Globalization, International Trade and Competitiveness: What Links These Concepts? Challenge or Threat for Competitiveness of the World Economic Players - Especially EU, US and China?

Globalization generally refers to a process of broadening and deepening of interrelationships in international trade, foreign investment and portfolio flows. The outcome is the creation of a global marketplace for goods and services that is largely indifferent to national borders and governmental influence. Rapid technological change coupled with falls in barriers to international trade, have driven it. Also, World Trade Organization agreements and regional treaties forced domestic markets to open up. This development and the current wave of globalization of the economy has generated widespread interest among countries and within countries in the development and upgrading of national competitiveness. Globalization and national competitiveness are popular issues in economic policy debates of representatives of the world economic leaders, i.e. the post-war triad (in order of the EU, USA, and Japan) compared to rapidly developing BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries.