Globalisation’s demise has been greatly exaggerated

DON’T shed too many tears for globalisation. The steady flow of goods, services, capital and know-how across national boundaries hasn’t come to a screeching halt. Nor has the global economy splintered beyond repair. Some shifts in investment, far from extricating US industry from China’s influence, may even enhance the latter’s presence in supply chains.

Trendy terms such as reshoring, friend-shoring and fragmentation are having a field day. They offer a pithy way to frame developments that, taken in isolation, might seem incremental.

Such turns of phrase can also be safely lobbed about at Davos parties without fear of great challenge. But they can also suffer setbacks: US-China trade surged to a record last year, in defiance of all the learned writings about decoupling.