Globalization

When Globalization Strikes Home

STEVE ROGEL, CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, AT THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS, PUGET SOUND SECTION, FEDERAL WAY, WASHINGTON - 2/11/2003

Tonight, I plan to talk to you about globalization and what it means to Washington state, Weyerhaeuser Company, and to those of us in the field of chemical engineering in the Pacific Northwest.

Why should you care? Because globalization just might be the number one determinant in all of our fates. Now, more than ever before, what happens elsewhere in the world affects you and me. Some have suggested that this current period in world history can rightfully be called the era of globalization.

What do we mean by “globalization”? According to the dictionary, to “globalize” is to “make worldwide in scope or application.”

Stanley Fischer, former first managing director of the International Monetary Fund, describes it this way: “Globalization means that the residents of one country are more likely now than they were fifty years ago to consume the products of another country … to invest in another country … to earn income from other countries … to talk on the telephone to people in other countries … to visit other countries … to know that they’re being affected by economic developments in other countries … and to know about developments in other countries.”

Such knowledge—especially when people in developing countries see the relative wealth of people in developed countries—leads to raised expectations. Remember the post-World-War-I song that had the refrain, “How can you keep them down on the farm once they’ve seen ‘Paree.’” Well, today almost everyone in the world has seen “Paree.” And not too many in developing countries want to be relegated to the farm.

How can we bring greater prosperity to these nations? For several decades, the general consensus has been that free trade, combined with a global economy, will provide the answer.

This idea was first surfaced as far...