Global supply chains: is the UK vulnerable?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When the 400 metre long Ultra Large Container Vessel, Ever Given, got wedged diagonally across the Suez Canal at the end of March, it brought one of the world’s most important trade routes to a standstill for six days. Around ten per cent of global shipping passes through the canal. Shipping itself is responsible for some 90 per cent of global trade. The blockage served to revive worries that global supply chains have become a source of vulnerability for economies that rely on international trade. The immediate effect of the Ever Given accident for the UK may not become clear for several weeks. The Briefing Room asks what longer term vulnerabilities has it exposed and how might these best be mitigated?
Presenter: David Aaronovitch Production team: Tim Mansel, Paul Moss and Kirsteen Knight
Satellite image shows stranded container ship Ever Given in Suez canal. Egypt March 25th 2021. Credit: Reuters
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.8 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David O'Ronovich, a virtual space where you, me, top experts, a big issue and 28 minutes come together in an explosion of understanding. |
| 0:21.5 | In this edition, the ever-given, |
| 0:23.5 | the vast ship that got jammed |
| 0:25.1 | in the Suez Canal at the end of March |
| 0:26.7 | created a bottleneck in global supply chains |
| 0:29.8 | and had people suggesting |
| 0:31.4 | we should be making more of our stuff at home. |
| 0:34.6 | So should we? |
| 0:43.3 | Music at home. So should we? On March the 23rd, the good ship the ever given got wedged across the Suez Canal |
| 0:47.3 | and created a metaphor that could be seen from space. |
| 0:51.3 | It stood for the precariousness of global trade in an age of shocks. |
| 0:56.6 | Already, leaders of some nations had been calling for more national self-sufficiency. |
| 1:01.4 | There was Donald Trump with America first, and more recently, the Indian leader Narendra Modi |
| 1:06.1 | has talked of getting vocal for local in manufacturing. Would Britain be wise to follow suit? |
| 1:14.0 | Step into the briefing room and I'll try and find out. |
| 1:23.0 | Back to Suez, because I want to know what the butterfly effect of that blockage was. |
| 1:28.5 | First into the briefing room this week is Claire Jones of the Financial Times. |
| 1:32.3 | She's the editor of a daily column called Trade Secrets and joins me from Frankfurt. |
| 1:37.7 | Claire Jones, we know that one very large ship blocked the canal. |
| 1:42.6 | How much shipping actually got delayed as a consequence? |
| 1:46.5 | So the Suez Canal is a massive artery for world trade. The reason being is that it |
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