Practice Professional Networking

Madison Szuminsky

Chatham Happenings link: https://my.chatham.edu/happenings/get_event.cfm?m1=11&y1=2018&d1=9&EventID=23252

The event that I chose to attend was the Honorary Degree Ceremony Ambassador of Ireland to the United States. Ambassador Daniel Mulhall was receiving his doctorate for public service. The reason for inviting Ambassador Mulhall to Chatham to receive this degree was due to our global focus this year being Ireland. Chatham also has a deep historical connection with Ireland. The Mellon Board Room was built by an Irish immigrant and Chatham is partnered with an Irish sustainability school. Dr. Mulhall talked about how important global focus and international trade is. Ireland joined the European Union in 1973 and this helped promote trade between countries. Ireland was once one of the poorest countries in Europe and now they are in the top 5 for most prosperous.

One obvious and key aspect discussed during this networking event was the importance of international business and trade. In our book, it states that “… no national economy produces all the goods and services that its people need” (Collins, 2017). This means that countries must trade to have access to all goods and services they need through the acts of importing and exporting. For example, as previously stated, Ireland is now one of the most profitable countries. Most exports from Ireland include chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and information technology. One of Ireland’s main concerns with trade is that they have a fear of isolation and currently, Ireland is working towards keeping the peace between Southern and Northern Ireland. One issue that may affect trade is that Britain left the European Union and this may negatively impact trade. This may impose tariffs or dumping, which defined by our book is “… the practice of selling exported goods below the price that producers would normally charge in their home markets” (Collins, 2017). This creates unfair competition for domestic industries and this may increase the already imposed tariffs.

One current thing that I have learned about international business is that potential tariffs will impact future investments, including stock. Currently, President Donald Trump has engaged in a tit-for-tat tactic with China in the recent trade war. Tit-for-tat simply means that if one economy cheats, the other will also cheat, trying to enforce fairness for both sides. In the article titled “How Will Tariffs Affect Your Investments”, the author states that those who are looking to invest or already do invest should buy investments through companies that will benefit and sell investments that will be harmed by these potential tariffs However, there could be long term impacts on these tariffs and trading stock based on tariff development is completely risky (Friedberg, 2018).  These facts will impact the United States trade and could potentially harm trade with other countries, including Ireland. 

The article I chose to compare it to also had to do with the tariff issue. The article states that users of imported steel are working to overturn a trade law that penalizes imports of steel and aluminum (Mauldin). The group also argues that the law “… improperly delegates trade powers to the executive branch from the legislative branch in violation of the Constitution” (Mauldin). This means the President Donald Trump will continue to use tariffs on these imported metals, which can potentially increase the price of these metals used for construction. Overall, the steel firms state that they have been hurt by this law and that this law lacks rules, which would limit the president’s decisions.

Overall, international trade is a very important aspect of the business world and it will only keep expanding over time. I am thankful I had the opportunity to network with the Ambassador, as well as Connor Lamb’s uncle who made a guest appearance. Hopefully, I will continue to learn a lot about international trade because it is a topic I am very interested in.

Works Cited

Collins, K. (2017). Exploring Business. Boston, MA: FlatWorld

Friedberg, B. (2018, November 5). How Will Tariffs Affect Your Investments? Retrieved December 2, 2018, from https://money.usnews.com/investing/stock-market-news/articles/2018-11-05/how-will-tariffs-affect-your-investments

Mauldin, W. (2018, Jun 27). Lawsuit challenges trump's authority to impose tariffs; plaintiffs argue 1962 trade law improperly delegates trade powers to president.Wall Street Journal (Online) Retrieved from http://ezproxy.chatham.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/2059550753?accountid=26763