Eastern Europe India and China on Trade

International Trade and Emerging Economies
The rise of globalization and international trade has enabled emerging economies to become more integrated into the global trade mechanism. Countries such as India, China, and nations in Eastern Europe have benefited from the expansion of trade, importing and exporting goods to other countries that were never before accessible to the extent that they are today. The result has been a boost to the economies of these emerging nations. Indeed, all eyes are on India, which is “among the largest of the emerging markets” (Trichet, 2007, para. 3), and China (which is seeking to become a more dominant player in international affairs through investment, construction, integration and partnership). This paper will discuss the impact on international trade of emerging economies like those in Eastern Europe, India and China.
Eastern Europe sits between Russia and the West: it has struggled for many years to define itself on its own terms, having been caught in the middle of two opposed states during the Cold War Era. Today, it is breaking out of that mold and asserting itself on the world stage in international trade.  With this assertion has come instability, however. Ukraine is mired in a civil war that has been brought about as a result of old Cold War tensions between the East and West. Crimea has been annexed by Russia. NATO’s presence in Eastern Europe is growing just as fast as sanctions out of Washington are leveled at Russia. In terms of international trade, this tension along with forms of economic warfare (which is what sanctions are) is designed to cut off the East from the West—and that places severe limitations on international trade. Russia wants to sell gas to Europe, but if Germany enters into trade with Russia, it will violate the latest round of sanctions leveled by the U.S.—which will in turn invite new sanctions and more economic disorder and instability. Eastern Europe is, among emerging markets, still in a rather vulnerable position primarily because it remains caught between two opposing world-views: on the right hand side is the multi-polar world vision expressed by Russia and China; on the left is the unipolar world vision expressed by the U.S. (Amin, 2017). The economic war is about controlling trade and Eastern Europe is experiencing the repercussions of this struggle, as Ukraine descends into warfare, the Caucuses continue to fester with terrorists, and the question of who will supply the energy of tomorrow becomes increasingly uncertain.
India’s emerging economy is far more remarkable because it, like China’s, is among the biggest in the world. All developed markets seek penetration into India’s economy and India is seeking to be a more dominant player in international trade. As Lamy (2012) has noted, India is among the top of the tier emerging states—nations that “now increasingly influence the pattern and scope of international trade, creating new supply and demand pulls and flexing their influence in international organizations” (para. 14). India is strengthening ties with Africa while also working with Western nations and Eastern nations in the establishment of freer and fairer trade. There is also, however, a fragmentation of labor that reaches all across the globe. Global value chains are increasingly integrating India into the “trade conveyor belts of the twenty-first century” (Lamy, 2012, para. 25). Still, as Amin (2017) shows, India is very much susceptible to internal politics, as parties and groups clash over how best to govern the state going forward. India’s recent efforts to remove cash from the market have led to widespread havoc in the financial sector and its recent spats with China over border issues continue to raise flags about how well integrated the nation can be in international trade in the coming years. As with every state that engages in trade, war and economics are two big factors that can undermine relationships.
China’s emerging economy has been fueled by years of easy credit and the country’s ability to provide cheap labor and goods to countries in the West. Today, China’s trade partners include Russia, nations in Africa, South America, the Middle East, Europe and North America. It has become such a powerful player in international trade that it has begun working on a trade system that displaces the USD as the main currency of trade and it is also working on a banking system with Russia that will ensure that multipolar world is possible going forward. It has begun plans for a New Silk Road and its partnership with Russia demonstrates the extent to which these nations “are the two major strategic opponents of the Washington project,” which is essentially a project to control trade across the globe (Amin, 2017, p. 20). The emergence of China and the its market’s impact on international trade has led Washington to openly discuss trade war as an option along with other ways of keeping the East from growing too fast.
In conclusion, when emerging markets begin to open up and take a bigger role international trade, developed markets in the West look for ways to penetrate those EM’s and establish themselves there: Wal-Mart, Mattel, and countless others have all tried it. When the emerging markets become serious role players, however, and go from being policy takers to being policy makers—as Lamy (2012) has put it—the game begins to shift between the West, which pursues a zero-sum game line of action—and the East, which promotes a multipolar world view of balanced power. The constructs of power are, inevitably, shifted through the rise of emerging markets. Eastern Europe is far less crucial to the stakes of the game than India and China, which are rapidly redefining the parameters of trade.





















References
Amin, S. (2017). The Sovereign Popular Project; The Alternative to Liberal
Globalization. Journal of Labor and Society, 20(1), 7-22.
Lamy, P. (2012). Emerging economies have shifted the balance of power in world trade.
WTO. Retrieved from https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl258_e.htm
Trichet, J. (2007). The growing importance of emerging economies in the globalised
world and its implications for the international financial architecture. ECB. Retrieved from https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2007/html/sp071126_1.en.html