Trade Therapy: Deepening Cooperation to Strengthen Pandemic Defenses

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has exposed the upsides and downsides ofinternational trade in medical goods and services. Open trade can increase access tomedical services and goods—and the critical inputs needed to manufacture them—improvequality and variety, and reduce costs. However, excessive concentration of production,restrictive trade policies, supply chain disruptions, and regulatory divergence can jeopardizethe ability of public health systems to respond to pandemics and other...