World Bank, IMF challenged by anti-globalization wave

Global finance leaders on Oct. 6 publicly confronted the rising unpopularity of trade liberalization, saying world economies needed to strive for more inclusive growth.

With Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leading a surge of anti-free trade sentiment in the United States, and Britain voting to secede from the European Union, top central bankers and finance ministers were pressed to defend long-standing ideology at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings.

"We shouldn't apologize for what has happened and hundreds of millions of people being lifted out of poverty and opportunity being created," Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, told a panel on the global economy.

"But there are challenges with distribution," he said. "How do we work with people to share those fruits more effectively and how do we make trade tangible?"   

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble expressed alarm at the rise of anti-trade populism across the developed world.

"If you look at what we have achieved in reducing the number of very poor people all over the world," he said.

"We must have in mind that we must not increase the gap between elites -political leaders, economic leaders, media leaders- and the people. Otherwise we will risk increasing populism and that's one of the major risks."

At the same time, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, whose organization has long advocated lowering trade and investment barriers around the world, warned that now was not the time to close the door on globalization, which she said had benefitted so many.

"We don't think it's time to push against it," she said.

Long promoted by the major international development...