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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.

Follow Alan on Bluesky​

Email Alan Beattie
  • Friday, 30 May, 2025
    FT News Briefing podcast11 min listen
    Trump’s tariffs in legal limbo

    The White House is fighting court rulings halting Trump’s ‘liberation day’ tariffs

  • Thursday, 29 May, 2025
    Trade SecretsTrump tariffs
    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

  • Thursday, 22 May, 2025
    Trade SecretsSupply chains
    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

    Rare-earth mine in Bayan Obo a mining town in Inner Mongolia in China.
  • Monday, 19 May, 2025
    Trade Secrets
    Countries ponder signing non-binding deals with a trustless US president Premium content

    America’s trading partners are examining precedents set by the UK and China

    Donald Trump waves from the steps of an aircraft
  • Thursday, 15 May, 2025
    Unhedged Podcast22 min listen
    The UK’s trade deal

    What exactly did Donald Trump and Keir Starmer agree?

  • Thursday, 15 May, 2025
    Trade SecretsEmerging market investing
    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

    Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II
  • Monday, 12 May, 2025
    Trade Secrets
    Trump’s China deal leaves world exposed to trade policy lottery Premium content

    Beijing and London’s pacts with US create exceedingly uncertain future

    Scott Bessent speaks at a desk with US flags in the background
  • Thursday, 8 May, 2025
    Instant InsightUK trade
    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

    Donald Trump announces the trade pact in the Oval Office with, from left, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, vice-president JD Vance and Lord Peter Mandelson, the UK ambassador to the US
  • Thursday, 8 May, 2025
    Trade SecretsTrump tariffs
    A resilient US economy can withstand the Trump tariff shock

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

    A container ship at the Port of Los Angeles
  • Tuesday, 29 April, 2025
    Special ReportThe Future of Global Trade
    Vision of a Trump master plan is fading in a storm of incoherence

    There are relatively orthodox figures in his administration, but they lack consensus and the inclination to stand up to him

  • Tuesday, 29 April, 2025
    Special ReportThe Future of Global Trade
    Trump’s tariff thunderbolt strikes a world with proven resilience

    The WTO may be weakened, but a pragmatic resistance to protectionism among other nations could save world trade

    Red WTO OMC tape is in focus with a blurred figure holding a blue umbrella in the background
  • Monday, 28 April, 2025
    Trade Secrets
    Canadian and Australian voters are rewarding defiance of Trump’s tariffs Premium content

    Incumbent leaders are benefiting from standing up to US bullying rather than currying favour

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at a lectern with a Canadian flag waving in the background
  • Saturday, 26 April, 2025
    FirstFT
    Q&A: Donald Trump’s first 100 days

    Our experts answer readers’ questions

    Donld Trump holding a board displaying tariff rates on different countries
  • Thursday, 24 April, 2025
    Trade SecretsUS trade
    Trump discovers the US is no longer indispensable

    America cannot offer enough aid, green technology or new market access to mould the world trading system

    US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
  • Monday, 21 April, 2025
    Trade Secrets
    Trading partners ponder the art of fobbing Trump off with a weak deal Premium content

    Governments are hoping they can offer symbolic gains to make the US president go away

    A headshot of Donald Trump, with the US flag in the background
  • Thursday, 17 April, 2025
    Trade SecretsTrump tariffs
    Trump’s auto tariffs build on a long destructive history

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

    A Ram Power Wagon pick-up truck
  • Monday, 14 April, 2025
    Trade Secrets
    Trump’s tariffs are just one damn thing after another Premium content

    US trading partners should hold off offering concessions given this illogical shambles

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Treasury secretary Scott Bessent face people holding microphones
  • Wednesday, 9 April, 2025
    ReviewNon-Fiction
    Five books to boost your understanding of tariffs and trade wars

    As tariffs escalate, FT specialists recommend titles that explain the forces and ideas shaping trade policy in recent decades, including President Trump’s trade war

    A view at dusk or early morning looking down over trucks waiting at a container terminal
  • Monday, 7 April, 2025
    Trade Secrets
    The dark days after the tariff apocalypse Premium content

    A short, medium and long-term guide to Donald Trump’s ‘liberation day’ duties

    US President Donald Trump holds a “Foreign Trade Barriers” document with an American flag behind him
  • Monday, 7 April, 2025
    The Economics Show podcast32 min listen
    Are US tariffs just the beginning? With Abraham Newman

    There are other tools of economic coercion in the modern global economy

  • Thursday, 3 April, 2025
    Trade SecretsProtectionism
    A US tariff pathology is unleashed upon the world

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

    Illustration of a the map of America as a pathogen, filled with dots of different shades of red, surrounded by graph lines re-routing around USA
  • Monday, 31 March, 2025
    Trade Secrets
    World braces itself as US tariff ‘liberation day’ draws near Premium content

    No one knows what Trump will do — and at this moment that includes the president himself

    Donald Trump waves to the camera while walking
  • Thursday, 27 March, 2025
    Trade SecretsShipping
    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

    Oil tankers and a cruise ship pass in front of container ships moored off the Los Angeles
  • Monday, 24 March, 2025
    Trade Secrets
    Disarray precedes Trump’s tariff Liberation Day Premium content

    While the US flails, the EU ponders how to deal with Chinese car subsidies

    US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick stand either side of President Donald Trump in the Oval Office
  • Thursday, 20 March, 2025
    Trade SecretsSatellites
    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

    Starlink in Ukraine
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