Philippe Legrain

Nonsense on wheels

The FT has published my letter demolishing the nonsense argument by Jason Cummins and the Trump administration that EU VAT gives European exporters an unfair trade advantage.

Cummins claims that it is unfair that BMW does not pay EU VAT on its exports to the US, whereas General Motors must pay VAT on its exports to the EU.

But BMW cars sold in Europe face exactly the same VAT rate as GM ones exported from the US.

Similarly, BMWs and Cadillacs sold in the US face identical state and local sales taxes, and neither pay EU VAT on their US sales.

Cummins ignores the true lack of reciprocity: that the EU levies a 10 per cent tariff on car imports whereas the US levies 2.5 per cent on cars and 25 per cent on light trucks. Equalising all of those at 2.5 per cent would make sense.

Regrettably, Trump has instead announced a 25 per cent tariff on all car imports from April 3. That is “unfair” and “discriminatory”, not EU VAT.

America’s Stab in the Back

“There’s a new sheriff in town,” declared US Vice President J.D. Vance at this year’s Munich Security Conference. With his boss, “Sheriff” Donald Trump, openly disparaging America’s longstanding security commitments and actively undermining European security, the United States can no longer be trusted, and it is up to Europe’s leaders to bolster the continent’s defense capacity – and fast.

Read this Project Syndicate Big Picture, with a contribution from me.

How Europe Can Rearm

How can European countries possibly afford to increase military spending at a time when their economies are weak, public finances are stretched, and many voters are loath to accept cuts to other government spending? In fact, there is no shortage of options – and, with the United States going its own way, no room for further delay.

Read my latest column for Project Syndicate

Europe Must Fight the Far-Right Surge

After the far right’s gains in the European Parliament elections, mainstream parties can either sit idly by or tackle the problem head-on, as French President Emmanuel Macron seems to be doing. Calling the populists’ bluff offers the best chance of victory by showing how their radical policies could backfire.

Read my latest column for Project Syndicate

Europe must rearm now

The growing likelihood of an unhinged Donald Trump returning to power and acting on his threats to withdraw the United States from NATO should serve as a wake-up call for Europe. Instead of hoping for the best, European countries must boost their military spending and establish a robust defence union

Read my latest column for Project Syndicate

A Brexit reset?

Boris Johnson won the December 2019 UK general election on the promise that he had an “oven-ready deal” to “get Brexit done.” But while the UK did leave the EU in January 2020, Johnson’s deal included a deeply contentious protocol governing the special trade status of Northern Ireland. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s successful negotiation of an amended deal with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is thus a welcome development – one that could mark a turning point in UK-EU relations.

Read my latest piece for Project Syndicate.

L’Immigrazione è un beneficio economico da incentivare

Secondo l’economista britannico, nonché fondatore di Open Political Economy Network (OPEN), Philippe Legrain, l’apertura verso gli immigrati, oltre che ad essere moralmente giusta, è anche economicamente e culturalmente arricchente. Per Legrain la libertà di movimento, all’interno di un mondo sempre più interconnesso e globalizzato, è uno dei principali diritti da difendere e promuovere, perché solo attraverso questo principio fondamentale l’individuo ha la reale possibilità di definirsi nel corso della sua vita, non solamente attraverso gli standard culturali del suo luogo di nascita, ma anche per le sue reali capacità e doti personali. Nell’ottica di un mondo sempre più aperto e multiculturale, secondo Legrain, l’immigrazione permette inoltre un arricchimento sociale e culturale per tutti i cittadini di un Paese: l’arrivo di persone da altri Stati, infatti, comporta la diffusione di una più ampia dieta gastronomica, induce ad una maggiore creatività nell’arte e nella musica e consente un allargamento delle relazioni sociali che stimola l’innovazione e la conoscenza del mondo. L’immigrazione, insomma, non comporta la sostituzione della cultura nativa con quella degli “stranieri”, bensì l’integrazione e l’arricchimento di entrambe.

Leggi l’articolo di Daniele Cornia.

L’Express on Them and Us

“L’immigration est aujourd’hui, sans doute, le sujet le plus controversé dans les pays occidentaux. Nos sociétés (relativement) ouvertes et libérales sont menacées par des personnes qui rendent responsables les étrangers en général, et les immigrés en particulier, pour tout ce qui selon eux ne va pas dans nos vies et sociétés” écrit Philippe Legrain dans Them and us. Alors que le rejet de l’immigration a été le moteur du populisme comme du vote pour le Brexit, cet essayiste britannique, ancien journaliste à The Economist et conseiller de José Manuel Barroso à la Commission européenne, livre un plaidoyer assumé. 

Merci, Thomas Mahler. Lisez son article sur le site de l’Express.

Award for Them and Us

“Them and Us: How immigrants and locals can thrive together” won the Diversity, Inclusion and Equality award at the Business Book Awards last night.

Thank you so much!

Great review of Them and Us in The Economist

“Them and Us” by Philippe Legrain, a former Economist journalist, sets out the benefits of migration and asks how newcomers and locals can get along better. “Wretched Refuse?” by Alex Nowrasteh and Benjamin Powell, a think-tanker and an academic, asks a crucial question: might immigration from poor, corrupt countries undermine the institutions of rich, well-governed ones?

Mr Legrain’s book is the more accessible: though underpinned by scholarship it is chatty, entertaining and full of anecdotes, such as the one with which this review begins. He breezily rebuts popular arguments for closed borders, and turns populist slogans upside down.

Thank you, Robert Guest.

Read the full review. Find out more about Them and Us.

Great review of Them and Us in today’s FT

“A full-throated defence of open borders and freedom of movement could easily feel too late at a time when Home Office officials looked at shipping asylum seekers to distant islands. Legrain’s work is anything but: it makes a solid rebuttal against the polemics of anti-immigrant talking heads with an unabashedly positive case for immigration grounded in facts, and ends with practical advice for resistance.”

Thank you, Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan.

Read the review in full.

Read more about Them and Us.

How will societies change after the coronavirus?

How will society change after the coronavirus pandemic?

The adoption of digital technologies has advanced in leaps and bounds, but it is still implausible that this spells the end of the office or the demise of business travel, let alone the decline of cities, which may rather become younger and more liveable. Perhaps the biggest question mark is how politicians will respond to post-crisis demands for a fairer society.

Read my latest for Brussels Times.

Eurozone needs a coronavirus Marshall Plan

Eurozone finance ministers have finally agreed a package of measures to respond to the coronavirus crisis. But in the face of an unprecedented medical and economic emergency, it is inadequate. What the eurozone needs is a large, temporary coronavirus Marshall Plan, funded by common debt that the ECB would buy and hold for the foreseeable future. 

Read my latest for Project Syndicate.

A ‘corona bond’ would demonstrate that European solidarity exists

As Europe faces an unprecedented coronavirus crisis that is so far hitting Italy and Spain particularly hard and is straining the EU to breaking point, an exceptional “corona bond” would provide the fiscal firepower to support stricken businesses and workers and demonstrate European solidarity. If not now, when?

Read my latest for Brussels Times

My piece was quoted by Ishaan Tharoor in the Washington Post as follows:

The coronabonds, wrote economist Philippe Legrain, would “give the eurozone greater geopolitical reach and provide greater protection against President Donald Trump’s abuse of the dominance of the US dollar for harmful political ends.” It would also prove that “European solidarity exists,” according to Legrain.

Quoted on the future of globalisation in China Daily

What might the coronavirus crisis entail for the future of globalisation?

Philippe Legrain, founder of international think tank the Open Political Economy Network and a former economic adviser to the president of the European Commission, is not confident the current crisis will lead to any renewed commitment to globalization.

He believes the international response has been much less coordinated compared with that to the global financial crisis, when the G20 came up with an unprecedented rescue package.

“There has been very little international cooperation during this crisis. Most governments have acted unilaterally. Even within the European Union, countries have failed to respond to Italy’s urgent request for medical supplies, although China did,” he said.

“The closure of borders, the restrictions on trade－such as India’s with pharmaceutical exports－and the perception of foreigners as vectors of disease are all creating more national economies and more nationalistic politics.”

Later, I discuss the potential for new forms of globalisation.

“Globalization exists in a political context. In the 19th century, it largely took place within European empires. In the 20th century, it took place through US-backed international institutions, and in the 21st century, it may exist within China-centered institutions such as the BRI,” he said.

Read the piece.