Americano: was 'free trade' really working?

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

Oren Cass, founder and chief economist of think-tank American Compass, sits down with Freddy Gray at the ARC conference in London. They react to the announcement by President Trump over the weekend of reciprocal tariffs: the decision by the US to match import duties levied by other countries.

What's the strategy behind Trump's decision? And what could the consequences be for American companies and for global trade? They also discuss the broad political consensus behind free trade in the US since the 1990s. Given the 'lived reality' that faced many American investors and companies - for example competing with Chinese Electric Vehicles - was the free trade really working anyway?

Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you enjoyed the Spectator's podcast, why not subscribe to the magazine as well?
0:04.2	You can get 12 weeks of The Spectator for just £12, plus a free £20 £10,000 or weight trade voucher.
0:10.9	If you go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.
0:14.7	This is a podcast-only deal, and we hope you take us up on it.
0:24.2	Hello! and we hope you take us up on it. Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics,
0:31.2	power and prejudices. It is 2025 and Donald Trump is president once again of the United States.
0:40.3	We will, of course, be following the moves of the Donald and his second administration very closely.
0:46.9	However, it won't just be politics for us this year.
0:49.6	We'll also talk a lot and cover American culture, life and the arts. I should also remind you, because my producer
0:57.8	Natasha will not let me hear the end of it, that we are on Spectator TV. So head to our YouTube
1:03.9	channel to watch that. Hello and welcome to The Americano Show.
1:12.9	We're back at Ark for day two of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship
1:17.0	here at the thrilling Excel Centre in East London.
1:22.0	And I'm delighted to be joined by the great Orrin Cass.
1:25.3	Great.
1:25.7	I'm calling you great.
1:27.1	And good. And good.
1:27.8	And good.
1:28.4	Great and good.
1:29.5	Oren Cass, who is the founder of American Compass and chief economist at the American
1:33.6	Compass.
1:34.4	And you wrote a very interesting piece for The Spectator last week on Taras.
	...

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