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The Great Trade Hack by Richard Baldwin explains how Trump’s 2025 tariff blitz wasn’t economic strategy. It was grievance politics. Tariffs, Baldwin shows, are political placebos that won’t fix the U.S. economy but could fracture the global trade system. Blending sharp analysis with policy insight, he maps out three futures for world trade and u…

On 12 May 2025, China and the United States released a joint statement that ended the recent escalation in tariffs. For 90 days each agreed to lower their tariffs by 115%. This only applies to import taxes imposed since 2 April 2025—all prior tariffs remain in force. China also agreed to suspend or remove “non-tariff countermeasures.” The partie…

IMD produces a yearly Smart City Index offering a balanced focus on economic and technological aspects of smart cities on the one hand, and “humane dimensions” of smart cities (quality of life, environment, and inclusiveness) on the other. In this sixth edition, survey answers to the question “Is finding housing with rent equal to or less than 3…

On 2 April 2025, the United States announced tariff increases on goods imports. Barring a few exceptions, the tariff increases faced by America’s trading partners vary from a minimum of 10% to a maximum of 50%. Those tariff rates were determined using a formula based on bilateral trade deficits and, critically, not on trading partner policy stan…

From AI-powered bookings to strategic technology investments, discover how top companies fuse AI with authentic experiences—and why loyalty is your ultimate defense against disruption.

On 12 March 2025, new and expanded tariffs on aluminium, steel, and downstream “derivative” products come into force. This briefing shows that derivative products alone represented $151 billion of imports in 2024, with 27 foreign economies each having over $500 million of exports at risk. Tariffs on derivative products target parts for cars and …

Trade conflict is costly to all parties. Canadian and Mexican trade retaliation can deny tariff-related wins for American workers. Blunt retaliation could go so far as to eliminate all the take-home pay gains in 40 U.S. states and make whatever gains occur elsewhere barely noticeable. Tariff-induced higher prices are a further drag on American f…

Many American politicians contend that Chinese imports delivered a blow to manufacturing jobs, especially in the Rust Belt states. President Trump wants to fix the employment loss by raising import tariffs. Simulating the job, wage, and inflation effects of his three most prominent campaign pledges for tariffs on the politically sensitive manufa…

With stagnant import volumes since 2021, and import prices at levels below those suggested by fundamentals, foreign exporters face an uphill battle to convert access to the Chinese market into revenues. Notably, the volume stagnation predates the recent growth pessimism in China, diverges markedly from emerging market peers in East Asia, and is …

World exports of goods and services enjoyed boomtime growth in the 1990s and early 2000s. Since 2008, trade in goods – specifically manufactured goods – have plateaued; services exports have not. Services trade continues to ride the go-go growth path it has been on since the 1990s.