The World Trade Organization’s Director General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, believes that adding additional countries into international industrial networks will strengthen supply chains.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, called for “reglobalization” to address choke points in global supply chains by bringing more countries into international production networks. She said small businesses had been hit particularly hard by the pandemic and that poor and landlocked countries were at risk of being pushed out of global value chains. However, she stated that the solution was not a global trade retreat.
“Our best option for supply resilience remains deeper, more diverse foreign markets,” Dr. Okonjo-Iweala added. More than two years after the epidemic began, global supply chains are still crowded, causing delays and higher shipping costs for businesses and consumers all around the world. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as Western sanctions against Russia, have exacerbated the problems. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala said the organization was monitoring the impact of the conflict to global food security, including sharp price increases for grain, oilseeds, vegetable oils, fertilizer and energy.
