Pandemic underlines world’s connectedness

Pandemic underlines world’s connectedness

Reinforce weakened multilateral institutions.

A global pandemic calls for a global response, meaning, a coordinated, multilateral response. Instead, we have export bans on medicines, masks and sanitisers in several countries that have a surplus of these things, and shortages in several others. We have the G7 leaders meeting in a videoconference to talk coordination, while it excluded two of the largest five economies of the world, China and India, of which, China also has the most experience to share on combating the disease Covid-19, caused by the virus, 2019-nCoV, or Sars-CoV-2. India should seek an early summit of the G20, a more representative grouping of the world’s most impactful nations, and put forth an agenda for a coordinated response to the pandemic.

The European Central Bank did a U-turn in a week’s time on whether it should act to contain the economic fallout of the disease and has announced a pandemic bond purchase scheme for a planned €750 billion worth of government and corporate bonds. The Bank of England has announced a similar scheme for purchase of government and corporate bonds. The US government is launching a fiscal package worth an impressive 5% of GDP. If these measures help the US and Europe to limit the pandemic’s impact on their economies, global growth would get some relief, and help emerging markets as well. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have created sizeable pandemic lending facilities, and countries should not hesitate to tap these sources. The worst would appear to be over for China and South Korea, which now report hardly any new cases of infection. They would be able to produce the medical supplies the world needs, including protective gear and sanitisers.

If the pandemic has a positive fallout, it is to underline the connected, interdependent nature of humanity today. Monitoring of the pandemic’s progress, the search for vaccines and cures, the sharing of containment and treatment protocols and, potentially, of medical supplies are all multilateral. Time world leaders realised this, and worked to reinforce weakened multilateral institutions, including the World Trade Organisation.