Money Talks: The new logic of trade
Money Talks from The Economist
The Economist
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 October 2021
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Trade used to be about efficiency and growth. But those goals are being overtaken by others, from security to environmentalism. Our Britain economics editor Soumaya Keynes and host Rachana Shanbhogue investigate how the blurring of economic and political concerns is driving—and destabilising—trade relationships, with global consequences.
We hear from Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organisation, about the WTO’s complicated history and contested future. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai explains where she thinks the current rules-based system falls short, particularly when it comes to China. And Pamela Coke-Hamilton, head of the International Trade Centre, identifies the winners and losers of this new era.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The foundations of trade are shifting. For years, trade was about securing efficiency, |
| 0:11.1 | stability and growth. But today, other objectives are driving negotiations and demanding attention, |
| 0:17.9 | with consequences that will ripple throughout the global economy. |
| 0:22.8 | You're listening to Money Talks from the Economist, our weekly podcast on the markets, |
| 0:26.7 | the economy and the world of business. I'm Rachna Scharnberg, and coming up on today's show, |
| 0:31.8 | we'll hear from Dr. Gozy Akonjo Iweiler, Director General of the World Trade Organization, |
| 0:37.3 | about a complicated history and an even more contested future. |
| 0:41.5 | Should trade and should WTA be part of the solution or is it part of the problem? My thesis is |
| 0:48.2 | it's part of the solution, but the devil is in the detail of how you put these designs together. |
| 0:54.7 | US Trade Representative Catherine Tye, on where she thinks the current rules-based system falls |
| 1:00.0 | short, particularly when it comes to China. The vision for a rules-based trading system based |
| 1:06.6 | on market principles has fallen down or has become a mismatch with the reality we have, where not |
| 1:14.4 | everyone can benefit from these rules in the same way. And Pamela Koch-Hamilton of the International |
| 1:20.8 | Trade Centre on the winners and losers of this new era. It's the only platform, the only space |
| 1:28.0 | that we have to be able to engage at a multilateral level on international trade. |
| 1:44.6 | But first, ask an economist and they'll tend to agree that free trade is a good thing. |
| 1:50.8 | About ten years ago, a group of prominent economists was asked whether they agreed that |
| 1:55.4 | free trade improved efficiency, gave consumers more choice, and that long-term these benefits outweighed |
| 2:01.7 | any effect on employment. Nearly all said that it did. One even replied, if that's not right, |
| 2:08.5 | almost all of economics is wrong. After the Second World War, most political leaders |
| 2:15.0 | converged towards that view. They cut tariffs, agreed trade deals, and tried to protect trade from |
| 2:20.5 | being caught up in fights about other issues. Their work took trade from around 30% of global GDP |
... |
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