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Alan Beattie

Senior Trade Writer

Alan Beattie writes the Trade Secrets newsletter every Monday and an opinion column each Thursday, covering international trade, globalisation, the intersection of geopolitics and economics and the world financial system. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Based in London, he was previously the FT's international economy editor and world trade editor and has been also been based in Washington and Brussels for the FT. He is the author of False Economy (Penguin, 2009), a popular economic history of the world, and Who's In Charge Here? (Penguin, 2012), an account of governments' mishandling of the global financial crisis. Before joining the FT, Alan was an economist at the Bank of England.

Email Alan Beattie @alanbeattie  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
  • Thursday, 12 December, 2024
    Trade SecretsGlobal trade
    The state intervention that’s not destroying trade

    Governments are experimenting with industrial policy but tariffs are staying low

    Arial view of different coloured containers on a container ship
  • Monday, 9 December, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    The endangered Mercosaurus roars back to life Premium content

    Europe and South America revive a dormant deal

    French farmers spell out ‘Mercosur’ with signs on a road near Angouleme as part of their protest against the trade deal
  • Thursday, 5 December, 2024
    Trade SecretsUS trade
    Tariff Man’s superpowers are weaker than he thinks

    Donald Trump’s obsession with import taxes belies their limited effects

    Justin Trudeau with Donald Trump in 2017. If Trump really does favour tariffs, he will find them a clumsy and often ineffective way of asserting US power
  • Monday, 2 December, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    Greatest threat to Trump’s dollar is Trump himself Premium content

    The incoming US president’s rambling warning to the Brics countries makes no sense

    Donald Trump
  • Thursday, 28 November, 2024
    Trade SecretsUS trade
    The contradictions of Trumponomics over tariffs lie exposed

    This week is a sobering reminder of the uncertainties of US policy to come

    Kevin Hassett speaks at a podium while Donald Trump stands next to him
  • Tuesday, 26 November, 2024
    US trade
    How to deal with Trump’s tariff threats

    Canada, Mexico and China have options to avoid a trade war

    Montage of Donald Trump and the flags of China, Canada and Mexico
  • Monday, 25 November, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    The climate cash that’s not going to come Premium content

    Don’t believe COP promises or obsess about Trump palace politics

    Activists hold a sign saying: ‘Global north: pay up for public finance’
  • Thursday, 21 November, 2024
    Renewable energy
    The global green transition will survive Trump

    Higher borrowing costs from tariffs and tax cuts will be the US’s main impact on carbon-saving investment worldwide

    An employee charges a BYD electric vehicle at a charging station in Shenzhen, China
  • Monday, 18 November, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    Trump’s trade plans, ranked from easiest to hardest to execute Premium content

    It’s much easier to use unilateral tariffs than pass legislation or agree preferential trade deals

    Donald Trump gestures in front of a political display board that reads ‘Trump will fix it!’
  • Thursday, 14 November, 2024
    Global Economy
    Q&A: Experts answered your questions on trade and markets in the Trump era

    FT journalists responded to readers’ queries on how the global economy might change under the incoming president

    Montage of Alan Beattie, Brooke Masters and Andy Bounds
  • Thursday, 14 November, 2024
    Trade SecretsDonald Trump
    A crumbling system of trade rules awaits Trump’s wrecking ball

    The new administration confronts a WTO already undermined by long-standing US disapproval

    President Donald Trump, joined by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer
  • Monday, 11 November, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    How the Democrats’ worker-centred trade policy failed Premium content

    Taking dictation from the labour unions brought economic damage for little political gain

    A man in a baseball cap stands behind others as Joe Biden gives an address as vice-president in 2015
  • Thursday, 7 November, 2024
    Trade SecretsUS politics & policy
    Trump’s tariff obsession is worse than before

    Trying to close current account deficits with trade tools could cause serious damage

    A China Ocean Shipping Group Co. (COSCO) ship in the San Francisco Bay waits to enter the Port of Oakland in Oakland, California
  • Monday, 4 November, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    Trump could take US trade policy all over the place Premium content

    Unpredictability and an aggressive nationalistic tone are likely to characterise the former president’s approach if he wins again

    Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump dances at the end of a campaign rally
  • Thursday, 31 October, 2024
    Trade SecretsUS politics & policy
    The internal rivalries that will determine Trump’s policies on trade

    The Republican candidate’s first presidential term was marked by infighting in the administration

    A farmer feeds cows on a dairy farm in Lancaster, Wisconsin
  • Monday, 28 October, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    The risk from talking tough to Trump Premium content

    Preparing fixed battle plans for a trade war with the US may not be the right approach

    Republican presidential nominee and former US president Donald Trump gestures during a rally
  • Monday, 21 October, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    The IMF and World Bank are stuck in an underperforming rut Premium content

    The multilateral organisations are not providing the finance the developing world needs

    IMF and World Bank signage outside of the IMF headquarters in Washington
  • Thursday, 17 October, 2024
    Trade SecretsInfrastructure investment
    The magic pony of private finance fails to fund the global green transition

    It’s unrealistic to imagine investors will massively increase their contribution to developing-country infrastructure

    World Bank President Ajay Banga meets with community members at a mangrove rehabilitation and restoration site supported by the World Bank, at Teluk Naga on the outskirts of Jakarta
  • Monday, 14 October, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    Donald Trump’s unimpeded path to trade war Premium content

    Neither Congress nor the courts would be likely to stop him raising tariffs across the board

    Donald Trump standing in front of a microphone
  • Thursday, 10 October, 2024
    Trade SecretsSupply chains
    How value chains survived the great inflation without state help

    One-off supply-demand mismatches during the Covid shock don’t justify widespread government intervention

    Aerial view of truck with trailers a port
  • Monday, 7 October, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    A divided EU presents China with easy targets Premium content

    Member states are failing to show Beijing a united front over electric vehicles

    Electric vehicles at the Port of Taicang, China, bound for shipment to Europe
  • Thursday, 3 October, 2024
    Trade SecretsElectric vehicles
    Why the US can’t impose its will over global trade in electric cars

    The American market is too small to give Washington leverage over Chinese software in EVs

    An employee works at the BYD Coach and Bus manufacturing facility in Lancaster, California
  • Monday, 30 September, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    The dock strikes that threaten trade and the freeports that fail to boost it Premium content

    US east coast labour unions are set to cause serious disruption to container shipping

    A container ship is unloaded in the APM Terminals yard at the Port of Mobile in Mobile, Alabama
  • Thursday, 26 September, 2024
    Trade SecretsEuropean companies
    How supply chain superheroes have kept world trade flowing

    The flat-pack furniture giant Ikea has successfully ridden the shocks of Covid and Ukraine

    Jon Abrahamsson Ring
  • Monday, 23 September, 2024
    The Economics Show podcast31 min listen
    What would Trump do on trade? With Alan Beattie

    Donald Trump has promised yet more extreme policy if re-elected. What will stick?

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