World Trade Organization Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala recently reinforced her advocacy for re-globalization during her keynote speech at the 13th World Chambers Congress in Geneva.
She highlighted the importance of further discussion of the matter in order to advance success and stability for the global trading system, according to a June 21 WTO news release.
“My answer is: Yes, the system works. Yes, parts of it need to be fixed. We need to fix what needs fixing. We don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” Okonjo-Iweala said in the release.
Okonjo-Iweala said that, while the multilateral trading system is effective, certain aspects of it require reform, the release reported. Emphasizing the potential threat to global prosperity if trade becomes divided into competing blocs, she reiterated her advocacy for re-globalization rather than deglobalization.
“The WTO has made things better for business,” Okonjo-Iweala said in the WTO release. “The future of trade is services, it's digital, it's green — and it has to be inclusive.”
She said they need to push against the pressures for global economic fragmentation, the release reported. She noted that avenue could be costly and may weaken the supply resilience.
“A better path forward is what we are calling re-globalization: deeper, more deconcentrated markets, achieved by bringing more people and places from the margins of the global economy to the mainstream,” Okonjo-Iweala added, according to the release. “Greater diversification would make it harder to weaponize interdependencies. This holds for critical minerals as well. Many rare earths are not so rare, but we need technological innovation so that the developing countries where they are found can extract and process them in cleaner ways.”
She spoke to the 13th Congress attendees, saying their companies and chambers are central to making "trade working better for people and the planet," the release said.