College of Business appoints China trade specialist

The College of Business has strengthened its expertise in international business with the appointment of a specialist in Asian and emerging markets. Professor Usha Haley has joined the School of Management in Albany from Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Indian-born and a United States citizen, Professor Haley is interested in researching business relationships between New Zealand and the rest of the world. She says her international outlook stems from having lived and worked in a variety of countries, including Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Italy and Australia.

“To understand emerging markets you have to live there, to walk the streets, to buy morning coffee at the local cafes, to talk to the people who do business there,” she says. “New Zealand is a good place to understand China because it is neutral in a lot of ways but is being changed by trade laws and immigration."

She arrived in New Zealand this month after presenting a report to the United States Congress about the global effects of China's government subsidies to its industries. Her research, done in collaboration with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, looked at how $33 billion in government subsidies enabled the rapid rise of China's paper industry. She also studied the steel and glass industries and will next consider auto-parts.

“I’m interested in looking at the relationship between New Zealand and the rest of the world and the effects of the free trade agreement [with China],” she says. “New Zealand has to exhibit some caution and make reasoned choices. It has a small economy but is often dealing with very much larger economies. Understanding the history, culture and goals of partners is the key to successful global relationships.

“I am a great believer in free trade but it is important for the world to more fully understand China’s development and incredible rise in so many industries. We have to understand in order to compete more effectively. In the United States many did not see the ramifications of China’s state capitalism on domestic industries. The effects on United States’ industries I have studied, including paper, steel and glass, have been irrevocable and the speed of change has been unprecedented in modern times.

Professor Haley, whose PhD is in international business and management from New York University's Stern School of Business, is also a specialist in multinational corporations and international strategic management. She has written seven books, including the best-selling Chinese Tao of Business, which she co-authored with her husband, Professor George Haley. She is currently working on a book with him about state capitalism in China, to be published by Oxford University Press next year.