Global Governance Case Studies

• TNC CASE STUDY - APPLE

  • Headquarters in Cupertino, California. 
  • Most shops in HICs (exception of China), majority in USA. Most successful there - 35% of total revenue generation. 
  • European HQ in Cork, Ireland. 
  • Revenue of almost $97 billion in 2023.
  • Apple has manufacturing locations in China, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea + others.
  • All manufacturing facilities part of either Foxconn or Pegatron.
• TNC CASE STUDY - APPLE positives

  • Over 150,000 (direct) employees, 528 shops.
  • Location in Shenzhen - SEZ which attracts more businesses.
  • Employs 4000 in Cork, but many are EU foreigners. Attracted other TNCs/businesses. 
• TNC CASE STUDY - APPLE negatives

  Labour rights violations reported at Zhengzhou Foxconn factory - largest iPhone factory in world:

  • Insufficient wages.
  • Unsatisfactory social insurance contributions. 
  • Violated restrictions on overtime - in peak seasons at least 100 overtime hrs a month.
  • Use of student workers.
  • Reducing safety training.

  14 people died in 2010 after committing suicide, due to work conditions - Foxconn installed preventative nets. 

  Some employees working over 36 hours without a break + regularly work 60 hours per week. 

  Foxconn pays less than $3 per hour in Shenzhen.
• WORLD TRADE IN A FOOD COMMODITY - BANANAS background

  • Most consumed fruit in world. Consumed the most in Asia.
  • More than 100 billion consumed annually.
  • Most imported food product - US imports the most. 
  • 2022, Bananas world's 305th most traded product - total trade over $13billion.
  • 2022 Top exporters of bananas - Ecuador, Philippines, Costa Rica, Colombia. Top importers - USA, China, Japan, Russia.
  • Workers recieve 7% of total cost - retailers 41%
• WORLD TRADE IN A FOOD COMMODITY - BANANAS trade 

  • ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) - small + medium producers
  • Central American - large plantations controlled by TNCs. Main TNCs: Chiquita, Dole, DelMonte (all USA), Fyffes (Ireland). 
  • Increasing TNC involvement in Philippines and Africa.
  • TNCs used to own 80% of banana trade but have released direct control of plantations to have guaranteed supply contracts instead. 
  • Retailers gaining control as bananas sold directly to them/TNCs, so can demand low prices from suppliers as can threaten to stop imports from that company.
• BANANAS trade disagreement

  1993 EU imposed a 25% tariff on Central American bananas, which better enabled African and Caribbean farmers to compete with U.S. TNCs (protect smaller, family farms from competition). 

  US TNCs filed complaint - WTO determined tariff illegal, so discontinued in 2009. Negatively impacted the already-struggling banana farmers outside of Central America.
• Issues with the Banana Trade 1

  • Monoculture reduces biodiversity. 30kg pesticides etc. added per hectare of bananas. More money spent on them than paying workers. 
  • Workers exposure to agrochemicals eg. working while pesticides sprayed aerially (only 15% lands on crop). Long term health effects. Traces of pesticide found in blood of caimans living near plantations in Costa Rica. 
  • Environmental damage - deforestation for banana cultivation (repeated once soil depletion/pest infestations begin to lower yields), soil erosion + degradation, pollution from agrochemicals.
• Issues with Banana Trade 2

  • TNC controlled - human rights abuses eg. 2012, 7 Guatemalan banana union members murdered. Increases in profits for companies not reflected in worker wages - receive 1-3% of a banana’s retail value. 85% of price stays in richer country. Bananas one of biggest profit makers in supermarkets.
  • New disease TR4 threating Cavendish cultivar banana variety.
  • Job insecurity - employers rehire employees on short-term contracts rather than permanently, to avoid benefits, unions, + to ‘rehire’ with worse contracts (pay reductions of up to 40%). 
• Issues with Banana Trade 3

  • Unions repressed, sometimes violently eg. Philippines, workers on Dole plantations harassed, intimidated, held at gunpoint because of union activities.
  • Child labour. Found on plantations in Ecuador (centre of Dole’s production and trade). Work 12-hour days, dangerous tasks, well below half attending school.
  • Up to third of bananas deemed unfit for sale (mostly aesthetic reasons). Total volume of waste around same as volume approved. 
• ANTARCTICA background

  • Southernmost and 5th largest continent. 
  • Ice sheets cover approx 98% of surface. Antarctic Ice Sheet largest single piece of ice on Earth - holds 60% of world's total fresh water.
  • Surrounded by Southern Ocean. 
  • Transantarctic Mountains (divide continent into eastern and western regions), Rosse and Ronne Ice Shelves. 
• ANTARCTICA Climate

  • Extreme cold, strong winds, low precipitation.
  • Average temps -10 °C to -60 °C.
  • Highest temp recorded of 18.3 °C along Antarctic Peninsula.
  • Any precipitation always snow.
  • Desert - one of driest on earth.
  • Very strong katabatic winds - highest recorded 199mph.