The World Is Flat Book Review

Ricardo C. Juliano February 21, 2008
NSA 205 - RC 43

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Books

Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat - The Globalized World in the Twenty-First Century. London, England. Penguin Books, 2006.

Thomas L. Friedman is a New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century, what it means to countries, companies, communities and, more importantly, the individual, and how government and societies can, and must, adapt. He presents the ten forces that flattened the world. The flattening of the world is the outcome of this twenty-first century globalization where the focus is the individual, how the individual is being empowered like never before, this newfound power of the individual to collaborate and compete globally and this phenomenon that is enabling, empowering and enjoining individuals and small groups to go global so easily and so seamlessly is what is flattening the world. The 10 flattening forces are empowering more and more individuals in this century to reach farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before and that is equalizing power and equalizing opportunity by giving an increasing number of people the tools and ability to connect, compete and collaborate. This flattening of the playing field is simply liberating to the individual citizen of the twenty-first century globalization.

B. Articles / Journals

Garments and Textile Export Board. The Philippine Garments and Textile Industry. Departent of Trade & Industry, Makati City December 31, 2002

This article talks of the Garment Industry outlook in the Philippines in the view of its full integration into the free trade liberalization on January 1, 2005 under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. It aniticipates the challenges in this new economic order that the Philippine Garment Manufacturers is facing given its history and background of operating and flourishing in an environment of quotas as clearly defined under the country’s Multi Fiber Agreement (MFA) made in 1974 with our export (buyer) countries, primarily the United States and Canada. It also talks a lot on how important it is to the country’s economy and the social effects of this industry on our society. Because this industry is the largest employer of women, who can even be uneducated but are trainiable, can be employed with all the benefits and protection the law can provide. There is no other industry that can do this. Of course it has a lot of statistics to support this importance to our economy and our social balance.

Yamagata, Tatsufumi. DISCUSSION PAPER No. 101 - Prospects for Development of the Garment Industry in Developing Countries: What Has Happened Since the MFA Phase-Out? INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPING ECONOMIES (IDE), JETRO. Wakaba, Mihama-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba, Japan. April 2007

On January 1, 2005, the controlled trade regime on textiles and clothing which was based on the Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA) made in 1974 was abolished. This institutional change made great impacts on the world garment industry. This paper reviews the impacts of the changes on the main markets and examines the prospects for the markets and the source countries

What are the impacts of the MFA phase-out completed in the beginning of 2005 on the world clothing trade? Were there structural changes among source countries due to the liberalization? Did small exporters all collapse as was feared and as widely believed right before the MFA phase-out? Which countries survived the liberalization, and what features did they have for survival? This paper indicates that some developing countries, such as Bangladesh and Cambodia, not only survived the liberalization but also have steadily expanded their garment exports throughout the transition; and an indicative fact is that the profitability of the garment industry in Bangladesh and Cambodia was high on average.

Patalinghug, Epictetus E. Globalization and State Capacity: The Philippines.
Philippine Institute for Development Studies. Makati City. December 2003.

paper takes a look at the capability of the Philippine state to cope with the demands of globalization. It documents the rules, laws, regulations, institutions and agencies that underlie the administrative capacity of the Philippines to promote trade and investments, and thereby achieve economic growth. A review and analysis of Philippine practices and experience is undertaken to determine the state’s readiness for globalization. The study will cover three aspects of state capacity that contribute to the promotion of trade and investments: (1) administrative capacity, (2) systems of transparency and accountability, and (3) legal and judicial frameworks.

Austria, Myrna S. The Effects of the MFA Phase Out on the Philippine Garments and Textiles Industries. Philippine Institute for Development Studies. Makati City. June 1996

This paper dissect in detail our garment export performance, our market share in the buyer countries, under the quota-world in order to determine where we are most competitive in the different market niches in the world garment industry in preparation for the abolition of the quota system to give way to a free trade libaralized world garment industry.

Relevance to my research

The title of my research is “Globalization and its effects on the Philippine Garment Indsutry”. The above literatures are relevant to my research since they talk about globalization in general and its key elements, how this globalization affects the garment indsutry which rules will drastically change from a highly restricted market to a highly free and competitive market. They would also give us information on the details of this changing world environment and some ideas on how this can actually work for our country’s advantage, if we, meaning government and indsutry, do certain things right.