menu_open Columnists
Alan Beattie

Alan Beattie

Financial Times

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

On tariffs, the Supreme Court can’t do what Congress won’t

The forthcoming ruling on Trump’s import duties will not stop him resorting to other methods

31.10.2025 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Amazon outage shows EU heads are still in the cloud

Europe and others must insulate their economies from Trump weaponising US tech

24.10.2025 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The AI bubble is a bigger global economic threat than US tariffs

America’s use of import duties has been constrained by financial markets and economic reality

17.10.2025 30

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Trump’s lifeline won’t stop Argentina’s president repeating old mistakes

Javier Milei has wasted foreign exchange reserves trying to hold up the peso

03.10.2025 4

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Trump’s biggest inflation worry might not come from his tariffs on goods

The president could plausibly be blamed for rising prices in services including power, health and education

25.09.2025 1

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The UK’s indefinite gamble in dealing with Trump on tariffs

You can make a reasonable case for Starmer’s transatlantic trade pact but it’s subject to continual risk

18.09.2025 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

How to tackle (and not tackle) migration: lessons from Italy

Successive British prime ministers have destroyed trust with a millefeuille of falsehood about asylum seekers

05.09.2025 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Trump’s roving banditry will undermine the US economy

On tariffs and tax the president acts like a mafia boss, but not a very good one

22.08.2025 30

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Trump’s tariffs turn from confused to chaotic

US trade policy is a cautionary tale but not yet a catalyst of global disaster

14.08.2025 20

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The risk to poor countries’ exports from the whims of the rich

Donald Trump’s tariff threat to Lesotho shows the danger of relying on preferential trade access

24.07.2025 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Brussels should not be shocked by Trump being Trump

The EU is using the old trade playbook against a new and different threat

18.07.2025 3

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Trump’s tariff shambles is a helpful warning to the world

No sensible government would think of emulating his trade policies as they have his other plans

10.07.2025 6

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The US is failing its green tech ‘Sputnik moment’

Prejudice and protectionism are dismantling Joe Biden’s environmental legacy

26.06.2025 20

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

How China beat Trump before the trade battle even started

Beijing has used rare earth controls to win the first skirmishes in the war over commerce

12.06.2025 20

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Court tariffs bombshell should inspire trading partners to defy Trump

The EU must stand up to the US president’s bullying for the sake of the world trading system

30.05.2025 40

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

A geopolitical conflict over minerals may finally be a real threat

The latest set of Chinese restrictions on rare earths exports are the most worrying to date

22.05.2025 8

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The papal call for debt relief that might not be needed

Low- and middle-income countries are performing surprisingly well despite Trump’s tariff wars

15.05.2025 4

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Britain’s trade deal with Trump may not be good news for the world

Starmer’s choice undermines multilateralism and poses risks to the UK

08.05.2025 10

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

A resilient US economy can withstand the Trump tariff shock

International trade and American growth have bounced back from big setbacks before

08.05.2025 10

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Trump’s auto tariffs build on a long destructive history

It is US protectionism rather than trade barriers abroad that has undermined American carmakers

17.04.2025 8

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

A US tariff pathology is unleashed upon the world

The Republicans have allowed a destructive economic nationalist to lead America into chaos

03.04.2025 10

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The bogus trade rationale for the Signalgate attacks

Bombing the Houthis won’t help global commerce but Trump’s auto and shipping protectionism will certainly damage it

27.03.2025 10

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Europe tries to fix its plumbing — and leave Starlink behind

Many governments outside the US do not want to rely on Elon Musk’s satellite company

20.03.2025 20

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Trump’s tariffs are America’s own worst enemy

The White House reprieve on auto levies shows how self-inflicted damage beats retaliation from trading partners

06.03.2025 10

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Argentina’s chainsaw reformer is more orthodox than he looks

The risk is that President Javier Milei declares victory in his economic programme too early

27.02.2025 10

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Britain should beware the cult of deregulation

Unthinking campaigns against ‘red tape’ are not the way to promote growth

20.02.2025 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Trump fought the trade law, and Trump won

Neither international nor domestic courts on their own will stop the US president’s destructive tariffs

13.02.2025 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Trump is giving a green light to corporate corruption abroad

Abandoning the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act would not be good business

11.02.2025 7

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The world’s exporters search for new customers if Trump cuts off trade

With China also reducing imports, demand from the voracious American consumer will be hard to replace

06.02.2025 9

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The threat to Aids sufferers shows how far the Republicans have fallen

An African aid programme created by George W Bush is casually being endangered by Donald Trump

30.01.2025 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

How to stop Donald Trump exporting trade wars

Distortions from US tariffs need not be disastrous

23.01.2025 40

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The alarming contradictions awaiting Donald Trump’s dollar

Big tax cuts and tariff hikes will prevent any new Plaza Accord to manage currencies

16.01.2025 7

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Trump has limited powers to fight an economic cold war

The new president is not the man to shore up the US ‘economic security state’

09.01.2025 10

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Year in a word: Tariff

The incoming Trump administration is set to dust down a weapon from a bygone era

31.12.2024 3

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The wondrous gift of open trade is given

Flexible economies and free markets have kept globalisation going this year

19.12.2024 8

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The state intervention that’s not destroying trade

Governments are experimenting with industrial policy but tariffs are staying low

12.12.2024 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Tariff Man’s superpowers are weaker than he thinks

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

05.12.2024 4

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

The contradictions of Trumponomics over tariffs lie exposed

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

28.11.2024 6

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

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

21.11.2024 3

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

A crumbling system of trade rules awaits Trump’s wrecking ball

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

14.11.2024 10

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Trump’s tariff obsession is worse than before

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

07.11.2024 20

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

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

31.10.2024 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

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

17.10.2024 10

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

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

10.10.2024 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

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

03.10.2024 20

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

How supply chain superheroes have kept world trade flowing

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

26.09.2024 7

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Australia’s exemplar for the world on building economic security

Despite interventionist industrial policy rhetoric, Canberra has maintained open trade and a market economy

19.09.2024 3

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Why the US can’t launch a green Marshall Plan

America’s lagging technology and protectionist trade policy hamper its global leadership

05.09.2024 4

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

How open trade saved us from a global food crisis

Fears of an international hunger emergency after the Ukraine invasion proved unfounded

29.08.2024 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie

Kamala Harris remembers the consumer cost of worker-centred tariffs

The Democratic candidate makes a welcome attack on Donald Trump’s reckless trade plans

22.08.2024 5

Financial Times

Alan Beattie