…countries passed IP laws to protect US tech interests in exchange for tariff-free access to US markets. …[now we have] a generational opportunity to pass laws that enable local technologists to jailbreak US tech exports and liberate their people from the extractive practices of Big Tech forever.
Britain and the European Union are about to sign a formal commitment to “free and open trade” in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff plans. Read more from @politico
https://flip.it/1Z5Kgf
#Britain #EU #FreeTrade #Trump #Tariffs #Europe
"In Finland, manufacturing accounted for 24 percent of GDP. By 1991, it had declined to 17. In Sweden, manufacturing as a share of GDP declined from 21 to 16 percent during the same period. But by the early 2000, Finland brought its manufacturing share of GDP back up to 24 percent, and Sweden raised its manufacturing share of GDP to 20 percent.
The same trend can be observed in Singapore. Singapore experienced quite a significant decline in manufacturing in the mid-1980s, from 27 percent to 20 percent. But by the mid-2000s, it had recovered back to 27 percent. By the way, Singapore, despite what people think, is one of the most industrialized countries in the world: in terms of per capita manufacturing output, it ranks in the top five globally. There’s an interesting myth about it being a service economy.
The most industrialized country in the world is Switzerland. You think that the Swiss are dealing in the black money from Third World dictators and selling cow bells and cuckoo clocks to American and Japanese tourists. Actually, it is literally the most industrialized country in the world, if you count in terms of manufacturing output per person.
These countries have managed to revive their manufacturing industry, and since then they have declined a bit. But the lesson here is that these countries could do that only because they had a deliberate policy to revive manufacturing. What Donald Trump is trying to do is wishful thinking. Countries that have successfully increased their manufacturing output have deliberate policies to support manufacturing. In the Swedish and Finnish case, it also extended to retraining the workers made redundant because of the decline in traditional manufacturing sectors and then turning them into workers for new industries."
https://jacobin.com/2025/04/tariffs-protectionism-manufacturing-industrial-policy
"Free Trade Agreement" is a euphemism for the people of a country having no control over which products are exported to their country. Products they collectively pay to deal with when they break or reach EoL. Products that put their country in "balance of payments" debt to the countries who claim ownership of the most exports.
Imagine businesses could deliver any product they like to your home, putting you in debt to the countries they come from. That's household-scale "free trade".
Trump suggested that he'd only accept #tariff #negotiations with the EU if the EU commits to paying a large, #yearly sum of money.
We have a word for that: #tribute
#Trump expects / demands the #EU to pay tribute to the #US.
Just #fuckoff already!
I'm not one to agree with the #Chinese #government often, but they called it nicely: the US is a #bully.
@EUCommission if you guys #negotiate, you might as well start licking his boots and pay tribute.
When ‘Australia’ was upset with the Japanese during League of Nations the then-PM ‘Billy’ Hughes made a purposeful effort to lobby US senators to get them onside despite the President’s position on the matter (‘Racial Equality’).
Meanwhile - fast forward to present day: Australia’s Leaders, Dutton and Albanese are content with just focusing on their election campaigns.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/tariffs-on-incredibly-important-ally-australia-branded-insulting-in-fiery-us-senate-hearing/fav53aio2
#AusPol #AusVotes2025 #TradeWar #AusBiz #FreeTrade #Tariffs #InternationalRelations
https://www.europesays.com/1977273/ Musk’s brother drops R-word in explosive rant over Trump’s tariffs: Could this strain Elon’s ties with POTUS? #AmericanConsumers #DonaldTrump #FreeTrade #KimbalMusk #POTUS #PresidentDonaldTrump #PresidentOfTheUnitedStates #PresidentTrump #tariffs #trump
I wonder whether those folks who have dissed #freetrade and #globalization over recent years despite the prosperity and poverty reduction it has brought are paying attention now that the orange madman is giving them what they asked for.
Anyone else notice how quiet the neoliberals have been lately?
For decades, conservative fans of FA Hayek and Milton Friedman have told us that free trade and free markets are their core principles.
That we should let the invisible hand of the market decide.
That any government intervention, no matter how well intended, distorts the markets.
That government intervention in markets is socialism.
That governments shouldn't pick winners.
That taxes are bad.
That if there's a choice between government intervention to stop global warming from fossil fuel pollution or free trade, they'll gladly pick free trade.
Right back to Reagan and Thatcher, they swore these were their core principles.
So.
An American president intervening in markets by imposing arbitrary protectionist tariff taxes should have been a hard no.
A political candidate openly campaigning on doing this should have met stiff opposition from the invisible hand's true believers.
If a true believer in these neoliberal principles (as Rupert Murdoch has claimed to be) owned a news channel (such as Fox News), one would expect outrage at this blatant rejection of free markets and free trade.
So where are all the neoliberal think tanks? Economists? Politicians?
Why the silence?
One thing that I haven’t seen discussed much about Trump’s tariffs is how it increases the risk of large-scale war going forward.
The free trade economic model adopted post-WW2 was specifically designed to make countries economically interdependent and therefore less likely to go to war with each other. (It was also intended to make the rich even richer, in which it wildly succeeded, but that’s another story.)
Trump’s dismantling free trade will undermine global stability for decades to come. If there is a WW3, we may be able to point to today as a significant contributing factor.
@randahl Perhaps economists on the thread can chime in with their favourite #FreeTrade and specialisation arguments. For the rest of us, we have to dig out #AdamSmith et al.
The world tried for decades to agree on unrestricted, international trade #WTO and now it's like you have to debate the underlying principles again.
@GossiTheDog the trade war is not finished we have #steel and #aluminum happening on March 12th and then a new set of #tariffs set for April 2nd. Plus all the other imaginary trade irritants #Trump will bring up in the meantime #tradewar #freetrade #thereisnofreetrade
“Blueberry production in BC has grown from about 4.3 million kilograms in 1980 to 61 million kilograms in 2017.”
That’s because of NAFTA. That’s what Trump wants to kill.
#freetrade #tariffs
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@dave @localfutures Each year the UK exports around $250,000,000 butter and imports almost exactly the same amount. 
The US exports over 3 billion lbs of beef each year and imports almost the same. 
Belgium is the world’s 4th highest exporter of water, and the world’s 6th highest importer. 
The purpose? To line the pockets of the 0.01%, whilst accelerating the climate crisis on a massive scale.
It’s time to see through and beyond international trade as markers of anything else.
https://www.europesays.com/1734405/ German opposition’s chancellor candidate backs free trade talks with Trump #DonaldTrump #FreeTrade #FriedrichMerz #GermanNews #germany #OlafScholz #UnitedStates
The #CBO has calculated the effects of the proposed #tariffs and ensuing #tradewar . What is the opposite of a #freelunch ? #economics #freetrade #inflation #shortage #jobs #uspolitics #depression https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2024-12/61112-Tariffs.pdf
2/4 ... #hightech sectors such as #space #business , #AI and #databases ( #SpaxeX , #Palantir , #BlueOrigin , #GAFAM , etc.), while the rest of the U.S. economy is protected from foreign #competition by #protectionist measures (high #import #tariffs or unequal #freetrade #agreements with other #countries, and anti- #immigration #laws ). On the #ideological #front , attempts are being made everywhere to dismantle #political #liberalism...
(parliamentary #democracy closely coupled with... (3/4)
So while the UK is scrabbling around wondering how we might continue trading with a protectionist Trumpian America (see earlier post on services & exports to the USA), the EU has been negotiating & now concluded a major free trade deal with Mercosur, gaining access to a major South American trading bloc for European exports (with tariff reductions across around 90% of exports)... if only we'd been part of that; oh well... can't complain, at least we're 'independent'!
#Brexit #FreeTrade
h/t FT
