Jason Ma
Amid massive disruptions to global trade, the world is realigning itself as countries look to integrate more regionally, according to Mastercard chair Merit Janow.
At the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Monday, she said trade has actually remained resilient, even as the world muddles through a period of fragmentation and heightened uncertainty.
“Deregulation, re-globalization rather than massive de-globalization, I think, is what’s happening,” said Janow, who is also a former U.S. Trade Representative official. “So you’re seeing more regional concentrations of trade, and I think you’re seeing new experiments being born in this environment.”
That’s because President Donald Trump’s trade war is hitting countries around the world with aggressive tariffs as he seeks to bring more production back to the U.S. and shrink the gap between imports and exports.
While he has backed off on some of his earlier sky-high rates and reached deals with major economies, the average effective tariff rate remains the highest in nearly a century.
As a result, countries that relied on the U.S. for decades as a top export market must now rethink their strategies and turn to other partners.
“I’m paying attention to what is happening under the rubric of coalitions of the willing because there are a lot of restrictions that are being introduced by governments around the world, and some of them in the name of economic security, sometimes in the name of economic growth,” Janow told Fortune’s Diane Brady.
For example, countries in Asia and the Middle East are seeking closer integration, she added, meaning corporate leaders need to work with governments more frequently, too.
At the same time, Western democracies must reinvent themselves to stay competitive, particularly in Europe, where political processes have slowed critical decisions, according to JLL CEO Christian Ulbrich.
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