For a government elected on a pledge of “securonomics”, the White House’s assault on the stability of markets, the function of global trade and the way in which the vast majority of human beings collaborate to create and spread wealth is a uniquely awkward challenge.
These are desirable goals. The Labour Party was pitching squarely to the electorate’s desire for a break from well over a decade of economic, political and military instability.
Globalisation, in the sense of trade becoming incrementally but inevitably more free, integration of supply chains, and the boon of exchange of goods and services benefiting both seller and buyer, has undoubtedly been dealt a severe blow by the tariff bomb.
I wrote a few weeks ago about the foolishness of both first-strike protectionism and of retaliatory tariffs. Sabotaging your own economy is no sort of meaningful retaliation against someone who is sabotaging theirs.
Thus a heap of grit thrown by Trump into the gears of the American and global economy has already escalated into conflict between the big blocs. They are putting up walls – that most Trumpish of emblems – against one another, and their economies will become less vibrant and less competitive as a result.
Either we believe we too can be a big, lumbering galleon and go toe-to-toe, or we choose to be a smaller, nimbler privateer, seeking to outmanoeuver rather than outgun them.
If, however, the Prime Minister believes that what matters is the outcome of policy, rather than its style, then those goals – good jobs, decent pay, controlling the cost of living, growth to sustain public services – can still be achieved, despite manmade economic headwinds.
That leaves the other option – to counter a world which is moving to be less ambitious, more navel-gazing, and less open, by positioning ourselves as a place which is the opposite. That means resisting protectionist urges, deregulating, setting taxation at a level which will attract and encourage investment, and re-establishing ourselves as a trade-friendly, innovation-friendly legal and business environment.
square IAN BIRRELL
Trump's tariffs mark the end of the most successful economic creed in history
Read MoreIt would also mean being willing to openly tout for EU businesses to relocate to the UK, on the basis that doing so would cut in half their tariff exposure when exporting to the US.
The role of a swashbuckling privateer might not immediately spring to mind as one which Sir Keir Starmer was born to play. But he pitches himself as a pragmatist, above all things – and when circumstances change, pragmatists must adapt accordingly.
Mark Wallace is Chief Executive of Total Politics Group
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The UK can still outmaneuver Trump’s tariffs – and win )
Also on site :