2003 International Trading Supplement - A Smaller World

W alt Disney and the corporation he left behind
may be most closely associated with the con-
cept of a small world, but people in the metals, paper and recycling industries also hear the message.

Manufacturers and shoppers alike throughout the world have become more dependent on cross-border trading. This is as apparent in the U.S. as it is anywhere else.

Many readers of this column may remember a time when much of what they purchased carried the "Made in the U.S.A." imprint.

That imprint can still be found on goods purchased both in the U.S. and in other nations, but it has been joined by imprints from just about every nation on Earth, as manufacturing plants have sprouted up in all parts of Asia and Latin America in particular.

Even before the manufacturing stage occurs, increased commodities trading has widened the shipment of raw materials and semi-manufactured items to and from North America.

While the English poet John Donne may have observed that "No Man is an Island" more than 300 years ago, increasingly, "no nation is an island," even if a country’s geographical land mass formation says otherwise.

In nations throughout the world, there are still calls for protectionist measures in some situations. But few informed citizens want to see their nation cut off entirely from global supplies of commodities or manufactured goods.

The lure of a more comfortable middle class lifestyle has been strong enough to move leaders of the People’s Republic of China to work far more openly with multi-national corporations than could ever have been conceived of by geopolitical observers just two or three decades ago.

This same push by leaders of other nations (as well as the pull of affordable labor reaching into corporate board rooms) has produced an unprecedented flow of resources and currency into parts of the world formerly considered exporters of raw materials and importers of finished goods—with little traffic the other way.

Recyclers have learned to accept the global market in a new light. It is better to keep one’s global options open than try to live on an island that may no longer be so isolated.