Accessibility helpSkip to navigationSkip to contentSkip to footer

Cookies on FT Sites

We use cookies and other data for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our Sites are used.

Accept cookies
Manage cookies
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
Open side navigation menuOpen search bar
Financial Times
SubscribeSign InmyFT
  • Home
  • World
    Sections
    • World Home
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • War in Ukraine
    • Americas
    • Middle East & North Africa
    • Australia & NZ
    Most Read
    • Kevin McCarthy ousted as House Speaker by Republican rebels
    • India tells Canada to withdraw dozens of diplomatic staff
    • Portugal to scrap ‘fiscal injustice’ of tax breaks for foreign residents
    • Matt Gaetz moves to oust Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker
    • Donald Trump confronts New York fraud claims on first day of trial
  • US
    Sections
    • US Home
    • US Economy
    • US Companies
    • US Politics & Policy
    Most Read
    • Companies
      Sections
      • Companies Home
      • Energy
      • Financials
      • Health
      • Industrials
      • Media
      • Professional Services
      • Retail & Consumer
      • Tech Sector
      • Telecoms
      • Transport
      Most Read
      • Covid-19 vaccine winners suffer reversal of fortune
      • News updates from October 3: McCarthy ousted as House speaker, Japanese yen falls through 150 level
      • Secretive billionaire Harald McPike sues over collapse of Spac deal
      • Brookfield swoops for UK wind farms in $1bn deal
      • Revolut strikes share deal with SoftBank to remove barrier to UK licence
    • Tech
    • Markets
      Sections
      • Markets Home
      • Alphaville
      • Markets Data
      • Cryptofinance
      • Capital Markets
      • Commodities
      • Currencies
      • Equities
      • Fund Management
      • Trading
      • Moral Money
      • ETF Hub
      Most Read
      • News updates from October 3: McCarthy ousted as House speaker, Japanese yen falls through 150 level
      • ESG ratings: whose interests do they serve?
      • Bond sell-off intensifies as long-term US yields hit 16-year high
      • European venture capital firm Atomico raises $1.1bn to defy tech slowdown
      • Revolut strikes share deal with SoftBank to remove barrier to UK licence
    • Climate
    • Opinion
      Sections
      • Opinion Home
      • Columnists
      • The FT View
      • Lex
      • Obituaries
      • Letters
      Most Read
      • Britain is Europe’s haven from the hard right
      • Nagorno-Karabakh shows that Russia has lost control of its near-abroad
      • Why the west cannot turn a blind eye to a murder in Canada
      • Rishi Sunak is right: multiculturalism works
      • Can China overcome its demographic deficit?
    • Work & Careers
      Sections
      • Work & Careers Home
      • Business School Rankings
      • Business Education
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Recruitment
      • Business Books
      • Business Travel
      Most Read
      • Why personal conduct is a growing risk for business
      • The ghastly modern office needs a reboot
      • ‘Talk to everyone you can’: Plaid’s Zach Perret on navigating a failed sale and Covid upheaval
      • Labour conference will be so full of execs it will look like Davos, only in Liverpool
    • Life & Arts
      Sections
      • Life & Arts Home
      • Arts
      • Books
      • Food & Drink
      • FT Magazine
      • House & Home
      • Style
      • Travel
      • FT Globetrotter
      Most Read
      • How to look rich
      • David Bowie — six songs that shook the world of music
      • How I conquered chronic pain
      • Hemmerle, the pearl of Munich
      • An insider’s guide to Monaco
    • HTSI
    MenuSearch
    • Home
    • World
    • US
    • Companies
    • Tech
    • Markets
    • Climate
    • Opinion
    • 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.

    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)

    Add to myFT Digest

    Add this topic to your myFT Digest for news straight to your inbox

    • Monday, 2 October, 2023
      Trade Secrets
      A subsidy club to restrain rich-world handouts to China Premium content

      High-income countries giving out cash that gets spent on imported Chinese cars and solar panels is politically tricky

      Electric vehicles being charged
    • Thursday, 28 September, 2023
      Trade SecretsAutomobiles
      A trade reprieve won’t fix the EU’s failures on electric vehicles

      Proposed anti-subsidy duties are an admission that European companies and governments have been slow to innovate

      An EV at the Munich motor show this month
    • Monday, 25 September, 2023
      Trade Secrets
      EU fails big test on geopolitics of trade Premium content

      Row over Ukrainian grain imports shows how the interests of member states sabotage Europe’s common goals

      Farmers inspect unsold grain stores in Poland
    • Tuesday, 19 September, 2023
      War in Ukraine
      The EU has a rogue state problem

      Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have trashed European law to break a trade truce with Kyiv

      A combine harvester mows a field of golden wheat
    • Monday, 18 September, 2023
      Trade Secrets
      The lawless free-for-all of greening world trade Premium content

      The WTO has little role in regulating environmental subsidies and regulations

      WTO signage outside its headquarters
    • Thursday, 14 September, 2023
      Trade SecretsGeopolitics
      The ‘Global South’ is a pernicious term that needs to be retired

      Arbitrarily dividing a complex world into simple blocs creates polarisation and retards progress

      A woman carries coal in Dhanbad, India. ‘Global South’ assumes a collective identity, which in truth elides a vast range of conditions and interests, including over the use of fossil fuels
    • Wednesday, 13 September, 2023
      UK trade
      Outgoing UK trade chief warns on dangers of global protectionism

      Simon Walker says the Johnson government failed to live up to its free trade promises

    • Monday, 11 September, 2023
      Trade Secrets
      G20 becomes shallower even as it expands Premium content

      Admitting the African Union while watering down statements on Ukraine doesn’t enhance group’s credibility

      G20 delegates
    • Thursday, 31 August, 2023
      Trade SecretsGlobal trade
      The fundamental reason China will struggle to dethrone the dollar

      Making a currency a global standard demands deep trust in its issuer’s openness and reliability

    • Thursday, 24 August, 2023
      Trade SecretsG7
      The Brics don’t stack up as a committee to run the world

      Even the rival long-established G7 rich countries have often struggled for consensus

      Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, left, China’s Xi Jinping, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, India’s Narendra Modi and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, at the Brics summit this week
    • Monday, 31 July, 2023
      Global trade
      Globalisation: the year so far Premium content

      There’s a succession of ongoing tussles over trade and signs of trouble ahead — but no apocalypse just yet

      Close-up of a circuit board
    • Thursday, 27 July, 2023
      Trade SecretsEmerging markets
      How the Brics nations risk becoming satellites of China

      The grouping looks less like an emerging market steering committee and more like a fan club for Beijing

      The Chinese premier, Xi Jinping, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil in April
    • Monday, 24 July, 2023
      Trade Secrets
      Global food crisis that resolutely fails to happen Premium content

      Putin’s attempts to destroy Ukrainian farming and starve poor countries haven’t worked

      Ship being loaded with grain
    • Wednesday, 19 July, 2023
      Trade SecretsData sharing
      The global order of digital empires is only just holding together

      Democratic market economies need to work together to keep the free exchange of data alive

      View through a window of Max Schrems sitting in front of his computer at his desk
    • Monday, 17 July, 2023
      EU trade
      Europe resumes its historical hunt for precious metals in Latin America Premium content

      Reviving the stalled EU trade deal with Mercosur could unlock more raw materials for its companies

      Inspectors at a brine pool at a lithium plant.
    • Thursday, 13 July, 2023
      Trade SecretsWorld Trade Organization
      The emissions market failure that still threatens the planet

      Slow and iterative litigation through the WTO looks the most promising route to a global carbon pricing regime

      Delegates sit and talk in the lobby of the World Trade Organization headquarters
    • Monday, 10 July, 2023
      Trade Secrets
      Turning the critical minerals melee into an orderly queue Premium content

      Gathering buyers and sellers in a fair and organised market is a nice idea but a long shot

      Periodic table, highlighting the elements Gallium and Germanium.
    • Thursday, 6 July, 2023
      Trade SecretsEU-China relations
      De-risking trade with China is intrinsically political

      It’s absurd to suggest that companies alone can manage economic relations between Beijing and the west

      A VDU screen displays the Nvidia logo while a building in the distance also sports the brand name
    • Monday, 3 July, 2023
      Trade Secrets
      Transatlantic impasse over turning steel green Premium content

      The US is watching politics in the Midwest while the EU is fretting about the WTO

      Rolls of steel
    • Thursday, 29 June, 2023
      Trade SecretsBelt and Road Initiative
      How the US and Europe can beat China’s Belt and Road

      Washington and Brussels need to emphasise open and fair dealing in their developing-world rivalry with Beijing

      William Ruto in suit and tie sits in an armchair and gestures with his right hand
    • Monday, 26 June, 2023
      Trade Secrets
      Germany’s global supply chains under scrutiny over forced Chinese labour Premium content

      Germany’s new due diligence law is attracting complaints about abuse of Uyghur workers in carmaking plants

      Shanghai Volkswagen, a joint venture between Volkswagen Group and SAIC Motor
    • Thursday, 22 June, 2023
      Trade SecretsGlobal Economy
      An impasse over finance between rich and poor that threatens the planet

      Advanced and emerging economies alike need to restore the clout and credibility of multilateral lending

      Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley. A conference this week will consider options for extending concessional finance, including proposals from her Bridgetown Initiative
    • Monday, 19 June, 2023
      Trade Secrets
      How green trade regulations help the strong and punish the weak Premium content

      The EU’s anti-deforestation import ban is good news for those developing-country farmers who can meet its tricky tests

      EU president Ursula von der Leyen and her Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
    • Thursday, 15 June, 2023
      Trade SecretsGlobalisation
      Why geopolitical tensions don’t threaten a fresh surge in inflation

      Economic globalisation hasn’t done much to hold prices down over the past three decades

      An employee works on a garment production line at Alibaba Group’s smart factory in Hangzhou, China, in 2020.
    • Monday, 12 June, 2023
      Trade Secrets
      The case against Europe matching Biden’s green subsidy splurge Premium content

      New paper says EU domestic supply chain in electric vehicles already being established without handouts

      Photographers taking pictures of a Volkswagen ID.7
    Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

    Useful links

    Support

    View Site TipsHelp CentreContact UsAbout UsAccessibilitymyFT TourCareers

    Legal & Privacy

    Terms & ConditionsPrivacy PolicyCookiesCopyrightSlavery Statement & Policies

    Services

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

    Tools

    PortfolioToday’s Newspaper (FT Digital Edition)Alerts HubBusiness School RankingsEnterprise ToolsNews feedNewslettersCurrency Converter

    Community & Events

    FT CommunityFT Live EventsFT ForumsFT Board DirectorBoard Director Programme

    More from the FT Group

    Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2023. 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.
    Financial Times

    International Edition

    Subscribe for full access
    • Switch to UK Edition

    Top sections

    • Home
    • World
      • Global Economy
      • UK
      • US
      • China
      • Africa
      • Asia Pacific
      • Emerging Markets
      • Europe
      • War in Ukraine
      • Americas
      • Middle East & North Africa
      • Australia & NZ
    • US
      • US Economy
      • US Companies
      • US Politics & Policy
    • Companies
      • Energy
      • Financials
      • Health
      • Industrials
      • Media
      • Professional Services
      • Retail & Consumer
      • Tech Sector
      • Telecoms
      • Transport
    • Tech
    • Markets
      • Alphaville
      • Markets Data
      • Cryptofinance
      • Capital Markets
      • Commodities
      • Currencies
      • Equities
      • Fund Management
      • Trading
      • Moral Money
      • ETF Hub
    • Climate
    • Opinion
      • Columnists
      • The FT View
      • Lex
      • Obituaries
      • Letters
    • Work & Careers
      • Business School Rankings
      • Business Education
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Recruitment
      • Business Books
      • Business Travel
    • 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

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