Wuhan, China, was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019. The initial region-wide lockdown to stem the domestic transmission of the virus negatively affected global supply chains of a variety of sectors including the semiconductor, pharmaceutical and the automobile, among others.
Though geographically distant from the COVID-19 epicenter, Canada felt and continues to feel the challenges associated with disruptions in supply chains connected to the Indo-Pacific. These disruptions are prompting Canada and other countries to think about their economic security.
At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic there was a shortage of personal protective equipment, demonstrating the link between nontraditional security issues like transnational diseases such as COVID-19 and the disruption of supply chains. We also saw the weaponization of supply chains with Canadian products being prejudiced by China through economic coercion associated with the arrest of Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou. This showed the link between geopolitics and the weaponization of supply chains. This economic coercion demonstrated that black swan events like the COVID-19 pandemic were not the only threat to supply chains and economic security.
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