Can industrial policy spur national resilience?

The third edition of the Hinrich-IMD Sustainable Trade Index, launched this week, poses a fundamental question for the future of trade: as nations race to achieve resilience, how will the opposing demands of geopolitical security and global economic integration meet?

Industrial policy – the collective term for a broad range of government support – is centuries old and has returned in full force as superpower competition, war, and COVID-19 stir governments to seek geoeconomic independence. But the new fragmentation carries old warnings: not the failure to achieve industrial policy, but its success may be the undoing of global development. 

Join IMD’s Christos Cabolis, Simon Evenett, and the Hinrich Foundation’s Deborah Elms in a panel moderated by the Foundation’s Chuin Wei Yap, as they debate the sustainability of trade in a waning era of comparative advantage. 

Time: 11:00am CEST / 05:00pm SGT