Solving Globalization Problems

To replace competition with cooperation The opposite of competitiveness is not 'un-competitiveness,' but cooperation. It is possible to increase trade in an atmosphere of cooperation, implying that benefits are shared. This, however, will require a lot of work since, at the moment, one of the principal aims of globalization is to remove regulations on trade, controls that would be required to implement "cooperative globalization." Establishing goals and organizing the means to fulfill them are essential parts of such adjustments. In Sweden, for example, the government has brought together producers and processors to develop a common strategy for their agri-food exports. They have decided that as a small nation amongst many (about the same area of agricultural land and population as Québec) they will never be able to compete on the same basis as say Germany, France or the United States. They decided, instead, to establish a market niche so that their products would be different from the rest, and the way they would do this would be to adopt the strictest environmental standards for producing food and then market their products with the "green" label. For this to be successful, they needed the cooperation of all levels in the agri-food chain to ensure that the quality they claimed on the package could be delivered regardless of the product or where or by whom it had been produced in Sweden. The incentive for cooperation was that each segment of the agri-food chain needed the other, and each would receive some benefit from participating: farmers knowing that they would have somewhere to sell their produce at a decent price, processors that they had a product that they could sell due to its quality and unique place in the market. The message is that world trade can be truly global when all benefit.