Are US tariffs just the beginning? With Abraham Newman

美国关税只是开始吗?随着亚伯拉罕·纽曼

The Economics Show

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2025-04-07

32 分钟
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单集简介 ...

As Donald Trump declares a trade war on the rest of the world, it’s time to learn about a field of economic research known as “weaponised interdependence”. The bad news is that The US president’s weapon of choice – imposing tariffs on goods imports – is a fairly outdated tool of economic warfare. Globalisation and advances in financial and communications technology have created an arsenal of additional weapons, which may yet be fired off by the US or by other big players such as China and the EU. To find out more, the FT’s Alan Beattie speaks to the leading world expert on weaponised interdependence, Abraham Newman, professor of political science at Georgetown University. He warns that Europe, in particular, needs to completely change its gameplan in response to this new world of dominance relationships. Presented by Alan Beattie. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval and Laurence Knight. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music by Breen Turner. Audio mix by Simon Panayi. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.  Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • Hello. How are you doing?

  • I'm good.

  • How are you doing?

  • I kind of expect you to see like a red sky in the background and plumes of smoke rising

  • and empty blackened hawks are built.

  • Anyway, oh my God.

  • Anyway, in case you were asleep last week,

  • Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a minimum 10% tariff on most of America's goods imports,

  • plus much higher tariffs on most of America's major trade partners.

  • He called it Liberation Day for the US economy.

  • But tariffs are a very 19th century policy tool.

  • It's a bit like starting a modern day gunfight by firing off an antique blunder bus.

  • That's because over the past few decades,

  • globalization has woven economies around the world more closely than ever before.

  • Meanwhile, the technology of trade, communications and finance has become ever more sophisticated.

  • And that's created new ways for big countries to bend other nations to their will.

  • Why rely on tariffs when you can impose tighter controls on high technology, energy, satellite communications or perhaps payment systems?

  • So should we worry that Donald Trump may soon expand his arsenal to include these more 21st century economic weapons?

  • How might other big players like China and the EU respond?

  • And by meddling with the financial plumbing of the world economy, might they risk tearing globalization apart?