And indeed the European Union is fully engaged in working, together with other members, on proposals to strengthen the WTO in areas such as subsidies, e-commerce, property rights and ensuring enforceability of existing WTO commitments with a well-functioning dispute settlement system that cannot be blocked by any single country.11 At the same time, it is important that the European Union should continue to negotiate trade agreements with other partners. Although, as mentioned earlier, this is not a first best solution, it is time to recognise that regional and multilateral arrangements open to others can succeed where multilateral negotiations have failed to bring many countries into the international trading system. In the financial arena, the emergence of regional initiatives has generated a more robust and better resourced global financial safety net. However, coordination between the different layers should be strengthened, on the understanding that a regional system can complement, but not substitute, the role of the IMF. In my view, the IMF is still essential, for at least four reasons. First, it has unique expertise in crisis management. Second, the participation of the IMF in adjustment-programme design adds an objective view that regional institutions cannot provide, one that is respected both by domestic authorities and by the private sector. Third, in cases of interconnected economies, the involvement of the IMF can dissipate the potential regional concentration of risks.
Fourth, the IMF is the only institution that can mobilise a substantial amount of resources should a global crisis occur.12 Finally, I believe it is also important to make the multilateral system and its benefits more visible to the general public in order to regain legitimacy and public support. In this sense, global integration should be accompanied by domestic policies that allow all citizens to reap the benefits of globalisation, since although the general equilibrium effects of globalisation are indeed positive, it can have negative effects on certain sectors and groups, which it is important to try to minimise.13 Many of these ideas may well fit into what former IMF managing director Christine Lagarde dubbed “new multilateralism in a new economic landscape".14 She illustrated her proposal  9  http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1945 Alan WM. Wolff (2019), “The opportunity for reform of the trading system must not be squandered”, Speech at the Banque de France conference centre in Paris, 16 July 2019. 11 http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1945 12 Gallego, S., P. L’Hotellerie and F. López (2018), “The International Monetary Fund and its Role as a Guarantor of Global Financial Stability”, Banco de España, Economic Bulletin 4/2018. 13 IMF (2007), “Globalization and Inequality”, WEO, Chapter 4 and Helpman, E. (2018), “Globalization and Inequality”, Harvard University Press. 14 https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2018/10/11/sp101218-new-economic-landscape-new-multilateralism 10  7/8  nicely with two examples. One concerns trade integration: the system should be fair and take care of those left behind in the process of globalisation.