On 22 November, the Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, presented the 2022 Lowy Lecture in Sydney.

After outlining the manifold benefits international trade and the GATT/WTO has delivered over the past 70 years, Dr Ngozi addressed the range of current challenges facing domestic economies and the lives and livelihoods of citizens across the globe. These included climate change, recovery from the COVID pandemic, the war in Ukraine, a global economic slowdown, high inflation, food insecurity, monetary tightening and debt distress.

Dr Ngozi's view on how to respond to these crises was more multilateral cooperation and solidarity rather than the fragmentation and decoupling that is being proposed in some quarters.

Dr Ngozi then articulated an alternative vision for the future of trade. This vision included interdependence without overdependence, deeper more diversified and deconcentrated international markets - or what the Director General referred to as - re-globalisation.

The address picked up on themes discussed at the inaugural ACITI Annual Conference on the same day and is highly recommended watching/reading for Conference guests and speakers alike.

With Lowy's kind agreement, Dr Ngozi's speech is available here.