Recession puts brakes on globalization

SINGAPORE, March 5 (UPI) -- Hard times are pushing nations to retreat from globalization, U.S. economist Jeffery Sachs said.

"Nationalism is rising and our political systems are inward looking, the more so in times of crisis," Sachs said.

A retreat in international trade is visible in the harbor at Singapore, where a shipping executive said space to park ships is hard to find, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

"We're running out of space to park them," Ron Widdows, chief executive officer of shipping giant NOL told the Post.

The stalled ships are a visible sign that globalization has begun to reverse itself. Many ports report sharp declines in business in recent months, the newspaper said.

Exports from Singapore plummeted 35 percent in January and economists predict 200,000 out of work foreigners will leave the country by 2011.

Policy makers from Malaysia to France to the United States have pushed for protectionist measures recently.

In Malaysia, a new hiring policy meant the expulsion of 100,000 Indonesians. In France, help for automakers included the call for car companies to relocate outsourced production back to France. In the United States, President Obama's budget calls for limiting tax incentives for companies that ship work overseas, the newspaper said.