Prompted by geo-strategic rivalry and the war in Ukraine COVID-19 and the climate transition
trade policy is increasingly being weaponized. This trend towards protectionist capture and
retaliation is self-sabotaging and bad for growth. But there is another way. In this hard
hitting book Ken Heydon offers alternatives to the trade weapon: the need for diplomatic
carrots to accompany the sanctions stick for resilience in supply chains not self sufficiency
through ill-advised reshoring and friendshoring for multilateral WTO remedies to rule
breaking not unilateral penalties in the name of national sovereignty and for direct action
on environment and public health goals not the blunt tool of trade restriction. But to
restrain the damaging subordination of trade policy to other ends governments must address the
discontents of trade and do better at helping losers adjusting to technological change and
making the case for open markets. At stake are three decades of income gains from globalisation
and the ability to deal effectively with the climate transition and the next pandemic.
