Don't write off globalisation just yet

Published Tue, May 26, 2020 · 09:50 PM

COVID-19 is only the latest "earthquake" to buffet globalisation. However, it could prove to be the most potent force yet in reversing the post-Cold War era of open markets and borders that is already under pressure from political populism to the climate crisis.

The strains that the pandemic is putting on globalisation are arising not just from the fact that, at peak in March and April, an estimated quarter of the world population was in "lockdown" with wider, restrictive economic and political measures to seal national borders. And even as the public health emergency is still intensifying in some geographies such as South America, new rounds of disruption are coming.

Take the example of the United States where, in the political cauldron of a presidential election year, Donald Trump is already seizing on China as a key issue, and is looking to impose sanctions on that country for what is claimed is its cover-up of the virus, which emerged in Wuhan in December. In response, Beijing threatened at the weekend to hit back hard against the US…