Letters20th century measures won’t address 21st century trade insecurities
Readers discuss why US tariffs are an outdated practice, how India should treat its neighbours with diverging interests, and Japan’s energy tightrope with the Kremlin
The debate surrounding the proposed tariffs highlights a broader issue that often receives too little attention. Discussions about trade policy still tend to focus primarily on manufactured goods, as if the global economy were still operating under the same logic that shaped international trade decades ago. Yet today’s economy looks very different.
Tariffs are designed to affect physical products: cars, steel, electronics, machinery and other manufactured goods. They can influence trade flows and alter supply chains. However, they are far less effective when it comes to digital services, online platforms, software, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and financial activities.
This distinction matters because an increasing share of economic value is now generated in sectors that are largely intangible.
The United States offers perhaps the clearest example. Many of the world’s most influential companies operate not in traditional manufacturing, but in digital services, technology platforms, data management and software. Their global reach is difficult to measure in conventional trade statistics and even harder to influence through traditional tariff instruments.