World leaders need to push back against a tide of "rampant" protectionism and nationalism, Canadian premier Justin Trudeau said Saturday, warning that "building walls" was not the solution. The global economy is not working for too many people, Trudeau said, fuelling anger among voters left behind by decades of unequal growth and "taking us in the wrong direction in many places in the world".
"There's a sense the forward march of progress has stalled," he told a business forum in the Chinese city of Hangzhou which is hosting the G20 summit. "That anxiety is exactly what is leading to the kind of anti-trade, anti-globalisation protectionism that is running rampant, whether in Brexit, or in protectionist rhetoric in election campaigns," he said.
"We have to push back against that," he said. "It's very tempting to fall into divisive, fearful rhetoric. That's one of the things we have to be strongly compelling in standing against." Trudeau did not explicitly reference Donald Trump's populist campaign for the US presidency, but alluded to the Republican nominee's platform as he argued for the benefits of free trade.