Accessibility helpSkip to navigationSkip to contentSkip to footer
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
Open side navigation menuOpen search bar
Financial Times
SubscribeSign In
  • Home
  • World
    Sections
    • World Home
    • Middle East war
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • War in Ukraine
    • Americas
    • Middle East & North Africa
    Most Read
    • China demands schoolteachers hand in their passports
    • Ireland slams Israel’s ‘outrageous’ demands to its peacekeepers
    • Trump would raise the US debt by twice as much as Harris, report finds
    • EY to hold back some pay from US partners after tough year
    • Starmer wields the knife after shaky first 100 days
  • UK
    Sections
    • UK Home
    • UK Economy
    • UK Politics
    • UK Companies
    • Personal Finance
    Most Read
    • Starmer wields the knife after shaky first 100 days
    • Reeves to spare PE bosses top UK tax rate in compromise on ‘loophole’
    • Sue Gray quits as Number 10 chief of staff as Starmer overhauls team
    • Uncertainty over UK government’s plans puts brakes on hiring
    • IFS urges Labour party to make ‘serious reforms’ to capital gains tax
  • Companies
    Sections
    • Companies Home
    • Energy
    • Financials
    • Health
    • Industrials
    • Media
    • Professional Services
    • Retail & Consumer
    • Tech Sector
    • Telecoms
    • Transport
    Most Read
    • EY to hold back some pay from US partners after tough year
    • How Jane Street rode the ETF wave to ‘obscene’ riches
    • Why private credit’s gung-ho growth needs proper monitoring
    • BBC and other public UK broadcasters strike Amazon streaming service deal
    • How I learnt to stop worrying and (mostly) love the e-bike
  • Tech
    Sections
    • Tech Home
    • Artificial intelligence
    • Semiconductors
    • Cyber Security
    • Social Media
    Most Read
    • America’s chips effort is at a crossroads
    • US funding drives investment for European military tech start-ups
    • Why tech unicorns struggle to avoid the glue factory
    • OpenAI is right to abandon non-profit status
    • Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz to make ‘significant’ donation to Harris
  • Markets
    Sections
    • Markets Home
    • Alphaville
    • Markets Data
    • Crypto
    • Capital Markets
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
    • Equities
    • Wealth Management
    • Moral Money
    • ETF Hub
    • Fund Management
    • Trading
    Most Read
    • How Jane Street rode the ETF wave to ‘obscene’ riches
    • Why private credit’s gung-ho growth needs proper monitoring
    • Beijing tightens grip on renminbi after stimulus rally
    • Spain to propose mini-coalitions to break EU capital markets stalemate
    • Whistleblower demands apology from FCA over ‘inaccurate’ report
  • Climate
  • Opinion
    Sections
    • Opinion Home
    • Columnists
    • The FT View
    • The Big Read
    • Lex
    • Obituaries
    • Letters
    Most Read
    • Why private credit’s gung-ho growth needs proper monitoring
    • How I learnt to stop worrying and (mostly) love the e-bike
    • America’s chips effort is at a crossroads
    • To really change the EU, the northern flank must take the lead
    • The case for office pettiness
  • Lex
  • Work & Careers
    Sections
    • Work & Careers Home
    • Business School Rankings
    • Business Education
    • Europe's Start-Up Hubs
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Recruitment
    • Business Books
    • Business Travel
    • Working It
    Most Read
    • How I learnt to stop worrying and (mostly) love the e-bike
    • The case for office pettiness
    • US funding drives investment for European military tech start-ups
    • Why tech unicorns struggle to avoid the glue factory
    • Make sure you are buying the dip not the freefall
  • Life & Arts
    Sections
    • Life & Arts Home
    • Arts
    • Books
    • Food & Drink
    • FT Magazine
    • House & Home
    • Style
    • Travel
    • FT Globetrotter
    Most Read
    • How I learnt to stop worrying and (mostly) love the e-bike
    • Regeneron head says weight-loss drugs could cause ‘more harm than good’
    • The unusual perks of London’s oldest members’ club
    • Leaving stuff on the stairs to take up later is not OK
    • Four design-led destinations to inspire autumn getaways
  • HTSI
MenuSearch
  • Home
  • World
  • UK
  • Companies
  • Tech
  • Markets
  • Climate
  • Opinion
  • Lex
  • Work & Careers
  • Life & Arts
  • HTSI
Financial Times
SubscribeSign In

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, 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 with Soumaya Keynes 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?

  • Monday, 23 September, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    Stagflation piece of polycrisis has stubbornly failed to materialise Premium content

    Competent central banks have avoided a repeat of the Great Depression

    ECB president Christine Lagarde sitting on a sofa with her thumb up on one hand.
  • Thursday, 19 September, 2024
    Trade SecretsAustralian politics
    Australia’s exemplar for the world on building economic security

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

    The Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. processing plant in Kalgoorlie, Australia
  • Monday, 16 September, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    Can the middle powers save multilateral trade? Premium content

    Mid-sized countries, and talk rather than litigation, might be the best thing for the WTO

    Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala arrives for the opening of the WTO Public Forum in Geneva last week
  • Monday, 9 September, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    The Fortress America that’s built from costly steel Premium content

    Joe Biden and Kamala Harris blocking the Nippon takeover of US Steel shows protectionist business as usual

    The US Steel Clairton Coke Works facility in Pennsylvania
  • Friday, 6 September, 2024
    The new economic nationalism
    Can globalisation survive the US-China rift?

    Rivalry between Washington and Beijing has put global trade under intense pressure. But the system is proving more resilient than many expected

    Montage of images of a container ship, a satellite and a fraying submarine optical fibre cable
  • Thursday, 5 September, 2024
    Trade SecretsUS trade
    Why the US can’t launch a green Marshall Plan

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

    Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall
  • Monday, 2 September, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    Canada goes the Washington way on tariffs Premium content

    How Ottawa let everyone down — except the US

    Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
  • Thursday, 29 August, 2024
    Trade SecretsFood security
    How open trade saved us from a global food crisis

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

    A combine harvests wheat in a field
  • Thursday, 22 August, 2024
    Trade SecretsUS presidential election 2024
    Harris remembers the consumer cost of worker-centred tariffs

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

    Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, center, is hugged by President Joe Biden
  • Monday, 19 August, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    How the lifeblood of trade bypasses the world’s blocked arteries Premium content

    Obstructions in the Panama Canal haven’t stopped goods commerce any more than those at Suez

    A large ship carrying freight sails along the Panama Canal
  • Monday, 29 July, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    Small isn’t beautiful when you’re paying EU carbon tariffs Premium content

    Countries like Trinidad and Tobago lack capacity and finance to cope with Brussels’ border measure

    An oil refinery on Trinidad and Tobago
  • Thursday, 25 July, 2024
    US manufacturing
    How Bidenomics will survive Biden’s departure

    Kamala Harris won’t have much room to shift from industrial intervention and import tariffs

    US vice-president Kamala Harris stands in front of several American flags
  • Monday, 22 July, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    The protectionist president who’s been good for trade — for now Premium content

    Joe Biden’s fiscal stimulus did global growth a lot of good

    Joe Biden standing in front of a banner that says Investing in America
  • Thursday, 18 July, 2024
    Trade SecretsClimate change
    Why Brussels can’t see the deforestation for the trees

    The EU’s international policies on climate, trade and development are incoherent

    Deforestation along the border of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda
  • Monday, 15 July, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    Blocking China’s Mexican backdoor into Fortress America Premium content

    Washington has to keep acting to maintain its trade and tech barriers against Beijing

    A row of BYD electric taxis
  • Thursday, 11 July, 2024
    UK immigration
    The immigration dilemma Labour hopes will go away

    Starmer’s government faces a familiar trade-off between the economics and the politics of foreign workers

    An inflatable craft carrying migrants crosses the shipping lane in the English Channel
  • Monday, 8 July, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    The dangerously simple story about radical populists Premium content

    Open trade and the EU are not (yet) being destroyed by a phalanx of hard-right governments

    Rassemblement National supporter, looking sad, holding a glass of champagne and the French flag
  • Monday, 1 July, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    Le Pen brings protectionism home to the French border Premium content

    The cross-party consensus on trade policy in the UK and even the US is absent in France

    Rassemblement National (RN) leader Marine Le Pen, speaking at a podium
  • Friday, 28 June, 2024
    Trade SecretsGlobal trade
    Labour may face a tug of war between European trade and US security

    The gravitational force of the EU economy will pull against the UK’s strategic alliance with Washington

    A woman in a red suit strolls through a pillored atrium as media photographers aim their cameras at her
  • Monday, 24 June, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    Big business tries a dangerous dalliance with populist protectionists Premium content

    Cynical short-term calculations are driving corporate support for Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen

    Marine Le Pen, pictured at a press conference, in a red jacket
  • Monday, 17 June, 2024
    Trade Secrets
    EU gambles on diplomatic approach with Chinese electric vehicles Premium content

    Brussels uses calibrated legal action to structure negotiation with Beijing

    Member states’ flags fly outside EU headquarters in Brussels
Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

Useful links

Support

View Site TipsHelp CentreContact UsAbout UsAccessibilitymyFT TourCareers

Legal & Privacy

Terms & ConditionsPrivacy PolicyCookie PolicyManage CookiesCopyrightSlavery Statement & Policies

Services

Share News Tips SecurelyIndividual SubscriptionsProfessional SubscriptionsRepublishingExecutive Job SearchAdvertise with the FTFollow the FT on XFT ChannelsFT Schools

Tools

PortfolioFT AppFT Digital EditionFT EditAlerts HubBusiness School RankingsSubscription ManagerNews feedNewslettersCurrency Converter

Community & Events

FT Live EventsFT ForumsBoard Director Programme

More from the FT Group

Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2024. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.
The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice.
Edition:UK
International
Subscribe for full access

Top sections

  • Home
  • World
    • Middle East war
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • War in Ukraine
    • Americas
    • Middle East & North Africa
  • UK
    • UK Economy
    • UK Politics
    • UK Companies
    • Personal Finance
  • Companies
    • Energy
    • Financials
    • Health
    • Industrials
    • Media
    • Professional Services
    • Retail & Consumer
    • Tech Sector
    • Telecoms
    • Transport
  • Tech
    • Artificial intelligence
    • Semiconductors
    • Cyber Security
    • Social Media
  • Markets
    • Alphaville
    • Markets Data
    • Crypto
    • Capital Markets
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
    • Equities
    • Wealth Management
    • Moral Money
    • ETF Hub
    • Fund Management
    • Trading
  • Climate
  • Opinion
    • Columnists
    • The FT View
    • The Big Read
    • Lex
    • Obituaries
    • Letters
  • Lex
  • Work & Careers
    • Business School Rankings
    • Business Education
    • Europe's Start-Up Hubs
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Recruitment
    • Business Books
    • Business Travel
    • Working It
  • Life & Arts
    • Arts
    • Books
    • Food & Drink
    • FT Magazine
    • House & Home
    • Style
    • Travel
    • FT Globetrotter
  • Personal Finance
    • Property & Mortgages
    • Investments
    • Pensions
    • Tax
    • Banking & Savings
    • Advice & Comment
    • Next Act
  • HTSI
  • Special Reports

FT recommends

  • Alphaville
  • FT Edit
  • Lunch with the FT
  • FT Globetrotter
  • #techAsia
  • Moral Money
  • Visual and data journalism
  • Newsletters
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • News feed
  • FT Schools
  • FT Live Events
  • FT Forums
  • Board Director Programme
  • myFT
  • Portfolio
  • FT Digital Edition
  • Crossword
  • Our Apps
  • Help Centre
  • Subscribe
  • Sign In