With the Covid-19 pandemic fueling fears of shortages, there are many calls to move production back to Switzerland. But this country would have a lot to lose from a strategy of repatriation. With a foreign trade quota of 96%, Switzerland’s prosperity relies on close international ties. The authors of this new Avenir Suisse study draw a number of conclusions from the pandemic in terms of economic and healthcare policy. They favor security of supply over self-sufficiency as a means of avoiding shortages in the future. While security of supply can be guaranteed by broadly diversifying sources, even with a high degree of self-sufficiency Switzerland would still rely on imports of auxiliary supplies.
Open Switzerland
The Dead End of Repatriation
Analysis Globalization, not self-sufficiency, for security of supply and prosperity
Abstract
The study looks to see what the current coronavirus pandemic can teach us in terms of economic and healthcare policy, concluding that security of supply is a better foundation than self-sufficiency to avoid shortages in the future. The best means of assuring security of supply is to diversify the sources broadly. Even for essential goods such as electricity and healthcare supplies, the strategy should be openness rather than isolationism and autocracy.
The study looks to see what the current coronavirus pandemic can teach us in terms of economic and healthcare policy, concluding that security of supply is a better foundation than self-sufficiency to avoid shortages in the future. The best means of assuring security of supply is to diversify the sources broadly. Even for essential goods such as electricity and healthcare supplies, the strategy should be openness rather than isolationism and autocracy.
