More, better trade needed in ‘reglobalised’ world, Davos panellists say
- The global economy has been plagued by slowing growth and lingering effects of Covid-19, panellists said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
- Director general of the World Trade Organization calls for ‘reglobalisation’, mixing diversification in supply chains
More frequent and better trade is needed to jump-start a global economy that has been plagued by slowing growth and the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic over the past three years, according to panellists at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Diversifying supply chains and enhancing domestic resilience could also be the answer for nations as they try to find a balance between the need to cooperate and their own self-interests, panellists said as world and business leaders gathered over five days for events in the ski resort town in the Swiss Alps.
“The answer is more trade, it’s more investment, but also better. And that’s the key component,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said during a panel discussion on relaunching global trade on Tuesday. “It’s better trade and better investments and schemes.”
Speaking on the same panel, World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that trade could make a substantial contribution to global growth and called for a new form of globalisation, which the intergovernmental organisation has dubbed “reglobalisation”.
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“Take advantage of the opportunities that we see now and the vulnerability of supply chains to when you’re building resilience, use this to bring in those who were at the margins of the global value chains, those countries and those peoples decentralise and diversify your supply chains to these areas,” she said.