Philippe Legrain

Far-right populism is not dead, but it can be defeated. Are Europeans up to the task? Read my latest for Project Syndicate

Unprecedented uncertainty hangs over international trade. While markets and multinationals are—understandably—fixated on the immediate prospects for trade relations between the US and China, far bigger long-term questions cloud the future. This is often simplistically framed as a binary question: is globalisation set to go into reverse? Or more politically, are the US and China heading […]

Beware enemies hiding in plain sight. The Audi in the driveway and that BMW creeping around the corner are threats to national security. These days, it’s not the reds under the bed Americans need to worry about—it’s the Mercs on the lurk. Read my latest column for Foreign Policy on Trump’s threatened trade war against […]

Watch my interview on Al Jazeera English’s Inside Story

I was interviewed about the G7 and trade on Al Jazeera English on 9 June. I discussed Donald Trump’s trade war with China on Al Jazeera English’s Inside Story on 16 June.

Donald Trump thinks that because the US buys more from China than it sells in return, it would easily “win” a trade war. But China’s position is actually much stronger, both economically and politically, than that crude calculus suggests. My latest for Foreign Policy

Read my latest briefing for OPEN. Join our mailing list to stay updated!

Read my latest for Foreign Policy Listen to my interview with Hamish Macdonald for ABC Radio National Breakfast Watch my contribution to a panel discussion on Al Jazeera English’s Inside Story

My latest for CapX

My column for CapX

I was interviewed on Bloomberg’s What’d You Miss on 10 November about the harm that Trump’s protectionist trade policies could do – and what that would imply for a post-Brexit Britain. Watch it here

and it is both disingenuous and wrong-headed of Boris Johnson and his fellow Brexiteers to argue that if only Britain left the EU, the government would be free to pursue a failed 1970s-style industrial policy to prop up unprofitable businesses such as Tata Steel’s. My article for CapX

With its new Information Technology Agreement,  the WTO is back in business. My piece for CapX here

I was interviewed on BBC World Service’s Newsday about how to make the World Trade Organisation more effective. Last week director-general Roberto Azevedo said the WTO was “prone to paralysis” following India’s refusal to lift its veto on the Bali deal agreed last December to streamline customs procedures, which was meant to be a confidence-building exercise to kickstart […]

Svenska Dagbladet, 1 September 2013.

Why the EU shouldn’t be spending nearly half its budget supporting agribusiness and landowners. Read my new e-brief for the Lisbon Council

China’s latest trade figures show that its imports soared by 66% over the past 12 months, while exports grew by 24%. As a result, China recorded its first monthly trade deficit in 6 years. Contrary to those who accuse China of being a drag on the global economy, it is a leading engine of growth.

The United States imported $2.7bn worth of the steel pipe used in oil and natural gas production in 2008, making it the highest-value US trade injury case on record. But because of slumping demand and US duties already imposed in the case, imports of the product from China fell last year to about $1.1bn. Now […]

A truly excellent article. Excerpts On currency manipulation: The US treasury has been charged by Congress to assess whether China is a “currency manipulator”. Although President Barack Obama has now delayed for some months when the treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, must issue his report, the very concept of “currency manipulation” itself is flawed: all governments […]

Patrick Messerlin, one of France’s most perceptive economists, has written an interesting piece in the new issue of Europe’s World about how OECD countries should respond to the rise of China, India and other emerging economies. Brazil, China, India, Korea and Mexico are already playing a key, positive role in the world economy. First, in […]