Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick delivered a blunt assessment of the global economic order Tuesday, telling a World Economic Forum panel that globalization has failed and that the Trump administration is pursuing a fundamentally different model centered on American workers and national sovereignty.
Lutnick made the remarks during a panel discussion titled “Prosperity: Sovereign Yet Connected?” alongside Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, Columbia University economist Adam Tooze, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, and Ernst & Young CEO Janet Truncale. Speaking in Davos, Lutnick said the era of globalization has harmed the United States by hollowing out its workforce and industrial base.
“We are in Davos at the World Economic Forum, and the Trump administration and myself, we are here to make a very clear point: Globalization has failed the West and the United States of America,” Lutnick said. He described globalization as a policy built around exporting production offshore to chase the cheapest labor, arguing that while it was promoted as beneficial for the world, it left American workers behind.
Lutnick said the administration is advancing an “America first” economic framework that prioritizes domestic workers and encourages other nations to consider similar approaches. He framed the shift as a direct rejection of decades of economic thinking embraced by Western governments.
President Donald Trump nominated Lutnick to serve as commerce secretary in November 2024. Lutnick is known for rebuilding Cantor Fitzgerald after the firm suffered devastating losses during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. During the Davos panel, he was at one point heckled by former Vice President Al Gore but continued pressing his case that offshoring critical industries was a serious mistake.
Lutnick argued that true sovereignty includes control over borders and essential supply chains. He said nations should not rely on foreign adversaries for medicine, semiconductors, or core industrial capacity, warning that dependence on other countries for fundamental needs undermines national security.
“You shouldn’t offshore your medicine. You shouldn’t offshore your semiconductors. You shouldn’t offshore your entire industrial base and have it be hollowed out beneath you,” Lutnick said. If dependence is unavoidable, he added, it should be limited to trusted allies.
He contrasted the administration’s approach with what he described as a reactive and inconsistent Western mindset. Lutnick said the West has often shifted policies with political winds rather than anchoring them in long-term national interests.
Turning to energy and climate policy, Lutnick questioned Europe’s push toward net-zero targets without domestic manufacturing capacity to support them. He noted that Europe does not produce batteries and argued that aggressive climate deadlines could make European nations dependent on China.
“Why would Europe agree to be net zero in 2030 when they don’t make a battery?” Lutnick asked. He said such decisions effectively place Europe in a subordinate position to China, which dominates battery production.
The remarks came as President Trump addressed the World Economic Forum on his efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark. Trump later announced that a framework agreement had been reached that avoided tariffs on several European nations.
The tone at Davos appeared to shift during the forum. The New York Times reported fewer discussions focused on sustainability and social justice themes, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged Thursday that the European Union had squandered growth opportunities through excessive regulation.
Merz said the EU had become “the world champion of over-regulation,” a concession that echoed Lutnick’s broader argument that Western economic policy has prioritized ideology over productivity. The comments underscored a growing divide between the Trump administration’s economic vision and the globalist consensus long associated with Davos.
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