JUSTICE - No. 65

13 Fall 2020 lobalization is emerging as one of the main victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries all over the world have closed their borders and erected import and export barriers to an extent not seen since World War II. Even member states of the European Union have refused entry to citizens of other member states, notwithstanding the right of free movement entrenched in EU treaties. 1 By April 2020, over 80% of flight movements were restricted across all regions. 2 Likewise, movement of goods across borders was severely affected, with international trade in the second quarter of 2020 falling by 18.5 percent, the highest recorded decline ever according to the World Trade Organization (WTO). 3 Globalization is not only the victim of the pandemic; it is also blamed as being responsible for it. Anti- globalization movements use COVID-19 to promote protectionist and nationalistic policies. Their argument is that if China had been as closed as it was under Chairman Mao’s rule in the 1960s, and not a country with 143 million incoming tourists in 2019, the virus would not have spread from the Hubei District in China so widely and rapidly as it did. Liberal travel rules coupled with affordable international transportation contributed to the spread of the epidemic to virtually every country in the world in just a few months. The response, although implemented too late in many countries, was closure of borders and the imposition of a quarantine on persons arriving from abroad (a measure that continued to deter international travel, even when it was allowed). Countries are also becoming more inward-looking, moving to ensure domestic supply of essential products. 4 On May 12, 2020, Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister and formerly a strong supporter of globalization, told the nation that a new era of economic self-reliance has begun. 5 Public sentiment against globalization, a position that received a strong boost by the pandemic, tends to overlook the fact that during the last 70 years, globalization has delivered prosperity and improved living conditions for humanity. Increased mobility of goods, services, workers and capital has benefitted both poor and rich countries willing to open their borders, and this has raised the standard of living for billions of people. It is now widely accepted among economists that an outer-oriented trade regime enhances growth prospects for developing countries, 6 as demonstrated Globalization, the Corona Pandemic and the Need for Joint Action against Illicit Trade in Wildlife G Arie Reich 1. European Union, Treaty on European Union (TEU) (ConsolidatedVersion), Treaty of Maastricht, 7 February 1992, O FFICIAL J OURNAL OF THE E UROPEAN C OMMUNITIES , C 325/5; 24 December 2002, Art. 3(2); European Union, Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), 26 October 2012, OJ L., 326/47-326/390 Article 21; Titles IV andVTFEU; European Union: Council of the European Union, Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2007/C 303/01), 14 December 2007, C 303/1, Art. 45. 2. Danny Santos,“How Airports Globally are Responding to Coronavirus,”A ISLELABS (March 27, 2020), available at https://www.aislelabs.com/blog/2020/03/27/how-airports- globally-are-responding-to-coronavirus-updated- frequently/ 3. “Trade Falls Steeply in First Half of 2020,”WTO, June 22, 2020, available at https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/ pres20_e/pr858_e.htm 4. “Has Covid-19 Killed Globalisation,” E CONOMIST , May 14, 2020, available at https://www.economist.com/ leaders/2020/05/14/has-covid-19-killed-globalisation 5. Narendra Modi,“Let us resolve to make India self-reliant: PM Modi.”N ARENDRA M ODI (May 12, 2020), available at https://www.narendramodi.in/english-rendering-of- prime-minister-shri-narendra-modi-s-address-to-the- nation-on-12-5-2020-549627 6. Anne Krueger,“Trade Policy and Economic Development: HowWe Learn,”A MERICAN E CONOMIC R EVIEW ,Vol. 87, no. 1 (March 1997).