Seven finance and trade lessons from Covid-19 for future pandemics

Pandemics and epidemics pose systemic risks to lives, societies, and to global economic security-and their frequency is expected to increase as rising trade and increased human interaction with animals leads to the emergence of new diseases. The Covid-19 pandemic teaches us that we can and must be better prepared, with scope for much greater global coordination to address the financing, supply-chain, and trade barriers that amplified the pandemic's economic costs and contributed to the emergence of new variants. This paper draws seven early lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic that could inform future policy priorities and help shape a better global response to future crises.