Trade nationalism calls for a business response
As economic nationalism rises in some industrialised countries, the public and private sectors need to unite to defend the system that has underpinned growth.
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IN 1998, world leaders from Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela to Bill Clinton and Tony Blair met to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the multilateral trading system. Now, trade agreements are being rejected by political leaders in some industrialised countries and economic nationalism is resurgent.
The public and private sectors in this region need to unite to defend the system that has underpinned its growth. In fact, the problems of the older industrialised economies have more to do with a failure to adjust to deindustrialisation.
Long-term policy failures in key sectors - education, social investment, regional policy, infrastructure - have left people in the former industrial heartlands marginalised and resentful. Trade, like immigration, has become a lightning rod for this resentment and populist politicians are only too willing to exploit it.
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