So I'm just a few short weeks away from my final
retirement. Now I've been thinking about what's
the best way to protect ourselves in the UK from
Trump. And maybe we should try to outwit Trump
by teaming up with other countries who think
the same way that we do. You know what? It's
not just a pipe dream. There are really strong
signs that some major players are looking into
this right now. If they can make it work, it
would be game over for Trump's tariff game. Meanwhile,
the stock markets worldwide are taking a hit.
I mean, that's slightly better today, but we've
had three solid days of drops. Trump's not going
to let a little thing like the tariffs being
completely lunacy stop him from carrying on.
But hey, Canada's about to go into a general
election later this month. And it could actually
be a big turning point in the whole global trade
mess, I think. I mean, if the Canadian Liberal
Party wins, which I think looks pretty likely
at the moment, and Mark Carney then stays on
as Prime Minister, we could see something really
interesting happening. Now, it might be seriously
bad news for Donald Trump. Apparently, Macron,
Carney and a few others have really actually
been chatting about how to handle Trump's protectionist
tactics. It's not exactly a secret but the big
question is what are they actually saying to
each other? Well Trump's strategy seems to be
getting countries to come to him, cap in hand
individually and agree to much worse trade deals
than they had before. And maybe that's in exchange
for some kind of a break on these extortion of
tariffs he's been touting. But that would mostly
benefit America. We've heard that several countries
have dropped everything to Russian to talk to
Trump -less people. I mean, the White House is
boasting that 50 different governments have been
trying to do this, but kind of who believes any
of these stats coming out the White House nowadays?
But that's not really what individual countries
want right now. Some might think they've got
a choice. Though for most countries, hitting
back with their own tariffs isn't an option.
I mean, China's retaliated, haven't they? And
they've got the power to do that a lot more.
And Canada, you know, proud country they've responded
to. And the EU is looking at what they can do.
Pretty much everyone else. It's pointless. If
Trump is serious about taking a short -term head
for long -term gain, then he genuinely seems
to believe what he's saying. and these retaliatory
tariffs, they're just not going to cut it. The
smaller countries have got no bargaining power.
But maybe there's another way, an alliance of
countries that actually are committed to the
current kind of rule -based trading system. If
you add up the economies of Canada, the UK, Australia,
Japan, the EU, they're actually bigger as a group
than the Americas and they do a lot of trade
with each other. I mean, as well as America as
well, obviously, but America definitely has the
biggest single economy, so they can pick off
other countries one by one. But if a few of us
band together, it could be a different ball game.
To start with, you'd need countries that only...
have big economies and trade a lot with America,
but also you would need ones that are already
used to working together. And once it proves
it can work, it could easily bring in other countries
as well. To me, it makes sense. It makes sense
that the markets that are the ones I've been
talking about, the ones that are already trading
with each other probably do see eye to eye on
preferring a systems based on rules, not just
throwing your weight around and bullying your
mates. And they definitely don't want to give
in to Trump's demands. If we can actually get
this alliance together, our combined economies
are a bit bigger than America's, and that would
mean we can make decisions a bit more like America
does, really. They've got a single leader, especially
now that their Congress has pretty much stepped
back. Sure, our national interests between all
these countries might be different, but the incentive
to work together at the moment is definitely
huge. I mean, what's the alternative? Well, there's
probably a global recession letting Trump pick
us off one by one on the way. And that's what
he's doing with these small economies, scrambling
to talk to him. Now, if this alliance actually
does happen and they do start opening up trade
routes between themselves, what you'd have is
a trading network that could really rival America.
But whether they have a bonus that hasn't shut
out the rest of the world as well. So that would
be game over for Trump's tactics. I mean, seriously,
it would. Now, I'm not saying it'll be easy to
do that, but if our countries can find a way
to soften the blow, maybe even avoid a recession
altogether, then Trump's in trouble. Carney wins
the Canadian election. He seems really keen to
be the driving force behind this alliance, which
I think is why Canada could be so important.
Carney's the one that's really pushing for this,
and he'd be in a great position to lead it. This
isn't just some wild idea. Canada's already been
working on closer trade ties with the EU. Labour
wanted something similar before, but... It actually
becomes a lot less controversial now when you're
facing threats from Trump. Plus doing it with
Canada, who are a fellow Commonwealth country,
makes it seem a lot less like some kind of political
statement to the public. I mean, working with
Canada, nobody's trying to accuse Canada of wanting
to join the EU. So it wouldn't be seen as a way
to sneakily reverse Brexit with the EU. What
we're doing is exactly what Canada's doing, which
is building an alliance. And that would avoid
the controversy, which you know, Labour's been
trying to avoid any talk about Brexit at all.
If you can't get good access to American markets,
we absolutely have to improve our access to the
European markets. But this alliance could also
mean Canada and the UK enjoying a much closer
relationship with each other, which is something
that Carly's been talking about and wanting.
Now remember, The post Brexit trade talks with
Canada kind of fell apart because of cheese,
believe it or not. So there's definitely room
for improvements. And if we can work on a different
kind of arrangement, one that works for us both,
that'd be a big step forward in my eyes. Okay,
so this isn't just about trade across the Atlantic,
right? We're talking Australia, Brazil, a bunch
of others too, and Labour's already doing some
things. fit into this idea. I mean, Starm has
been pushing back the deadline for hybrid cars,
for example, which shows there's some kind of
change in the politics there. And basically any
country that's comfortable trading with the EU,
which would be obviously the core of this kind
of alliance, they'll be feeling the pinch from
Trump's tariffs, and they might just jump on
board. It could really turn into something big,
I think. You know, sometimes you find unity when
things get tough. And what about China? They
could do something similar with countries they
get along with better. Or if this new trading
network proves it to stand up to Trump, then
China might even decide to trade more with us.
I mean, we're not talking a full -on free trade
area here. Just keeping trade barriers as low
as possible between us all. Now, I imagine Trump's
reacting to that. He'd be throwing a right tantrum
because his plans would only work on these really
small countries. And his billionaire compatriots
would be complaining because Trump's messing
with their companies and they're losing a lot
of money at the moment. And generally the Republicans,
they'd be moaning as well because the economy
is going down the drain in America. And even
with the kind of voter suppression tricks they're
playing in America at the moment, they could
be hammered in the midterms. Now Trump's acting
a bit like a mafia boss at the moment of the
Republicans. But if he stops lying in their pockets
and loses his power, even threatening their positions
in the primaries, this bullying tactic's definitely
won't work anymore. His whole plan is already
starting to fall apart. Even his own secretary
of state is contradicting what Trump's saying.
I mean, they've got no idea what's going on.
I guess that's the problem with billionaires.
They're quite used to... not having anyone properly
challenging them until suddenly they decided
to want to run for office. Now back in the UK,
the Conservatives and Reform UK are definitely
going to push for us to cozy up a bit more to
Trump and they're already doing that. But why
are they doing it? Slightly lower tariffs? Trump's
not offering us a good deal. He's been giving
us a choice between a bad and a worse deal and
I think the public's starting to see that really.
Of course the UK government is still trying to
get a good trade deal with the US and we continue
to need to do that. But if this doesn't work
we do need a Plan B. And that's just not giving
in. If Plan A works it doesn't mean we can't
do Plan B as well. We can work with America and
the EU and Canada. Stalin keeps saying it's not
about choosing between the US and the EU and
he's saying that we can have closer ties with
both and I think he's right. Like I said, Trump
might force us to choose so, and if he does,
the answer's obvious to me. We're guaranteed
to get a worse deal from Trump whatever happens
now and in the future as well. We've got way
more potential to grow our trade by working with
countries who combine companies can actually
rival America's. And ones that are also committed
to trade and respect like we always had. We know
that Canada, UK, France and Germany are already
talking about how to deal with this. There's
a real push to avoid getting kind of sucked into
Trump's bullying, but pretty much everyone including
the UK wants to avoid a full blown trade war.
I mean, Trump's been thinking about this for
decades, so he's not going to stop now. He's
not going to reverse. He never reverses like
that. That's why it makes sense. that we're all
talking about this may even openly and moving
closer to a like -minded kind of Marford's approach
to it. Maybe a new tree in the block would promote
the rules -based system as a better option than
Trump's protectionism. And if it works more countries
will want to join and it's a way to stand up
to Trump without making things worse. It's basically
saying okay Trump you know you've taken your
ball but we've got our own ball we're going to
play our own game. So thanks for listening guys
and love to hear what you think. Let me know
in the comments. Cheers.