31. Is PPE and medical supplies protectionism a good idea?
In
the last few weeks, amidst difficulties to procure PPE and ventilators, amongst
others, experienced by all countries, a school of thought has started to gain
traction. We got it wrong with globalisation and need to bring back to each
country the manufacturing of strategic or critical goods. This is a natural
kneejerk reaction to current difficulties, but may not be very smart. Globalisation
is the global implementation of division of labour, by which we all become richer
by each community manufacturing goods they have the capability and skills to
manufacture, gaining from scale and concentration of labour and with supply
chain contributing to GDP. Should we give that up to avoid this situation again?
What is the sustainability of many companies in many countries making goods we
may not need for many years? What we need may be rather a more geographical
sparse supply chain for these goods and a better legal framework for fair
supply in times of crisis. May be too civilised for us yet?
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Length: 1,001 characters
Comments
PS Nice to see you hit your 1001 characters on the nose with that one - did you have to re-edit?