COVID-19 and Trade Policy: Why Turning Inward Won’t Work

Richard Baldwin, Simon Evenett 29 April 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked broad-ranging resort to export restrictions on medical supplies and food. This eBook asks: Should governments react to the health, economic, and trade crises by turning inward? The authors provide an unequivocal answer: No. Turning inward won’t help today’s fight against COVID-19. National trade barriers in a world of internationalised manufacturing processes will make it harder for every nation to produce vital medical supplies. Insular policies will also fail to foster economic recovery, and they are a threat to the collaborative spirit that the human race will need to defeat this threat.

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Contents

Foreword by Gordon Brown

Introduction
Richard Baldwin and Simon J. Evenett

1 How trade can fight the pandemic and contribute to global health
Anna Stellinger, Ingrid Berglund and Henrik Isakson

2 COVID-19: Demand spikes, export restrictions, and quality concerns imperil poor country access to medical supplies
Chad P. Bown

3 Flawed prescription: Export curbs on medical goods wonít tackle shortages
Simon J. Evenett

4 COVID-19: Expanding access to essential supplies in a value chain world
Matteo Fiorini, Bernard Hoekman and Aydin Yildirim

5 COVID-19: Export controls and international cooperation
Bernard Hoekman, Matteo Fiorini and Aydin Yildirim

6 Trade policy and food security
Will J. Martin and Joseph W. Glauber

7 Export restrictions in times of pandemic: Options and limits under international trade agreements
Joost Pauwelyn

8 Global supply chains will not be the same in the post-COVID-19 world
Beata Javorcik

9 Resilience versus robustness in global value chains: Some policy implications
Sebastien Miroudot

10 Will the post-COVID world be less open to foreign direct investment?
Przemyslaw Kowalski

11 An unintended crisis in sea transportation due to COVID-19 restrictions
Inga Heiland and Karen Helene Ulltveit-Moe

12 Exposing governments swimming naked in the COVID-19 crisis with trade policy transparency (and why WTO reform matters more than ever)
Robert Wolfe

13 What's next for protectionism? Watch out for state largesse, especially export incentives
Simon J. Evenett

Richard Baldwin

Professor of International Economics at The Graduate Institute, Geneva; Founder & Editor-in-Chief of VoxEU.org; exPresident of CEPR

Simon Evenett

Professor of International Trade, University of St. Gallen; Research Fellow, CEPR

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CEPR Policy Research