A 20 000-capacity container ship gets stuck in the sand of the Suez Canal, and the whole of world trade grinds to a halt. With the nearly post-pandemic world turning out to be even worse than the old one, this is the latest – and certainly not the last – demonstration that the days of happy, peaceful globalisation have gone. Was it ever real anyway? There is some debate over the benefits and beneficiaries of globalisation, with in particular the question of the phenomenal widening of inequality, or that of the negative impact on the environment. In any case many countries are seeing a great wave of scepticism or even defiance set in. It is true that the list of imbalances which this specialisation of national economies generates is long and bloody. And then following specialisation, globalisation has become the sole preserve of China. China and the other Asian dragons have amassed the production of just about everything consumed on the planet. The most recent and painful examples are of course due to the pandemic, with blackmail over the supply of protective masks, and the deindustrialised Europeans left to implore the Chinese to sell them this precious equipment. More recently, and in another sector, we can mention the tension over the electronic components that the world’s factories (world here being a synonym for Asia) are drip-feeding out. This has had a dreadful psychological impact on the Old Continent and the USA. Declarations promising repatriation of manufacturing to the consumption markets put on a show for the media, at least. But in substance, nothing will change. Hence in view of this massive trend, the twists and turns in the story of the blockage of a sea route, even a major one, for a few days represent nothing more than an anecdote. Especially since China has time on its side. Indeed, it can wait for global warming to solve the problem by opening up the northern sea route, across the North Pole, which would reduce transport time between Asia and Europe by more than a quarter!
Click "Continue" to continue shopping or "See your basket" to complete the order.
