America’s Oil-Spill Nationalism/彭定康﹕美國原油泄漏 民族主義氾濫

2010-07-15
【明報專訊】當「美國例外論」（American exceptionalism）喧囂塵上之時，它就變為了一場人們應當躲避的海嘯。目前，英國石油公司（BP）便體會到了這一點。

這場破壞墨西哥灣沿岸社區、並為海洋生物帶來滅頂之災的環境災難，是一次重大的全球悲劇。英國石油公司必須為此承擔相當大的一部分罪責。同樣，以此類推的話，諸如Transocean及Halliburton這樣的美國公司也難逃其咎（這兩家公司也參與了這一以悲劇收場的事業）；不過，看起來它們的國籍使其逃過一劫。

英國石油公司負有重大的企業責任，同樣，在印度博帕爾聯合碳化物工廠造成化學災難（初期有3000人遇難，其後數年可能再有1.5萬人喪生），以及1988年在北海導致阿爾法鑽井平台事故（事故造成167人死亡）的美國公司同樣責任重大。在美國，企業罪行並非從無先例。


美國政治家應反思

在向所謂的外國企業——英國石油公司發起攻擊之前，美國的政治家們或許也應稍作停頓，反思一下美國國內政治與石油產業之間的緊密關聯。這種關聯肯定是造成深海石油鑽井規制鬆弛的最重大原因之一。

以上所言並不能為英國石油公司在工程方面的失誤以及該公司拙劣的公共外交開脫，我也不打算淡化已發生事態的恐怖程度。不過它卻能提醒我們，儘管美國在許多方面是世界全球化程度最高的社會，但該國同樣也能表現出令人驚訝的狹隘與民族主義色彩。美國對於海外所發生事態的了解是有限的，而且這種了解時常還被簡化為對世界其他地區的漫畫式描繪。

美國人將英國石油公司視為一家英國企業，也知道英國地處歐洲。他們似乎還認為歐洲已日漸式微，歐元正如其古代建築一樣土崩瓦解。歐洲是一處歷史遺蹟，雖早已毁滅，但仍自我標榜。

正如英國石油公司一樣，歐洲也存在着問題。不過我們無法接受那些連護照都沒有的美國政客，以某些歐洲人士以往專門用來描述喬治布殊政府及其政策的那種居高臨下的譏諷口吻，對我們加以貶低。


歐盟依舊是全世界最大經濟體

儘管歐元苦難重重，但歐盟依舊是全世界最大的經濟體。歐盟的經濟規模比美國更大，它近乎中國的兩倍，是印度的4到5倍。

歐盟是世界最大的貿易區，而且它在應對中國在全球市場份額上升過程中的表現也遠強於美國或日本。在1999年以來的10年中，中國佔全球出口總額比重從5.1%升至12.4%，日本的比重則下降了4個百分點，美國的降幅更是接近7個百分點，從18%降為11.2%，而歐洲所佔比重僅僅下降了2.4個百分點，由19%降為16.6%。

在所有大國中，歐洲擁有最好的環保記錄，它是貧困國家最大的發展援助提供者，在政治上也具有穩定性。歐洲的問題正是其所相信自身的最大成就的一部分，歐洲人認為他們享受着全世界最高品質的生活，這種生活是自由與社會團結的融合。福利民主制度與多元主義、法治以及源遠流長的文明攜手共進。

沾沾自喜的情緒，使我們拒絕接受那些為了維持生活品質所必須的變化。我們這種理所應得的觀念大大超過了我們的償付能力。因此，今日許多歐洲國家正面對着龐大的公共赤字，加上不斷下降的出生率及日漸老化的人口，我們可能會發現歐洲的增長率在未來幾年將被競爭者愈甩愈遠。

引入歐元正是為了刺激那些活力和競爭力較弱的歐洲經濟體，這些國家主要集中在歐洲大陸的南部，人們希望以此降低它們的開支並增強其競爭力。這樣，它們將能與諸如德國這樣更具效率、管理更為審慎的經濟體並駕齊驅。但願望並未化為現實，特別是西班牙、希臘、葡萄牙和愛爾蘭這幾個國家，任由伴隨歐元引入而來的低利率為其國內景氣提供動力。這些國家沒有完成結構改革，國內薪酬和成本激增，相對歐洲那些經營良好的經濟體，它們的競爭力反被削弱，西班牙和德國在成本效率方面的差距就可能超過20%。


「歐洲例外論」是個問題

這便是歐洲如今正在面對的危機。我們如何才能推行那些可將公共支出削減至自己可負擔的水平、並提升自己在國際領域競爭力的改革呢？我們需要將單一市場的範圍擴展至服務和能源領域，還需改變難以負擔的豐厚養老金安排，加大研發投入，改革大學，並使更多資金流入諸如環保技術這樣能創造就業的未來產業之中。

「歐洲例外論」（European exceptionalism）是一種認為我們在創造價值和繁榮方面勝人一籌的觀念，它與美國例外論一樣是個問題。若躺在過去的成就之上，我們將無法在未來實現繁榮與興旺。現在已經是21世紀，歐洲人必須適應這一點，迎接它所帶來的挑戰，並面對來自新興大國的競爭。儘管歐洲的往昔或許與它的遺蹟一樣恢弘壯麗，但我們卻不能永遠活在過去。


作者彭定康是末代香港總督，曾任歐盟外交事務專員，現任牛津大學校監
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2010
http://www.project-syndicate.org/

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America’s Oil-Spill Nationalism
Chris Patten

2010-06-22

LONDON – American exceptionalism, when it runs rampant, is a tsunami to be avoided. The oil company BP is discovering that right now.

The environmental disaster destroying seaside communities around the Gulf of Mexico and killing off marine life is a globally important tragedy. BP has to take its sizeable share of the blame. So, presumably, should the American companies like Transocean and Halliburton, which were part of this doomed enterprise. But their nationality seems to have let them off the hook.

BP’s corporate responsibility is huge. So, too, was that of the American companies that caused the chemical disaster at Union Carbide’s plant in Bhopal, India (which killed 3,000 initially and perhaps another 15,000 in later years), and of those that caused the Piper Alpha oil-rig accident, which killed 167 people in the North Sea in 1988. Corporate sin is not unknown in the US.

Before attacking the allegedly foreign BP, American politicians might also pause for a moment to reflect on the intimate links between politics and the oil industry in the United States. This is surely one of the biggest reasons for the lax regulation of deep-sea oil drilling.

None of this excuses BP’s engineering mistakes and woeful public diplomacy. Nor would I seek to downplay the full horror of what has happened. But it does remind us that, while the US is in many respects the most globalized society in the world, it can also be surprisingly insular and nationalistic. Americans’ knowledge of what happens abroad is limited, and often reduced to a cartoon-strip view of the rest of the world.

Americans identify BP as a British firm, and they know that Britain is in Europe. They also seem to think that Europe has gone down the tubes. Its currency crumbles like its ancient buildings. It is a historic relic, bust but still bragging.

Europe, like BP, has its share of problems. But we shouldn’t allow American politicians who do not even possess passports to write us off with the same patronizing sneer that some Europeans used to reserve for President George W. Bush’s administration and policies.

The European Union, for all the woes of the euro, remains the largest economy in the world. It is bigger than America’s, almost twice the size of China’s, and between four and five times the size of India’s.

The EU is the largest trading block in the world, and it has coped with the rise of China in the global marketplace far better than America or Japan has. In the decade after 1999, China’s share of total global exports rose from 5.1% to 12.4%. Japan’s share fell by four percentage points, and America’s fell by almost seven, from 18% to 11.2%, while Europe’s share fell by only 2.4 percentage points, from 19% to 16.6%.

Europe has the best environmental record of all the big powers, is the largest provider of development assistance to poor countries, and is politically stable. Europe’s problem is part of what it believes to be its greatest achievement. Europeans think that we enjoy the highest quality of life in the world, combining freedom with social solidarity. Welfare democracy goes hand in hand with pluralism, the rule of law, and a deep-rooted civilization.

Smug self-satisfaction makes us resistant to embracing the changes necessary to maintain our standard and quality of living. Our sense of entitlement has run far ahead of our ability to pay for it.

That is why so many European countries today face such huge public-sector deficits and, with a falling birth rate and an aging population, we are likely to find that European growth rates will lag still farther behind those of Europe’s competitors in the next few years.

The introduction of the euro was supposed to spur the less dynamic and competitive European economies, mostly in the south of the continent, to drive down their costs and increase their competitiveness. Then they could converge with the more efficient and prudently managed economies, like Germany.

That didn’t happen. Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Ireland, in particular, allowed the low interest rates that accompanied the euro’s introduction to fuel domestic booms. Far from pushing through structural reforms, they let domestic wages and costs rip, reducing their competitiveness relative to Europe’s better-run economies. For example, the gap between Spain and Germany in terms of cost efficiency is probably more than 20%.

This is the crisis that Europe now faces. How can we push through the reforms that will cut public spending to levels that we can afford and raise our ability to compete internationally? We have to extend our single market to services and energy, change unaffordably generous pension arrangements, invest more in research and development, reform our universities, and channel more money to the job-creating industries of the future, like environmental technology.

European exceptionalism – the idea that we are the best at delivering values and prosperity – is as much a problem as the American kind. We won’t thrive and prosper in the future by resting on past achievements. Welcome to the twenty-first century. Europeans have to adjust to it, rise to its challenges, and confront competition from the emerging powers. We can’t live forever in the past, magnificent as its relics may be.


Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2010.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/
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