[0:08]Globalization, once seen as the key to peace by spreading prosperity worldwide. But the idea of free and fair trade is losing ground as competition between the world's economic powers grows. China's trade ambitions were made clear with its giant new Silk Road infrastructure project. And the US continues to believe in America first, but it's the world's poor who are paying the price for this global competition. The German city of Duisburg has re-awoken from the ashes of its past thanks to China.
[0:54]As a developing country, Peru sees few benefits from globalization and is engulfed in poverty. But somehow or other, we've got to understand that globalization works, but it has not reached more than 30% of the world population. Very simple.
[1:21]Do we really make the most of trade opportunities in a globalized world? Some are questioning the World Trade Organization as the guardian of fair trade, and with it, globalization itself. I don't even think you can block globalization, but we need to look carefully at who are the winners and losers.
[2:00]Duisburg, in Germany's Ruhr River Valley, once a bastion of the German and European steel industry.
[2:23]Duisburg was a center for steel and coal. In the late 70s, the Chinese dismantled an entire coke and steel plant here, even the screws, and shipped it to China. And that was the end of 10,000 jobs, or even more. There was high unemployment and an urgent need to change the industrial structures.
[2:49]The city's Duisport is now Germany's largest inland port. The logistics hub is run by the city and relies on the just-in-time principle. Goods arrive just as clients need them, reducing the need for costly logistics and storage.
[3:16]China is the port's most important trading partner.
[3:22]Ironically, after flooding Europe and the US with cheap steel, the economic giant has now emerged as Duisburg's savior.
[3:32]In 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed Duisport as the final stop on the new Silk Road. And as China's gateway to Europe, Duisburg was happy to enter the alliance with its promise of dozens of freight trains every week, but negotiated carefully.
[4:24]From our point of view, it is very worrying or from my point of view, it's very worrying what's happening in other parts of the world along the new Silk Road. Piraeus and Sri Lanka are not the only troubled ports with financing. But it's fundamentally different here in Duisburg. All of the port infrastructure belongs to the port.
[4:50]Transport by ship would be cheaper. Nevertheless, some 60 freight trains arrive from China every week. For the return journey, the wagons load up goods from all over Europe.
[5:08]About 70 employees are spread across the UK, China and Germany.
[5:17]We pick up e-commerce parcels with our own vehicles. These have just come in from France today. We'll load them in the containers and then they'll go to China by rail. They'll reach China in two weeks, in two to three weeks. It's very fast at the moment. The Chinese know Duisburg. When you arrive here from Beijing, you don't even see Berlin. You see Duisburg as the center of Europe.
[5:56]Empty tracks have become an increasingly common sight since Russia marched into Ukraine.
[6:06]Supply chains are vulnerable, a risk, but Duisburg is preparing for the future.
[6:15]You can't lean back and say, we have 60 trains a week from China. Who knows whether this will continue, and we have to consider alternatives. Duisburg has also invested in Trieste, for example, to build a site there that could be supplied via Turkey and Southern Europe. Duisburg is already developing alternatives without abandoning the concept behind this port.
[6:43]Duisburg's strategy in the global logistics and transport battle seems effective. Forge alliances, but stay independent and flexible. I think with the Corona pandemic of the last two years has shown us is that global trade is more intricate than we suspected.
[7:07]So I think we'll now have to adjust to having several suppliers in several countries, to try to limit the geopolitical risk. One consequence will probably be more expensive products. Because what China is offering is very attractive. It's a very technologically advanced country. Chinese competition will increase in markets where it's not yet been felt so clearly.
[7:44]Unlike Duisburg, the American steel industry is having a hard time developing new markets, even though it's been fighting cheap competition from overseas for 40 years.
[7:58]Follansbee, West Virginia. Coke for steel production is produced here, but now this plant in the famed American Rust Belt is closing. Um, you know, I'd love to sit here and say that steel's going to be here forever. But 20 years ago, 40 years ago, if, you know, you were in Pittsburgh, you didn't think steel was going away forever. But there's almost nothing left there. Steel made the USA rich and powerful. The railroad, machine and automobile industries were the biggest customers.
[8:36]288 people will now lose their jobs when the coke plant closes.
[8:44]And nearby, Weirton has seen the closure of several steel mills since the 1990s. I saw this happen at Weirton. Weirton used to be basically totally just on their own down there. They didn't have to depend on anything. They made their own center, and then they shut the coke plant down. They said, we can buy coke cheaper on the market. And that was true. They could, but once they could no longer make those products and then these companies that were selling it had control of it, they started raising their prices. As early as 2002, global trade meant cheap steel for markets everywhere. To protect the US, President George W. Bush decided to impose import tariffs on foreign steel. The World Trade Organization, the WTO, the arbiter of free and fair trade, was caught in the crosshairs. US unions backed the move.
[9:52]Our position on the WTO is that we should not be part of it. There's no way the United States should be dictated to on their trade laws. American steelworkers feel cheated. Other countries have become more competitive than the US, but at what cost? We are the most efficient in the world, that is proven.
[10:17]All we want is a level playing field. You can't compare the US to Brazil, China, or Indonesia, where they have no environmental standards, they have no health and safety. I've decided that imports were affecting our industry, an important industry, a negative impact, therefore, to provide temporary relief so the industry could restructure itself.
[10:59]President Trump also imposed punitive tariffs. Now, Joe Biden's promise to allow European steel access to the US market is arousing distrust of globalization as well. It's a very globalist administration. We were independent energy-wise and we gave it up in a couple of years. And all in the name of free markets and globalization, but that doesn't sound free to me. And don't get me wrong, that probably worked out for a lot of people and a lot of jobs in other parts of the world, but it cost some here in this part of the world.
[11:43]Globalization has lifted a billion people or more out of poverty. Now, that does not mean that it's perfect. It's not. There are obviously poor people within rich countries who have been left behind. And in those cases, their governments did not have the active labor market policies to help solve the situation where they lost jobs.
[12:13]You know, there was a point in the 80s when National Steel was, uh, was going to close Weirton Steel down. We were division of National, and, uh, I was laid off for 18 months. You know, and not just me. I mean, the whole town was laid off for quite some time. You know, our town is a survivor. You know, we'll get through it.
[12:40]In Weirton, fewer than 1,000 jobs remained, of 14,000. There is room for new industries, but the America First approach casts a long shadow. Instead of acting globally, people here act nationally. Steel companies are reluctant to take advantage of the opportunities offered by multilateral trade. They turn instead to government subsidies.
[13:13]In 2018, in a trade dispute with China, President Trump initiated new tariffs on imported steel, winning plenty of support in Weirton. It ended up helping us immensely, both times, first when President Bush did it, and then again when President Trump did it. It helped our workers. To weather the cheap steel that was coming in.
[13:44]The Guerrera Thompson family has lived off steel for generations.
[13:51]But Karen recently became a widow after her husband Carl, a steelworker and staunch Trump supporter, died from COVID-19.
[14:04]If anything he was proud of, besides his children, it was to be a steelworker, like his grandparents and his parents. But when he worked in the mills, it was always pretty good. For us, it was times of struggle, times of, of get, you know, good times and then struggling times when, when the mill wasn't doing so good. less than 1,000 work there now, and it's from downsizing, you know, getting rid of jobs, farming out the work, you know, they gave it away, and wasn't going to pay top dollar when they could get it somewhere else a lot cheaper, you know. I think we need to be able to take care of ourselves, not just our country. Every country should be self-sufficient, because I don't see China selling us armored plate to build tanks for another World War, if God forbid that happens. I just, I just watched it for years. I'm like, we're never going to be able to protect ourselves, because we don't have the manufacturing to do it.
[15:14]The way China conducts business with the rest of the world, it's the same thing. Everybody's out for their national interest. So, once the globalization gets so big, then it's going, it's inevitably going to contract once people start feeling a little bit nervous about their neighbors, growing too strong, growing too wealthy. Then we're going to start worrying about our own national interest.
[15:40]Our government betrayed America, betrayed American steelworker, and no do so again today. We just had a bridge collapse in Pittsburgh. We can't even get the steel to build rebuild the bridge from America. You have to go overseas and, uh, China's one of the major culprits. They have built so many steel mills. They don't have the same set of rules that we have. They don't care about their environment, which environmentally, all countries are to be required, all mills are to be required to have a clean process. But China, it's a filthy country, okay? And it's a dirty country. They don't care about their environment. They don't care about the people.
[16:28]So many countries are coming up. Maybe some of them faster, some of them not so fast, so let's not exaggerate. But, you know, China for sure. And some of these developments were not really thought through, so that the instruments we have, the rules we have, a little bit outdated. They do not catch some of these developments, so that's absolutely right.
[17:06]I was a strong advocate to get out of the World Trade Organization.
[17:14]Ultimately, you're not going to be able to do by yourself. Okay? Because there has to be exports. There has to be a system of trade, okay, on a global basis. But you can't protect certain industry within a global economy. Still should be one of them.
[17:39]But why subsidize a mass-market product like steel when it has no chance on the global market? It's time for a new approach. Enter into especially in niche markets is a direction they kind of had that with tin plate, that double reduced tin plate. They made years ago, it was the best in the world, and that's what kept Weirton Steel afloat and even in hard times. Weirton Steel could stay ahead of the other steel mills in this country because of their, their, uh, quality tin plate that they put out. It is a global market out there, and to compete in the long run, it's just not selling your, your, uh, product within the, the 50 states. We're going to have to be able to, to go into that worldwide market and, uh, whether you like them or not, you know, the, the crossroads end up at the WTO. So, that's, we, we, we got to be able to play the game as well as everybody else.
[18:51]Washington, D.C. Home to those responsible for subsidies and protectionist tariffs.
[19:00]The people governing protect not just the steel industry, but the agricultural economy as well. And then the hammer really came down when President Trump rewarded agriculture by giving, you know, tens of billions of dollars to American farmers, essentially to offset their trade losses.
[19:30]We just get checks in the mail, so to speak.
[21:01]I have people who just can't stand me, and actually, they're my favorites. And the other half are people who just got up early in the morning, it's generally on the stations early in the morning, and they're looking for something to watch and they've gotten hooked on what's happening in agriculture.
[22:19]Why we qualified for it, I'm not exactly sure, but money just poured out of the sky. And unlike European subsidies, uh, we are drifting away from having to perform any actions, any environmental responsible, environmentally responsible actions, or, uh, any quid pro quo.
[22:43]Through the Trump years, I was a net drain on the economy because I got more back from the federal government in subsidies and payments than I paid in taxes. And markedly so. The Trump year money's were just, it was insane.
[40:18]What I like about microcredit is that it is one way of getting to the solution. I mean, first of all, it is that people do want credit, and the fact that you adjust to help poor people is good. Microcredit is a step in the right direction. It alleviates, but it's not a final stop.
