Global Briefing

By Daren Fonda

Biotech Goes to School

In Europe, protests against the biotech industry are a staple of the news. Now a trade group is mounting a counterattack starting in classrooms. In April, 600 schools in Scotland were sent 84,000 copies of a magazine called Your World: Biotechnology & You. Produced by the Biotechnology Institute, an industry-funded organization based in Washington, the magazine features stories on transgenic animals and other biotech wonders. A recent issue highlights Monsanto's herbicide Roundup; another features a girl who took Prozac and "felt like herself again." Since 1999, 4,500 U.S. schools have received the magazine, to little protest. But in Scotland, industry critics are predictably furious. "Biotech companies aren't interested in education," says Matthew Herbert of the protest group Scottish Genetix Action. "They're selling products." Publisher Jeff Davidson replies, "We're trying to encourage scientific literacy and debate."

Alien Plague

They're the smallest of stowaways, hitching rides on freighters, cruise ships and planes and usually disembarking undetected. They're invasive species, including insects, fish, fungi and plants. Their variety, and the damage they inflict on local species and crops, is growing apace with the doubling in U.S. foreign trade over the past decade. In the U.S., they cause upwards of $100 billion in economic losses annually, according to Cornell researcher David Pimentel. Among recent invaders is giant salvinia, a freshwater weed infesting lakes and waterways in the South and West. The Asian long-horn beetle, pictured at right, is gnawing away at Chicago-area trees. In April, environmentalists filed a suit to force the EPA to bar oceangoing vessels from dumping their ballast water--a major source of invasive species--in U.S. ports. So far, California and Washington are the only states requiring ships from foreign harbors to flush their ballast at sea before docking.

DRILLERS "SEE" UNDERGROUND

Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton, agreed in April to pay $100 million for Magic Earth of Houston, which makes images like the one at left. Such 3-D computer maps are assembled from seismic data and, along with soaring energy prices, are helping drive the global oil-and-gas-exploration business. Magic Earth's "data-mining" software provides geologists with color-coded guides to rock formations and fluid densities. Its visual clues, says CEO Michael Zeitlin, can be analyzed more quickly and accurately than reams of numbers and graphs. And its improved accuracy means drilling fewer dry holes, reducing cost and environmental impact. Claims Zeitlin: "We've improved the probability of striking oil from 1 in 10 to 4 in 10."

The Price of Protectionism I: U.S. Steel

Faced with rising health-care costs and a global glut of their product, America's steelmakers are demanding more protection from imports. A bill before Congress would impose import quotas that might save 3,700 steelmaking jobs in the U.S. But higher costs for U.S. industries that use steel, such as autos and construction, would result in the loss of 19,000 to 32,000 jobs, according to a new study sponsored by the Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition. Andrew Sharkey, president of the American Iron and Steel Institute, calls the study "flawed" and "based on a political agenda that defends dumped, subsidized and disruptive steel imports."

Steel mfg. jobs saved 3,700 Steel consuming jobs lost 19,000 - 82,000 Range

Source: Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition

The Price of Protectionism II: Korean Cars and Garlic

Last year South Korea exported 1.5 million passenger vehicles, but the country's drivers bought a mere 4,414 imports. Why? Although high import duties and tax audits of Koreans who bought imports were abolished years ago, attitudes have yet to change. A survey found that 58% of car owners thought it was "unpatriotic" to own an import, and 64% thought it would still attract a tax audit.

South Koreans also have a soft spot for their garlic growers. The government early this year stopped buying Chinese garlic. China then threatened to halt imports of Korean polyethylene and cell phones, as it did in an earlier garlic dispute. In April, South Korea caved, agreeing to buy Chinese garlic and resell it overseas. Value of the deal to Korean growers: at least $6.3 million. Cost of the row to Korea's polyethylene and cell-phone industries: about $100 million.

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