Biden's modest multilateralism

LIKE the Joni Mitchell song puts it, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." For example, classroom education was often deemed boring by students and obsolete by tech visionaries. Then, Covid-19 made it difficult or impossible to meet in person. Now we yearn for in-class experiences.

Perhaps the same is true of international economic cooperation. Multilateral institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the United Nations agencies have long been unpopular among much of the public for supposedly encroaching on national sovereignty. But then US President Donald Trump came along and made international cooperation well-nigh impossible. While other G20 leaders discussed pandemic preparedness at their recently concluded summit, for example, Mr Trump evidently tweeted more false accusations of electoral fraud and then played golf.

When President-elect Joe Biden enters the White House on January 20, 2021, he will face an urgent agenda of international issues crying out for attention. The top items include the pandemic, climate change, and the global recession, which will require joint action by advanced economies on fiscal stimulus, debt restructuring, and trade.