Pre- and post-globalisation

I am a child of the pre-globalisation world.

- SUNITA NARAIN

I reminisce about this at length in my book The Rise of the Neo-Locals: A Generational Reversal of Globalisation. In it, I discuss how during my 60-odd years, I have seen the world come full circle — from the time of my childhood when India’s development vision was about self-reliance and investment in domestic manufacturing, to my early youth when the economy began to open up with the advent of World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade, when export-driven globalisation became the gold standard for growth. And now, with the second coming of Donald Trump to the White House, the grand disruption of this trade order is well underway.Tariffs have been weaponised. They are now tools for reconfiguring global trade and foreign policy. The trade order, built on the premise that manufacturing would move to places with lower labour costs and environmental standards, is set to be rejigged. The jury is still out on whether or not this will happen. But Mr Trump seems determined to have his way. He says manufacturing must return to the United States (US) to create local jobs and to regain control over the critical supply chains of medicines and high-tech computing power. Despite years of raking in money from the global trade order, where cheaper goods from foreign countries made it to the US shores, Mr Trump says his country was cheated and ripped off.