Globalisation isn’t broken — it’s how it’s been designed that shapes who benefits

Globalisation encompasses the integration of economies, capital, production networks, technology, and labour across borders. Trade facilitates the movement of goods and services, but globalisation also determines where value is created, who captures it, and how gains are distributed.

Criticisms that target trade alone overlook these deeper structural dynamics.

Global Trade Enables SMEs and Economic Development

Global trade is essential for the emergence and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs rely on access to international markets to scale beyond limited domestic demand. They benefit from imported inputs, global logistics networks, and exposure to international competition that fosters innovation and efficiency. In closed or highly protectionist systems, economic power tends to concentrate among large incumbents, limiting entrepreneurship and market dynamism.

The same principle applies to developing economies. No country has successfully industrialised in isolation. Export-led growth has historically enabled countries to move from subsistence agriculture to manufacturing and higher-value services. Global trade provides access to technology, capital goods, and learning opportunities that allow domestic industries to mature. Without integration into global markets, industrialisation stalls and economic mobility remains limited.

The Failure of Trickle-Down Globalisation

Where globalisation has failed is not in its openness, but in its reliance on trickle-down economics. Over recent decades, globalisation has prioritised capital mobility over labour security, shareholder value over productive investment, and financial returns over wage growth. Multinational corporations have been able to arbitrage labour costs, taxes, and regulation, while domestic industries and workers have borne the adjustment costs.

This model concentrated wealth among asset owners, executives, and financial institutions. Productivity gains were not broadly shared, and economic resilience weakened as manufacturing ecosystems hollowed out. These outcomes were not an unavoidable consequence of global trade, but the result of policy choices that shaped how globalisation operated.

Power Without Broad-Based Prosperity

Advanced economies, particularly those at the centre of the global system, benefited disproportionately from globalisation. Control over financial infrastructure, intellectual property regimes, and global institutions enabled significant wealth creation. Yet the distribution of those gains was highly uneven. Instead of reinvesting in education, infrastructure, and industrial renewal, wealth became increasingly entrenched among a small elite.

As a result, many communities experienced stagnation despite overall economic growth. This disconnect between national prosperity and household outcomes fuelled distrust of globalisation, even though the underlying issue was not openness itself but the absence of inclusive economic design.

Toward Trickle-Up Globalisation

 Globalisation succeeds when global trade supports trickle-up economics rather than trickle-down economics. This requires systems that expand participation and distribute value more broadly. In practice, this means:

• Enabling SMEs to compete and scale internationally rather than being crowded out by monopolistic structures
• Ensuring workers share in productivity gains through wages, skills development, and ownership opportunities
• Supporting developing countries in moving up value chains rather than remaining locked into low-value exports
• Prioritising productive investment over financial extraction

When global trade is governed in a way that strengthens local economies, rewards production, and promotes upward mobility, it becomes a powerful driver of shared prosperity.

Conclusion

Globalisation is not inherently flawed, nor is global trade the enemy. The real failure lies in a model that concentrated wealth rather than creating inclusive growth. Reimagining globalisation around trickle-up economics offers a path forward—one where trade connects economies not just for efficiency, but for broadly shared economic progress.