## EDITOR'S LETTER — June 2023

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [EDITOR'S LETTER — June 2023](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2023/june/editors-letter-june23.pdf)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2023/june/editors-letter-june23.pdf.md)
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### Overview
- Theme: "Trade in Turmoil"
- Key framing quote: “GLOBALIZATION IS A FACT of life. But I believe we have underestimated its fragility,” United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
- Central concern: fragility of the liberal international trading system that has underpinned peace and prosperity since the end of the Cold War.

### Forces disrupting the international trade order
- Geopolitical shocks:
  - Russia’s war on Ukraine.
  - Geopolitical fragmentation.
- Policy responses:
  - Policymakers seeking to reduce reliance on precarious global supply chains.
  - Countries turning inward to isolate from rivals and secure strategic supplies of everything from computer chips to rare earths.
- Structural drivers:
  - Technology.
  - Policy priorities such as climate change and equality.

### Consequences and risks identified by contributors
- Yale’s Pinelopi Goldberg: protectionism would make the world less resilient and more conflict-prone.
- Dartmouth’s Doug Irwin: history shows industrial policies and subsidies could leave countries worse off.
- IMF’s Michele Ruta: growing global tensions may push regional trade alliances toward less integration and more discrimination.
- Smaller economies: risk of being sidelined as the world fragments into rival trading blocs; some will find it advantageous to remain nonaligned (Oxford’s Ngaire Woods).

### Appeals and policy recommendations
- IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva and the World Trade Organization’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala:
  - Appeal to countries to keep faith in trade as a transformative force that has lifted many millions out of poverty.
  - Call for a strengthening of multilateral institutions.
- Broader prescriptions in the issue:
  - Advocate for a new political consensus to resolve competing demands on the global trading system, taking into account structural changes in the global economy.
  - Reinforce the trading system to safeguard its benefits and prevent losses.
- Warning: “we cannot afford to stand still.” (attributed to Georgieva and Okonjo-Iweala)

### Issue highlights and navigation (as featured)
- IMF+WTO chiefs on trade’s future — P.10
- Anne O. Krueger profiled — P.38
- Riskless capitalism — P.62
- Cover art: Ukrainian artist Nataliia Shulga’s cover symbolizes the near halt in international integration and the embrace by some countries of protectionist or nationalist policies.

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2023/june/editors-letter-june23.pdf_