Managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva and the director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Roberto Azevedo have issued a joint call for nations to lift trade restrictions on medical supplies and food items amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

While global trade rules allow for temporary export restrictions to prevent or relieve critical shortages in exporting countries, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, some Governments have adopted measures to facilitate imports of medical products by cutting import duties, curbing customs-clearance processes, and streamlining licensing and approval requirements.

However, the heads emphasised that export restrictions can be “dangerously counterproductive”.

“What makes sense in an isolated emergency can be severely damaging in a global crisis,” they warned. “Such measures disrupt supply chains, depress production, and misdirect scarce, critical products and workers away from where they are most needed. Other governments counter with their own restrictions. The result is to prolong and exacerbate the health and economic crisis — with the most serious effects likely on the poorer and more vulnerable countries.”

The organisations also expressed concern with the decline in the supply of trade finance and urged Governments and financial institutions to provide adequate finance, to ensure that imports of food and essential medical equipment reach the economies where they are most needed.

“The experience in the global financial crisis showed that food export restrictions multiply rapidly across countries and lead to ever greater uncertainties and price increases,” they stated.

In closing their joint statement, the agency heads emphasised that the same level of international cooperation that allowed the world to recover from the 2008 financial crisis is needed today.

“Amid the unfolding global financial crisis, global economic leaders in 2008 jointly committed to refrain for a year from new import, export, and investment restrictions. This pledge helped to avoid widespread trade restrictions that would have worsened the crisis and delayed recovery — just as trade restrictions deepened and prolonged the Great Depression of the 1930s. History has taught us that keeping markets open helps everyone — especially the world’s poorest people. Let’s act on the lessons we have learned.”