Asia's Developing Future

Outsourcing may mean bigger profits for companies seeking cheaper ways to produce goods and services, but it’s not all good news for the host countries. For the countries in the South that welcome the factories of companies from the wealthier North, outsourcing comes with environmental costs. The People’s Republic of China, considered the world’s factory, is an example. Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, there has been an influx of companies moving their factories to the East Asian country. Attracted by the prospects of lower production costs and cheap labor, companies from the North outsourced production of garments, apparel, toys, footwear, tools, light machinery, electronics, and information technology products, among others, to China. But producing huge amounts of such goods has damaged China’s air, water, and soil, triggering deforestation, desertification, and global warming, while seriously endangering public health. The damage to China’s environment was estimated at $230 billi