It is being seen that after the COVID-19 Pandemic, various countries have started aligning themselves into different trade blocs, especially to reduce their supply-chain dependency on hostile States. It has led the world into an Era of Deglobalisation and trade barriers, which has had enormous implications for big corporations, who were used to operating globally with little concern for the ground geopolitics.

Now, corporations have to get used to a world where neutrality is no longer a winning strategy, if not a hurting one. Many big businesses have taken recourse to age-old strategies of friend-shoring or near-shoring, which includes shifting their supply-chain networks to allies or nearby nations in order to reduce trade uncertainty.

As nations pioneer the art of punishing foreign firms for geopolitical interests, the reputational and political costs of doing business in a hostile State are getting harsher. With nation-states having the power to control their import duties for specific nations, setting up resources in hostile States has become incredibly loss-making for corporations. On the other hand, friend-shoring can reap innumerous tax concessions and trade benefits.

As the world heads towards increased deglobalisation, the creation of trade chambers among powerful blocs is inevitable, which creates a unique situation for big corporations that are used to global domination.

Source: The Geostrata (Instagram)

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das