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Outspoken minister says America 'stuck in past'
Digby Jones, Britain's trade and investment minister, has accused the US of being a protectionist economy and spoken of his fears that a new President will lead the country into 'another bout of isolationism'.
On a UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) mission to the US last week, Lord Jones of Birmingham also told business leaders there that using tariffs and subsidies to try to protect the economy was 'pathetic'.
'Please don't listen to the siren voices of protectionism, it does not become you,' he told an audience of entrepreneurs and executives in Boston, Massachusetts.
In an exclusive interview with The Observer, Jones also said the US was still struggling to cope with the impact of globalisation on its economy. He said the US was not 'at ease with itself'.
'Ten years ago they genuinely thought globalisation was Americanisation - that it was all about basketball, McDonald's and Coca-Cola all around the world,' he said. 'It's perfectly obvious this isn't the case. America is having a problem accepting it. Do I think Americans have grasped it's a different century? I'm not sure they have.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/17/globalisation.investing
Digby Jones, Britain's trade and investment minister, has accused the US of being a protectionist economy and spoken of his fears that a new President will lead the country into 'another bout of isolationism'.
On a UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) mission to the US last week, Lord Jones of Birmingham also told business leaders there that using tariffs and subsidies to try to protect the economy was 'pathetic'.
'Please don't listen to the siren voices of protectionism, it does not become you,' he told an audience of entrepreneurs and executives in Boston, Massachusetts.
In an exclusive interview with The Observer, Jones also said the US was still struggling to cope with the impact of globalisation on its economy. He said the US was not 'at ease with itself'.
'Ten years ago they genuinely thought globalisation was Americanisation - that it was all about basketball, McDonald's and Coca-Cola all around the world,' he said. 'It's perfectly obvious this isn't the case. America is having a problem accepting it. Do I think Americans have grasped it's a different century? I'm not sure they have.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/17/globalisation.investing
