Is it time to rethink globalisation and supply chains?

Did globalisation go too far? 

During the COVID-19 crisis, the impact of ‘rampant’ globalisation was called into question and opened up new conversations about retreating towards reinforced, homegrown supply chains. Suddenly the world woke up to the effects of inherent interdependency of commodities, technology, and vaccine production. Strategic autonomy and sovereignty of supply chains and rethinking globalisation became policy buzzwords and urgent to-dos. But reality shows us that it is far from the policy ambitions of any government to truly dismantle globalisation. Perhaps what is required is to manage the free market that underpins globalisation and tilt global supply chains towards a value-based, liberal, and democratic model.

On 27 October 2022, the think tank Friends of Europe will hold its annual State of Europe high-level roundtable in Brussels. In the run-up to State of Europe, Debating Europe is convening a series of citizens’ panels, with a mix of citizens and civil society representatives. Each of these citizens’ panels will be matched to a session at State of Europe.

Our second citizens’ panel in the series is on the topic of “Rethinking supply chains and globalisation”. You can watch the panel in the video above. Taking part were:

• Mariana
• Ivo
• Ricardo

Is it time to rethink globalisation and supply chains? 

Is it time to shorten supply chains and “reshore” manufacturing?

Photo by Paul Teysen on Unsplash

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.