The Executive Director of the South Centre Dr. Carlos Correa has observed that the current protectionist policies of the major western powers may paradoxically strengthen cooperation among developing countries, creating new opportunities for the ‘Global South’ to reshape the global economic order through strategic approaches and regional collaboration.
Referring specifically to the confrontational U.S. trade policies driving unexpected shifts among emerging economies, he noted that “The US is helping India and China to come closer, and if India and China work together, the global economy and politics could change dramatically.”
Dr. Correa, a leading authority on international trade, innovation, and intellectual property, made these observations when on 3 November 2025, during a visit to Sri Lanka to deliver the Centenary Gamani Corea Memorial Lecture, he participated in the inaugural RCSS Strategic Dialogue on the theme ‘Research Priorities for the ‘Global South’ in Challenging Times’.
Moderated by the Executive Director of the RCSS Amb. (Retd.) Ravinatha Aryasinha, it brought together serving and retired senior public servants, diplomats, academics, heads of research institutes and civil society representatives.
Dr. Correa observed that over the past 10 years South-South trade has expanded to around 40% of global trade, while substantial investments in science and technology amongst major states in the global south – such as China, Brazil, and India have also increased significantly.
This shift represents a transition toward greater economic pluralism and regional agency, demanding systematic research and policy analysis. However, he identified two tensions that undermine effective scholarship: the challenge of balancing academic freedom with policy relevance, and also the distorting influence of donor-driven agendas – where foreign funding dictates research parameters.
Drawing examples from the work of the Geneva based South Centre which undertakes research and analysis on various international policy areas and helps countries of the South to evolve common negotiating positions, he posited that research must remain objective and fact-based, while reflecting Global South perspectives and priorities.
Dr. Correa challenged the conventional theories that emphasise that development flows naturally from static comparative advantages. “It’s not about what you have, but how you use it,” he argued.
He emphasized that developing countries need comprehensive research on industrial strategy and value addition, moving beyond raw material exports to capture value through domestic processing and manufacturing.
Positing that “knowledge is essential for development,” he recommended that developing countries must develop dynamic comparative advantages through strategic investment in education, innovation, and technological capability.
The dialogue also grappled with fundamental questions about the coherence and continued relevance of the ‘Global South’ as an analytical category.
Dr. Correa stated that despite the vast heterogeneity of the ‘Global South’, persisting global structural inequalities both necessitate and justify collective frameworks.
He said China’s economy now surpasses America’s in absolute PPP terms, yet the United States maintains extraordinary influence through its dominance of the IMF and World Bank, the international dollar system, and technology.
Understanding the mismatch between economic weight and institutional power has emerged as a critical research priority for scholars and policymakers.
Dr. Correa remarked that addressing these questions require serious examination of how asymmetric trade agreements perpetuate dependency, such as the U.S. imposing tariffs of up to nineteen percent on exports from countries like Malaysia and Cambodia while facing zero tariffs on its own exports to these nations.
Equally important is investigating the mechanisms through which technological dominance reinforces power imbalances, and how Southern institutions can build alternative frameworks for equitable economic governance.
Additionally, scholars also need to document the evolution of South-South cooperation, tracking how bilateral trade arrangements, regional financing mechanisms, and emerging currency diversification efforts gradually challenge established hierarchies while respecting the diverse contexts and capabilities of developing nations.
Furthermore, he explained that developing nations remain severely under-represented despite their growing economic
weight, highlighting that alternatives to the traditional Bretton Woods institutions, such as BRICS and a number of regional and bilateral arrangements, signal meaningful shifts toward pluralism in the international economic architecture, phenomena requiring active documentation and analysis by ‘Global South’ research communities.
However, it was also acknowledged that substantial shifts in the international economic order, particularly de-dollarization and alternative trade and economic frameworks, will be drawn out and take time, preventing the ‘Global South’ from taking advantage of the immediate opportunities available, which could change over time.
This challenge underscores the urgency of developing robust, policy-relevant research that can guide incremental but strategic actions in the near term, while building toward longer-term structural transformation.
Amb. (Retd.) Ravinatha Aryasinha in closing the dialogue, thanked Dr. Correa for sharing the South Centre’s current thinking and providing useful comparisons with the situation in developing countries and regions across the globe, which will help as Sri Lanka and more broadly the South Asian region navigates the present challenges.
In turn, Dr. Correa encouraged Sri Lankan and South Asian researchers to use the vast network of over 7000 policymakers available to the South Centre to help disseminate their scholarship more broadly with those engaged in comparable research in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
At the commencement of the dialogue a moment of silence was observed in memory of Professor Shelton Kodikara, founder of the RCSS in 1992 and Sri Lanka’s foremost International Relations scholar, on the occasion of his death anniversary, as well as Dr. John Gunaratne, a former Acting Executive Director of RCSS, who passed away recently.
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