Latest / The Fourcast / Greenland: Will Europe use trade bazookas against Trump?
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- 0:00From a British and a European perspective, this has got much
- 0:02more to do with the sanctity of borders and the fact that he
- 0:05shouldn't allow countries to throw their weight around.
- 0:08Because if Putin gets away with it in Ukraine and Trump gets
- 0:12away with it in Greenland, then nobody safe and we're going to
- 0:15spend our whole time living in terror that borders will get
- 0:19changed by force. The trade bazooka.
- 0:21It's like a genie out of the bottle.
- 0:23Could it spiral out of control where countries are using it in
- 0:27ways that haven't been foreseen and that that escalates tensions
- 0:32with Donald Trump rather than keeping Kim in a chequered
- 0:35ballot? Is Greenland worth this sort of
- 0:37geopolitical fight that is currently taking place?
- 0:44Hello and welcome to the forecast.
- 0:46Donald Trump wants Greenland and if his European allies won't
- 0:49sell it to him, he will hit them with increasingly harsh tariffs
- 0:52until they do. It may not be a military
- 0:54takeover, but it is the weaponization of trade with
- 0:57ramifications for the global economy should he follow
- 1:00through. Some European leaders want the
- 1:02EU to activate it's so-called trade bazooka of retaliatory
- 1:06measures. The UK Prime Minister Sakir
- 1:08Starmer says a trade war benefits nobody.
- 1:10So will the fight for a bit of Arctic wilderness leave us all
- 1:14feeling the chill? Well, I'm joined now by Mark
- 1:16Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign
- 1:18Relations. He's currently travelling
- 1:20through the Swiss countryside on his way to the annual meeting of
- 1:23global leaders in Davos. President Trump's imminent
- 1:26arrival there, of course, offers the prospect of a frosty
- 1:29showdown with the Europeans. And our economics correspondent,
- 1:32Helia Ebrahimi is here in the slightly less frosty but not
- 1:35March studio. Welcome to you both.
- 1:38Mark, let's start with you on your way to Davos.
- 1:41Donald Trump turning up there on Wednesday.
- 1:43How do you think that's likely to go?
- 1:44I mean, is it going to set off several avalanche warnings?
- 1:48I think we're beyond that. I think the avalanche is coming
- 1:50down the mountain now and people are completely electrified by
- 1:55what's happening. It's, it's the biggest crisis in
- 1:58transatlantic relations at least since Suez.
- 2:02And the way it's unfolding is surreal.
- 2:05And it's something that European leaders are in crisis mode
- 2:09around. It's.
- 2:10Surreal, but also pretty terrifying, isn't it?
- 2:12It would be terrifying if it weren't so absurd some of the
- 2:16way that it's going forward. I mean the letter which Donald?
- 2:20Trump sent to the Norwegian Prime Minister where he said you
- 2:23felt your government. Failed to give me.
- 2:25The Peace Prize. So now I'm I'm looking beyond
- 2:28peace is. Is something which is, which is
- 2:30terrifying, but it's also so far outside of the.
- 2:34The normal ways that politics and diplomacy have done that,
- 2:38it's quite difficult. For people to process.
- 2:40Yeah, we'll just come back to that in just a second.
- 2:41But I mean, it's sort of governing by toddler tantrum,
- 2:43isn't it? It is.
- 2:45I mean, we're in continent that's in a state of war that's
- 2:49worried about the future of Ukraine and dealing with the
- 2:51Russian threat. And in the middle of that, which
- 2:55is this land grab for for Greenland.
- 2:59And then it's behaving in quite extraordinary ways by
- 3:04threatening to introduce tariffs against countries that, you
- 3:07know, sent as few as one troop to take part in a, in a military
- 3:12exercise in Greenland, which is something that Donald Trump
- 3:16himself has been calling for. He said that NATO hasn't done a
- 3:18good enough job of of protecting Greenland from Russian and.
- 3:21Chinese. Pressure and then as soon as
- 3:24they start doing that they're threatened in this way.
- 3:27So it is it's very scary, but it is also quite difficult to
- 3:32understand and it's something that I think needs to be met
- 3:37with with real force because if not it will set a horrible
- 3:41precedent. And that's something which I
- 3:43think all Europeans failed to do when the the tariff war started
- 3:48with Independence Day. And they've fared less well as a
- 3:51result of that than countries like China that that have stood
- 3:54up to this kind of bullying. Well, Helia, let me bring you in
- 3:58at this point to explain what the EU trade bazooka is and what
- 4:02effect it might have. The anti coercion instrument, I
- 4:06mean, it could do basically anything.
- 4:08You could cancel banking licences, you could stop
- 4:12companies from being able to get into procurement, you could stop
- 4:16them operating. You could go after tech
- 4:18companies. Basically, this bazooka, the €93
- 4:21billion bazooka that Macron and is talking about, could in one
- 4:25fell swoop get rid of JP Morgan, Facebook and Palantir, the end
- 4:31of American business in Europe. But would it do that or would
- 4:36that also derail the European economy?
- 4:39Well, it would derail. The global economy, wouldn't it?
- 4:41Derail the global economy, and I think what you saw with Brexit
- 4:44is that it's very hard in operational sense to actually
- 4:49try and uproot companies when there's so much trade between.
- 4:54But this is the tool they have, and at least the threat is
- 4:58something they can go for. Well, Mark, does the threat of
- 5:01that trade bazooka, will it have the desired effect of bringing
- 5:05Trump back from the brink? I think there are two things
- 5:08which we talked about. 1 was the €93 billion worth of tariffs,
- 5:13which is something which was brought in earlier in the year
- 5:19and then was was frozen. They target bits of the American
- 5:23economy which are politically sensitive.
- 5:25So things like Boeing, but also, you know, bourbon manufacturers,
- 5:30Harley-Davidson, other companies like that.
- 5:32And then the other thing is the anti coercion instrument, which
- 5:34is a measure that's never been used, that was introduced in
- 5:372021, but which gives the European Commission the chance
- 5:40to do the sorts of things that we just heard about.
- 5:43It's a card Blanche that you you get to enact any of these policy
- 5:47choices and I think that's why it's quite potent.
- 5:50You were talking about the retaliatory tariffs that Europe
- 5:55so far hasn't really got into action over because it's
- 5:59basically absorbed whatever Donald Trump has has unleashed
- 6:04on in terms of tariffs. And that's because the European
- 6:06economies are, like Germany, so geared towards exports.
- 6:11But as you were saying, you know huge impact of this the ACI
- 6:16could do. But Mark, is it just the threat?
- 6:19Is that what's behind it? That the, the threat is, is it's
- 6:22hoped enough to bring Trump back into line?
- 6:24And that's you're not really going to have either these, you
- 6:28know, swinging retaliatory tariffs or the far greater
- 6:32bazooka because it would destroy the global economy, wouldn't it?
- 6:36Well, I think they're they're very different.
- 6:37So the tariffs are something which is very bad for consumers
- 6:41and hurts ordinary people. That's why they've chosen
- 6:43particular sectors which are less damaging to to European
- 6:45consumers. But there's just been a big
- 6:47study which showed that actually 96% of the cost of tariffs from
- 6:52Independence Day have been borne by by American consumers rather
- 6:57than the companies concerned. But Europeans don't want to get
- 7:00into a into a tariff war. It's definitely something that
- 7:02will hurt the German economy. But the anti coercion instrument
- 7:05means that you're not retaliating tit for tat.
- 7:09So you can go after bits of the American economy which are much
- 7:15more sensitive to this. And there is a huge dependence
- 7:19on American tech companies that are given a lot of sway in all
- 7:24of our countries. And you could take action
- 7:27against them, which will be much less damaging to European
- 7:30consumers. So the hope is obviously to
- 7:32deescalate, to have a deal to make this go away.
- 7:35No, Europe didn't want territorial threats made against
- 7:40its territory by its greatest ally.
- 7:41And they want to calm the situation down.
- 7:44They're willing to, to, to make these threats.
- 7:47The the danger is that they will just get rolled over.
- 7:50And I think that they've learnt a lesson from what China did
- 7:52with rare earths. And I think for for threats to
- 7:55have an impact, they have to be credible.
- 7:58Heliot, obviously the UK can diverge from the EU on all of
- 8:01this because, you know, since Brexit has the freedom to do
- 8:04that. Do you see that happening, do
- 8:05you think? Well, I think at the moment the
- 8:07UK is playing the role of the kind of the, the friendly, the
- 8:12the nice officer when Macron is that being the hard, tough guy.
- 8:17I talked earlier today exclusively with our Business
- 8:20Secretary Peter Kyle about what the UK would do.
- 8:24It's got a huge impact, as we've seen before on our car
- 8:28manufacturing. For example, Jaguar Land Rover
- 8:32car manufacturing in the UK employs 140,000 people.
- 8:36And Jaguar Land Rover was hit massively when Donald Trump
- 8:41first announced tariffs, and it's seen its profits kind of
- 8:45erode, not just because of the cyber attack but because of the
- 8:48amount of cars being exported. Today, I asked the business
- 8:52secretary, you know, what are you going to do?
- 8:55You know that you've got your Prime Minister this morning
- 8:58talking about we're going to be an active government.
- 9:00We're going to intercede. We're going to make sure that
- 9:03British companies and British workers aren't hurt by, you
- 9:07know, ramping up tariffs. But what are you actually going
- 9:09to do? Would you put taxpayer money on
- 9:11the line? And he said that he would look
- 9:15at everything. Everything at the moment is on
- 9:17the table Mark. Can you explain why Sir Keir
- 9:21Starmer this morning in his emergency statement from Downing
- 9:24Street, is still reluctant to take on Donald Trump?
- 9:27Does that make any sense anymore?
- 9:29I think that Britain is obviously in a much weaker
- 9:31position than the European Union and is much more likely to get
- 9:36punished. So if there is a trade war
- 9:37between the EU and the US, the danger is that you face barriers
- 9:44from both the the American side and from the European side and
- 9:47that it is something which they're going to try and avoid
- 9:52at all costs. But I think it makes sense not
- 9:55to act unilaterally because it's a lot easier to to punish the UK
- 10:00and to pick Britain off than it is the European Union because,
- 10:03you know, it's economy is much smaller and and there's much
- 10:07less dependence on it. So it is a very, very tricky
- 10:10situation to be in. There is something though to be
- 10:12said about the fact that in the UK we talked about JLR just a
- 10:17moment ago and there's been lots of talk about on Astra's America
- 10:22and different pharma companies that could get hit by this.
- 10:25We've got Scotch industry, but these are companies we can
- 10:28really count on our hands. In Germany.
- 10:32You were talking about hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
- 10:36companies all across Germany, all across the middlestad who
- 10:40are exporting cars and manufacturing and chemicals to
- 10:45America. So if there is any kind of
- 10:47change to tariffs or trade, the whole country is immediately
- 10:52exposed the moment the UK, although the US is our single
- 10:56biggest export partner, most of our exports are services which
- 11:01aren't tariffs. So we're slightly insulated.
- 11:04Mark, you reflected. Earlier on, the kind of surreal
- 11:07nature of what's going on that the madness of it all.
- 11:10I mean, some are saying it's the madness of King Donald.
- 11:13And is it, is it astonishing that still the UK and the EU are
- 11:18sort of holding back? Have we all let him get away
- 11:21with this for too long? I.
- 11:24Think we're in a incredibly perilous situation because of
- 11:27the situation in Ukraine, and that is leading European leaders
- 11:32to want to use all the leverage that they have to make sure that
- 11:35we don't have a bad outcome on Ukraine.
- 11:37And that's why they've held back on Venezuela and on other
- 11:41issues. And we're also in a position
- 11:43where it's clear that in the long term, the United States is
- 11:48not a reliable partner on which Europeans could depend.
- 11:51But in the short term, they are our only partners.
- 11:54So the question is, how do you manage to avoid the worst in the
- 11:59short term whilst gradually making yourself less dependent
- 12:03in the long term? And it is a very, very tricky
- 12:05balancing act. Could you do a Mark Carney?
- 12:08You said you had the Canadian, our former governor, talking of
- 12:15the Bank of England, saying on the weekend that we were in a
- 12:18new world order and that China was their was their new partner.
- 12:23You know this this. Was a new reality, Mark?
- 12:26Would you? Would you advocate adopting a
- 12:28similar approach to Mark Carney? Look, I think that Canada has
- 12:33been more directly threatened than than the UK.
- 12:36Donald Trump talked about making Canada the 51st state and they
- 12:40are much more dependent on the US than than the UK is.
- 12:43But I do think that Carney has shown that Donald Trump respects
- 12:49strength. And, you know, he went and did a
- 12:50trade deal with China. And the response of Donald Trump
- 12:54was actually to, to both praise the deal and then actually to
- 12:57invite Mark Carney to join the board in peace in his Gaza peace
- 13:02deal. It, it shows that actually he's
- 13:03more likely to, to treat you with respect if you show that
- 13:07you're willing to stand your ground.
- 13:08Then if you're desperately scrabbling around trying to, to,
- 13:11to get his approval and look weak.
- 13:13And like that, I think the worst sin from Donald Trump's
- 13:16perspective is weakness. So Heli is, is the reality
- 13:20actually that the UK and the EU are far too reliant on the US
- 13:24in, in military terms, security terms for example, to really say
- 13:27that say what they think at this very perilous moment, as Marcus
- 13:30described it. I mean, there is a limit to what
- 13:33the UK and Europe can do. It has to look at things that
- 13:36you were talking earlier on about rare earths in Greenland
- 13:40is quite interesting actually, because there were reports last
- 13:43year that the Danish government had interceded on behalf of
- 13:47America in order to make sure that Greenland and Greenland
- 13:52licenses for mining. We're going to American
- 13:55companies, not Chinese companies.
- 13:57So this whole narrative that has emerged about this is a fight to
- 14:01the death to make sure that you have US supremacy instead of
- 14:06Chinese supremacy and get on America's side.
- 14:09Otherwise we're all going to be speaking Mandarin before the end
- 14:13of the century. That is undermined by the fact
- 14:17that in Greenland you have had all attempts for Europeans to do
- 14:21the Americans bidding. And, Mark, is it the case that,
- 14:25you know, Greenland, obviously there are rare earths.
- 14:27They're very deeply buried, very hard to extract.
- 14:31Is Greenland worth this sort of geopolitical fight that is
- 14:34currently taking place? But I think from a from a
- 14:38British and a European perspective, this has got much
- 14:40more to do with the sanctity of borders and the fact that you
- 14:43shouldn't allow countries to throw their weight around.
- 14:46Because if Putin gets away with it in Ukraine and Trump gets
- 14:51around with it, gets away with it in Greenland, then nobody
- 14:54safe and we're going to spend our whole time living in terror
- 14:58that that different parts of the borders will get changed by
- 15:01force. So I think there is a matter of
- 15:02principle underlining all of this.
- 15:05But I think what you said about the rare earth also is one of
- 15:08the things that that is on the side of Europeans.
- 15:11It takes quite a long time for all these things to to be
- 15:14extracted and for these things to happen.
- 15:16And there are a lot of things that Europeans can do to make it
- 15:19much more costly for for the this sort of predatory
- 15:23behaviour. And there are ways of both using
- 15:28economic measures, the threat of sanctions and things like that,
- 15:31to the threat of sanctions against companies that get
- 15:35involved and, and other players to make it much more
- 15:38uncomfortable for people to to get involved in these sorts of
- 15:42predatory operations. And, you know, a lot of
- 15:45Americans also horrified by what's going on at the moment.
- 15:48So I think that we can look beyond the Trump administration
- 15:51and try and both make it difficult for American
- 15:54companies, American hedge funds and other players to to be
- 15:58involved in this, but also to use some of the political
- 16:02constraints because there's a lot of opposition even within
- 16:04the Republican Party to what's going on.
- 16:06Is it the case, Mark, that Trump can basically get what he wants
- 16:09in Greenland without any kind of military action or without
- 16:12owning it as he describes it? You know, with a few relatively
- 16:16easy tweaks, Greenland could give him quite a bit of what he
- 16:21wants. He can give him everything he
- 16:23wants. So unless it's owning Greenland,
- 16:24I mean, there is a, a treaty in place from 1952 which gives the
- 16:32legal protection for anything that that needs to be done.
- 16:34And the Danish Prime Minister has told Donald Trump that short
- 16:38of changing the sovereignty of of Greenland, they're willing to
- 16:41to accommodate any American concerns.
- 16:43And he said he wasn't interested in that because he wants to own
- 16:46Greenland and that's the problem.
- 16:48Because it's a lease, you, you only actually protect land that
- 16:52you own. You if it's a lease, you
- 16:54wouldn't protect it properly. Apparently that was his
- 16:57argument. But I mean, what, what's
- 16:58fascinating, Cathy, is that the narrative that's going on in the
- 17:03background, Mark said that you should, we've got to use these
- 17:06political tools to make it uncomfortable.
- 17:09You know, that's what the bazooka does, the ACI does, is
- 17:12it could make it uncomfortable for American investors, American
- 17:16companies, tech companies to operate in Europe, which would
- 17:20which would help them to exert pressure on their government.
- 17:23But the narrative that has unfolded over recent years from
- 17:28American companies themselves is that the US has been behind in
- 17:33the dash for resources and that it needs to up it's game, that
- 17:37it needs to go faster in making sure that it doesn't allow.
- 17:41At the moment, I think China, it mines, you know, more than 2/3
- 17:47of all rare earths. It processes 90% of them.
- 17:51It owns all of the end stages of it.
- 17:55So it's able to put in restrictions.
- 17:58And why are rare earths important?
- 18:00Well, because they're in magnets.
- 18:02And they are the fundamental power source for the AI
- 18:05revolution, for our mobile phones, for green energy.
- 18:10And if you're in a situation where you don't have control,
- 18:14then you need to think strategically about changing.
- 18:17Mark, how seriously do you think we should take Trump and his
- 18:20threats? Because in the past, you know,
- 18:22you might have scoffed at the idea that he was going to
- 18:24extract the leader of Venezuela and have him turn up in a New
- 18:27York court. But, you know, that happened.
- 18:29Do you think we need to actually take him at his word over
- 18:31Greenland? Absolutely.
- 18:34I mean, he's been a very, very different sort of president than
- 18:38he was the first time round. And I think the in the whole
- 18:43series of different areas he's done exactly what he said he was
- 18:46going to do. He is unpredictable.
- 18:48He's mercurial. He behaves in in weird ways as
- 18:51he to the the Norwegian Prime Minister that we discussed
- 18:54earlier. But I think it would be highly
- 18:57negligent to assume that when he's talking, he's not deadly
- 19:01serious, and we have to be equally serious if we want to
- 19:04stop these things from happening.
- 19:05Well, let's go back to the letter.
- 19:08Just reflect, Mark, on how extraordinary it is.
- 19:11Bonkers. I mean, it really is the sort of
- 19:15thing which a scriptwriter for The Thick of It or somebody like
- 19:19that had come up with. Nobody.
- 19:20It would never have made its way into production because it's so
- 19:24bizarre. But he literally.
- 19:26Says that you know that he's stopped A+ wars.
- 19:29Your government, which? Is, you know, a.
- 19:30Is not the Norwegian government that decides who gets the noble
- 19:33peace process? But I don't.
- 19:34You decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize.
- 19:36I mean to look beyond peace. I mean, you can't invent these
- 19:40things. I think the fact that it goes to
- 19:42the wrong government is part, you know, just amps up the
- 19:46surreal nature of the complaint. But I mean, yeah, tell us what
- 19:51this letter has done now it's been out there.
- 19:53What have people reacted? Well, I, I think, I think that's
- 19:57the the problem with you were talking about.
- 20:00Are we going to have a Taco response because Trump's Trump
- 20:04always chickens out. And there was this feeling that
- 20:08there would be a limiting factor because there would be
- 20:10brinkmanship and lots of posturing.
- 20:13But in the, you know, 11th hour, he would pull back from the
- 20:16brink. And as you said, there have been
- 20:18occasions now where that hasn't happened.
- 20:21And so nobody knows. You had Scott Besson, who is.
- 20:25Is one of the supposedly sensible people within that
- 20:30administration on the weekend talking about how Europeans are
- 20:34going to back down over Greenland, how the American
- 20:37stance on Greenland is good for Greenland, it's good for the US
- 20:41and it's good for Europe. And so some of those stabilizing
- 20:46forces for the most extreme things are, are are not being
- 20:50articulated, although that's different to what we saw with
- 20:53the attack on the Federal Reserve Chairman, which is also
- 20:57going on in the background. Mark, how do you think EU
- 21:02leaders should react to this letter now?
- 21:05You know, is it a sort of so crazy that they should not even
- 21:08give it the time of day or do they have to take it head on?
- 21:10I think the letters and what gets said are true social and
- 21:15things like that are less important than what Europeans do
- 21:21to get their act together to show that they're they're
- 21:23serious. So I think they're right to call
- 21:25an emergency meeting. I hope that they will agree to,
- 21:30to trigger the anti coercion instrument so that they then
- 21:33have the tools that they need to, to respond if things do
- 21:36escalate. I think they're right to want
- 21:39to, to try and put this behind us and to, to find a way of, of
- 21:43raising the cost so high that it doesn't go any further.
- 21:48And I think there are lots of different things that they can
- 21:51do to both carry on showing their support for Denmark and
- 21:56Greenland. There are economic measures that
- 22:00they can take beyond the anti coercion instrument, which which
- 22:02I talked about pre committing to sanctions on, on people who
- 22:06profit from any occupation of Greenland.
- 22:09They can use the military resources that they have to show
- 22:13that they're serious about Greenland security and to build
- 22:15on the the exercise that they've done so far.
- 22:18And they can try and expand the coalition because, you know, the
- 22:20Canadian we talked about about the Canadians, they're sort of
- 22:25equally horrified by what's on there.
- 22:28Lots of countries around the world that won't feel safe if
- 22:31Donald Trump gets away with this kind of behaviour.
- 22:34And so I think, you know, they need to hang together.
- 22:37They need to show solidarity to each other.
- 22:38But, but I think it's less about speaking loudly.
- 22:42It's more about you trying to get a bigger stick.
- 22:45Heliot Trump has achieved the extraordinary feat of uniting
- 22:48the EU. Hasn't, hasn't he now?
- 22:52Yes, you momentarily, you know, let's, let's see.
- 22:56And I think to Mark's point that the EU really has to work
- 22:59together to make sure that it's got this coherent voice, which
- 23:03is why the ACI is such a good tool.
- 23:07I think people who are sceptical worry that the bazooka, the
- 23:14trade bazooka, once it's like a genie out of the bottle or once
- 23:18it's out of the bottle, what could happen?
- 23:21Could it spiral out of control where countries are using it in
- 23:25ways that haven't been foreseen and that escalates tensions with
- 23:30Donald Trump rather than keeping him in a check and balance?
- 23:34Because it's absolutely right. How do you, how do you get to do
- 23:37a Mark Carney and, you know, impress him with your power but
- 23:40not anger him so much that he might send a warship?
- 23:44Mark, you can see from the scenery that you're nearing
- 23:46Davos. Come back to that in a second.
- 23:48But just spell out, if we get the the bazooka, if we get the
- 23:52retaliatory tariffs, how bad is it for the US consumer, the
- 23:56European consumer and the UK consumer?
- 23:59It's a lose, lose situation. So the hope is that by doing
- 24:03these things, which are in no one's interests can calm things
- 24:06down and do a, you know, find a kind of path back towards
- 24:11sanity. And, you know, the reason that
- 24:14that this label Taco was developed is that when faced
- 24:20with opposition, Donald Trump often does try and do a deal.
- 24:23So I think that this is the responsible thing to do.
- 24:26And if you don't escalate, and if you don't show that you're
- 24:30willing to meet fire with fire, then this will just be the the
- 24:33beginning of a whole series of completely outrageous and
- 24:37unreasonable things that come our way.
- 24:38Is the best hope that Trump's own congressmen and women starts
- 24:42standing up to him? Because we're seeing a bit of a
- 24:44sign of that, aren't we, Mark? Yeah, I think there are limits
- 24:47to how much political heroism we're going to see within the
- 24:50Republican Party because a lot of people are scared that Trump
- 24:55will organise primaries against them.
- 24:58And so the most of the people who've been speaking out have
- 25:00been people who are retiring and who don't have a long term
- 25:03future in Republican politics on that side of the spectrum.
- 25:06But there are going to be midterm elections.
- 25:08It's quite possible that the Republicans will lose control of
- 25:11the House and maybe as we move towards that, if there are
- 25:15unpopular things being mooted, that might also focus the minds
- 25:18of of Republican candidates. Tariffs always hurt consumers,
- 25:23but it's more than just the tariffs.
- 25:25You know, we talked about the fact that Germany might be more
- 25:29exposed than the UK, but it would still hurt the UK because
- 25:34just this instability, the uncertainty means that in a
- 25:38economy that is sort of muddling along, companies stop investing.
- 25:43They don't know what's happening.
- 25:44It all becomes a bit risky. And they stop employing people
- 25:48and they stop building a new factory and they stop opening
- 25:51venues. And that stalls the economy.
- 25:54And it's kind of a poison pill even when you don't get to the
- 25:58hard kind of tariff and if you're going to ban JP Morgan
- 26:03from banking in Europe. Mark, you've talked about your
- 26:07hope of de escalation. How does the king play into all
- 26:10of this? The ultimate sort of symbol of
- 26:12soft power, I guess. I mean, should he still go on a
- 26:15state visit to the US in the spring?
- 26:18Yeah, look, I, I think it's important to keep channels open.
- 26:22You know, the US is still the most powerful country in the
- 26:26world and it is a long standing ally.
- 26:29I think that part of what you need to do is to find a way of
- 26:34maintaining the relationship but not being afraid to speak out
- 26:37when things happen which are against the British interest.
- 26:39Donald Trump is both willing to come on state visits but is also
- 26:43willing to be very critical of British politicians like the
- 26:47Mayor of London and other players.
- 26:48And I think that British government needs to do the same
- 26:52thing. You know, it has to keep the
- 26:54relationship going, but it shouldn't be afraid of standing
- 26:58up to bullying and it shouldn't be afraid of speaking out when
- 27:01things are being done which go very directly against the
- 27:04British national interest. But that doesn't mean, you know,
- 27:06cutting off all relations and, and and isolating ourselves from
- 27:11a very, very powerful country. Hello.
- 27:14Well, I was just going to say, you know, the Prime Minister has
- 27:16tried to now make it clear that the government would stick up
- 27:20for UK consumers, UK workers, UK companies.
- 27:25And the question is, well, what would that look like?
- 27:28And so they have to find a way to try and bring the president
- 27:33down from the brink, as Mark was saying.
- 27:36Mark, final thought from you. You can see the mountains behind
- 27:40you. You're clearly nearing Davos.
- 27:43What kind of kind of reception is Trump going to get?
- 27:46Just give us a sense of the theatrics of of all you know.
- 27:49You've got Nigel Farage, you've got European leaders, you've got
- 27:52Donald Trump. It's going to be quite a
- 27:53display, isn't it? Yeah, no.
- 27:56Well, I remember last year as he was being inaugurated and he
- 28:00didn't come in person, but he was kind of zoomed in and got,
- 28:06you know, very few of the people on the political side were, were
- 28:10necessarily like thrilled at, at his election.
- 28:13But they gave him a very warm reception and, and the companies
- 28:16were very optimistic that he would bring a lot of growth and,
- 28:20and energy, I suspect be a slightly more frosty reception
- 28:24this year. But there will be a lot of
- 28:26drama. He'll be the centre of attention
- 28:28and we'll be sucking up all of the oxygen and publicity, which
- 28:31is what I think he he likes. So the theatrics, you know, I
- 28:36think are the most important thing.
- 28:38And it will be the Donald Trump show while he's in town.
- 28:41There's no question about that. Well, Mark, I'll, I'll let you
- 28:44get ready for the snowball fight.
- 28:45Helia Abrahami, Mark Leonard, thank you both very much for
- 28:47joining me. That is it for this edition of
- 28:49THE FORECAST. Until next time, goodbye.