Category Archives: Global Contexts

Inconsistent responses across governments to the Dreamliner beacon fire

Posted on July 20, 2013 by aviyer2010

An article in the New York Times (July 20, 2013) describes inconsistencies between the British aerospace authority’s proposal to request that beacon batteries be disabled vs the US FAA’s plan to inspect these batteries vs the Japanese authorities plans to … Continue reading →

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Will the US govt proposal to the Bangladesh govt improve garment factory conditions

Posted on July 20, 2013 by aviyer2010

An article in the New York Times (July 20, 2013) describes a proposal by the US govt to Bangladesh for the country to regain its suspended trade privileges with the US. The plan includes creation of a public database of … Continue reading →

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Paying Auditors to audit pollution compliance inspections

Posted on July 18, 2013 by aviyer2010

An article in the Wall Street Journal (July 18, 2013) describes an experiment in Gujarat, India, to increase the correctness of the pollution readings by auditors. In the past, most pollution audits claimed compliance. But two experiments were conducted – … Continue reading →

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The US alliance vs the European accord’s plans for Bangladesh garment factories

Posted on July 18, 2013 by aviyer2010

An article in the New York Times (July 14,2013) describes plans by an alliance of the US retailers to offer shared inspection reports of over 500 factories in Bangladesh, loans from a pool of $100 million to factory owners to … Continue reading →

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The Thai mountain of rice inventory and global supply chain worries

Posted on July 18, 2013 by aviyer2010

An article in the Financial Times (July 18, 2013) describes the impact of the 50% price premium offered by the Thai government to rice farmers that last few years, leading to a drop in Thai rice exports and a surge … Continue reading →

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Competition and monitoring challenges of apparel manufacturing in Cambodia

Posted on July 6, 2013 by aviyer2010

An article in the Wall Street Journal (July 6, 2013) describes the evolution of the role of “Better Factories Cambodia” and its monitoring of working conditions in Cambodia’s apparel factories. Though initially focused on public release of its reports, the … Continue reading →

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The impact of WTO’s ruling to eliminate COOL in US food products

Posted on July 5, 2013 by aviyer2010

An article in the url (http://info.usa-c.com/2013/05/06/wto-may-23rd-and-cool/) reports on a World Trade Organization ruling requiring US food products to stop the Country of origin labeling (COOL) on food products after May 23, 2013. The WTO ruled that COOL labels are barriers … Continue reading →

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The global supply chain that clothes US consumers

Posted on July 4, 2013 by aviyer2010

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (July 1,2013) displays data from the Office of Textiles and Apparel at the US Department of Commerce to show exporting countries that clothe US consumers. The participants range from China (exporting $553 million pairs of cotton … Continue reading →

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Will any of the two proposed rail options or the new proposed canal option compete with the Panama Canal ?

Posted on July 4, 2013 by aviyer2010

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (July 1,2013) described a proposed Chinese-led plan to build a $40 billion canal in Nicaragua, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But two other rail options have been proposed too. A $10 billion Taiwanese proposal to … Continue reading →

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How widespread is counterfeit food ?

Posted on June 30, 2013 by aviyer2010

An article in the New York Times (June 26,2013) describes counterfeit foods such as vegetable oil in chocolate bars, peanuts in almond powder, water in olive oil, liquor marketed as tequila, engine oil in olive oil, nonbranded vodka sold as … Continue reading →

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