The Trade Weapon: How Weaponizing Trade Threatens Growth, Public Health, and the Climate Transition

Prompted by geostrategic rivalry and the war in Ukraine,COVID-19 and the climate transition, trade policy is increasinglybeing weaponized. This trend towards protectionist capture andretaliation is self-sabotaging and bad for growth. But there isanother way.

In this hard-hitting book, Ken Heydon offers alternatives to thetrade weapon: the need for diplomatic carrots to accompany thesanctions stick; for resilience in supply chains rather thanself-sufficiency through ill-advised reshoring and friend-shoring;for multilateral WTO remedies to rule breaking rather thanunilateral penalties in the name of national sovereignty; and fordirect action on environment and public health goals rather thanthe blunt tool of trade restriction.

But, to restrain the damaging subordination of trade policy toother ends, governments must address the discontents of trade anddo better at helping losers, adjusting to technological change andmaking the case for open markets. At stake are three decades ofincome gains from globalization and the ability to deal effectivelywith the climate transition and the next pandemic.