National security is the new cover for US protectionism. President Donald Trump signed his steel and aluminium tariffs under that false guise. But metal bending is not the most worrisome new area for protectionism. Trade in physical goods and services has been flat for years, but digital flows of commerce and information have risen by 45-fold in the past decade, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. The trade war to fear is not in physical commodities, but in technology, which economic nationalists hope to ringfence in order to stave off competitive threats from countries such as China.
國(guó)家安全是美國(guó)保護(hù)主義的新幌子。美國(guó)總統(tǒng)唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)在這種虛偽的幌子下簽署了命令，對(duì)美國(guó)進(jìn)口的鋼鐵和鋁征收高額關(guān)稅。但金屬并不是保護(hù)主義最令人擔(dān)憂的新領(lǐng)域。據(jù)麥肯錫全球研究院(McKinsey Global Institute)稱，實(shí)物商品與服務(wù)的貿(mào)易多年來一直持平，但過去10年商業(yè)和信息的數(shù)字流動(dòng)增長(zhǎng)了45倍。真正該擔(dān)心的貿(mào)易戰(zhàn)并不在實(shí)體商品領(lǐng)域，而在技術(shù)領(lǐng)域，經(jīng)濟(jì)民族主義者希望將技術(shù)圈護(hù)起來，以避免來自中國(guó)等國(guó)家的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)威脅。