribution left from the brand in the West, and silence about the rest.
It all started with "Made in Germany" to protect against the continent's cheaper machines from the island - if not isolated - market of the UK, whose inventors had to massively invest in the basic research throughout the Industrial Revolution to succeed during the first wave of globalization that was led by the Brits.
About a century later surfing onto globalization's second wave, we saw the Japanese doing a similar feat worldwide with their German-shaped cars, initially decried as bad copies, but eventually bringing together the best of German "Luxus" brands by changing only one letter when the consumers had accepted "Made in Japan" as a certificate of quality.
But these days, it is rather the trade negotiators between East and West who are frustrated by the true origin of products. The intra-regional trade of mainly semi-finished goods within in East Asia has reached some 60 percent, close to the level of exchanges amongst the Member States within the EU, in percentage of their total trade world-wide.
Single market
It took the EEC, EC and EU half a century of tearing down barriers at European borders and to harmonize and mutually recognize standards in order to facilitate intra-regional trade in Europe, its "Single Market" still being difficult work in progress.
At the turn of the century, the common currency, the euro, in the pockets of the peoples of the EU has further facilitated exchanges across former borders. The euro also soon came to ride high on the crest of the waves of peaceful globalization surpassing the amount of US-dollars in world-wide circulation and in buying value of each of their cents.
Few people expect an Asian version of the Schuman Declaration of 1957 to bring peoples together.
However, the younger leaders have topped the daily rice of de-facto integration through trade with some sweet words.
The cultural along with historical differences often are pointed out as hampering any further integration in Asia.
Economists would just reply "Vive la difference!" as David Ricardo has explained the benefits of trade of English textiles with Portuguese wine.
East Asia confirms to the full his theory of comparative advantages. All five major world religions originate in Asia. Such variety is particularly evident in the East where countries are separated by the Pacific Ocean.
But, anyway, sea routes historically have been cheaper and safer for transport bypassing unstable land areas. Even today when air traffic is much faster, some 80 percent of commerce goes by boat, especially amongst East Asian countries.
No wonder, better balancing world trade, now Asian consumers are prime-pumping an intra-regional trade boom there and thus have pulled those Asian economies faster out of the global crisis.
Robust Asian demand recently started to bolster hopes for a recovery. China, South Korea and Japan account already for about one-sixth of the world economy.
While East Asia grows together economically and becomes less dependent on Western markets, its unseen de-facto union remains invisible in Europe, where euro-centrism has turned into euro-crisis as if the central line were still running through Greenwich and the dateline over the Pacific the end of the world.
Dr Wolfgang Pape is a retired policy officer for Asian issues of the European Commission in Brussels. Belgium. Shanghai Daily condensed the article.
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