Is the Future Regional?

On October 12th, ASPI Vice President, Wendy Cutler was joined by Rem Korteweg, Senior Research Fellow, Clingendael Institute, Martin Sandbu, European Economics Commentator, Financial Times, and James Crabtree, Executive Director, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) on an AIG Global Trade Series podcast to discuss whether regionalism is the future for global trade networks or a precursor to de-globalization and the fracturing of the global trade system.

Cutler shares that although there seems to be a trend toward regionalization, globalization should not be written off entirely. In her view, there will be an emerging trend of “ad-hoc coalitions of countries aligning around specific issues rather than neat silos or groups working on a lot of issues together.” Cutler also adds in terms of the regionalization of supply chains and production, this trend largely depends on the sector in question and needs to be assessed on a “sector by sector” basis. For some industries, including semiconductors, this may be more challenging to accomplish.

Listen to the AIG Global Trade Series podcast.