The Trade Trap

How To Stop Doing Business with Dictators

By: Mathias Döpfner

Narrated by: Mathias Döpfner

Global business leader Mathias Döpfner offers a “compelling” (Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs columnist for Financial Times) and revolutionary road map to reshape global trade, strengthen our democracy, and safeguard our freedoms.

Freedom is on the decline around the world. Autocrats in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East are undermining our open societies, human rights, and the rule of law. The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a wake-up call for the West, but the biggest threat remains China. For two generations, Americans and Europeans have believed that change will come through trade, but instead of dictatorships becoming more like Western democracies, unfettered free trade has strengthened our enemies and undermined our countries. We are caught in a trade trap, faced with the decision to choose either opportunism and submission or opposition and emancipation.

In Dealing with Dictators, one of the world’s most powerful business leaders traces the rise and costs of Western dependency on China and Russia. And he suggests a radical new approach to free trade: The establishment of a new values-based alliance of democracies. Membership is based on the adherence to three very simple criteria: the rule of law, human rights, and sustainability targets. Countries that comply with these criteria can engage in tariff-free trade with others. Those who don’t will pay prohibitive tariffs.

Sharing the author’s encounters with major global figures including Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, George W. Bush, Angela Merkel, Jack Ma, and more, Dealing with Dictators offers personal insight into the dangerous consequences of doing business with autocrats along with a bold proposal for a values-based trade policy.

Excellent book

For anyone struggling for some answers and ideas about where we should go and how we should get there.

Must read

This book is an absolute must read for anyone involved in politics or business. At best, it will define the new world order. At worst, it will draw the battle lines of World War 3. Either way, I firmly believe it will be one of the most important books of the 21st century. As someone firmly on the side of both human rights and democracy, I've found new ideological grounding in these words.

This is a must read for both left and right in Europe and the US.

Well written - brings a lot of great arguments for putting our free society over cheap consumer goods- well worth your time

An excellent, well-reasoned case for a new approach

Mathias does a phenomenal job describing the results of our international trade policies since WWII, and most particularly after the formation of the WTO and China’s inclusion in the trade pact. This is causing enormous harm and Mathias makes a cogent case for a new direction that everyone should read and help advocate for.