‘Economic NATO’ should be created to counter China: Liz Truss

29 comments
  1. Maybe it could be European based for ease of trade and it could have a slightly different name, like Union Of Europe

  2. https://archive.is/2ts9k

    TOKYO — The G-7 and like-minded nations should cooperate to build a supply chain for resources such as strategically important minerals, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss said in an interview with Nikkei on Saturday.
    “I believe that we as the free world are facing a serious challenge from authoritarian regimes, particularly from China,” she said in Tokyo, adding that an economic version of NATO centered on the G-7, and including countries such as Australia, was needed to counter China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

    She proposed building a supply chain network for rare-earth elements and other important minerals, export controls for cutting-edge technologies such as semiconductors, and cooperation among members in infrastructure investment in developing countries, “providing investment that doesn’t have strings attached, that doesn’t lead to a debt trap.”
    Truss said the G-7 and Taiwan should work together economically to deter China.

    “We need to use our economic leverage to make the escalation of the situation a strategic mistake,” she said. “We need to use our economic leverage to make sure that we are building economic relations with Taiwan at the same time as being clear with China that any escalation would be a strategic mistake and have consequences.”
    “We made the mistake in the case of Ukraine by not doing enough early enough,” Truss said. “And we absolutely cannot make that mistake again.”

    Truss took office as prime minister in September, but resigned after just 49 days, marking the shortest tenure for a U.K. prime minister. She was under pressure to step down after her proposed economic stimulus measures, such as large tax cuts, disrupted financial markets.

    As for the lessons the world should learn from that experience, “I think in the U.K., we faced a very specific set of circumstances which aren’t necessarily replicable in other countries,” she said.

    When Truss announced the tax cuts just after taking office, U.K. bond yields rose. A chain reaction of selling was ignited when pension funds were forced to sell government bond holdings.

    “We had a market that had these liability driven investments and pension funds, which were very, very sensitive to changes in the in the [U.K. government bond] rate,” she said.

    “Clearly there was a communication problem” between the central bank and Chancellor of the Exchequer, the U.K.’s chief finance minister, Truss added. “If I had my time again, I would have acted differently. And I would have wanted to have known about that issue, which I didn’t know about at the time.”

    Regarding economic policy, she said it was important to reduce the burden on individuals and allow companies to freely engage in economic activities.

    “There is a debate about does increasing taxes actually bring in more revenue,” Truss said.
    Truss was visiting Japan to attend a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Group on China Policy, which consists of lawmakers from Japan, the U.S., Europe, Australia and other countries, held on Friday. It was her first official overseas visit since she resigned as prime minister, and her first interview with Japanese media since resigning.

  3. Like the EU? Something Truss became a zealous opponent of.

    I could see how an economic NATO could work. It be a group of countries who have standardisation of regulations, free borders, free movement of workers, customs unions etc. Little things like that

    But noooooooooooooo

    Our fearless free marketeer ex-leader is now proposing that there’s state owned or influenced supply chains.

    Is this woman incapable of maintaining a coherent position

  4. > Economic NATO

    Some sort of union of nations based around shared trading standards?

    Sounds fresh and original.
    I like it.

  5. Many are saying the EU obviously but here is another idea. What if we stop exporting all our manufacturing and instead focused bringing back some of our own factories. I’m sure the North of the UK would have appreciated not having all their cloth factories closed in the first place. I’m sure my mother would have loved to have kept her job, where she was a respected seamstress. And not have needed to go work night shifts at Asda, not that these anything wrong working at Asda. Just a crazy idea that’s all.

  6. I’ve always wondered if we could get the entire western world in an economic union.

    Us, Europe, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Throw in Japan and SK

  7. Why are people reporting the thoughts of Liz Truss? Is this a plan to discredit certain idea’s by reporting them as Liz Truss ideas? I find it pretty bizarre anyone in the media is giving Truss column inches.

  8. She’s an idiot but the general gist of the article isn’t wrong. China are currently going all out attempting to secure resources and influence across Africa and the Pacific. There needs to be more effort to counter this by the west. I daresay Brexit could have been a perfect opportunity to build stronger ties with the Commonwealth but the process was doomed to fail by incompetent ministers and fifth columnists in the civil service.

  9. Truss is now in the unique position that any sensible politician will consider the opposite of any of her proposals to be a better idea than what she’s advocating. If she was smart enough she could use reverse psychology to push her agenda, but the whole problem is her intelligence level which is public knowledge at this point.

  10. Jokes about the EU aside.

    The Nato nations just don’t have the same raw and second material outputs as China. It should just be a case of switching to other countries for cheaper labour opportunities

  11. So glad she has regained her confidence after almost crashing the UK economy in one day and getting the boot.

    Hopefully global economics will be easier for her.

  12. She may be the least talented politician ever to make it to PM and only got there only by appealing to a Tory membership that is almost as deluded as she is.

    Any well adjusted person who had inadvertently ruined a country would have the common decency remain out of the public sphere for a few years. At most write a memoir. But no. Such is the lack of self awareness of this women that she insists on pushing her failed ideology over and over again.

  13. As much as I enjoy the references to the EU, I have to ask what are lizz truss’s economic achievements that means we should pay attention to her?

  14. Just imagine the same nations, give or take, all aligned in an existing economic super power capable of competing with China or the USA, with free trade, a single customs border and NOW PLEASE FUCK OFF AND WHEN YOU GET THERE FÜCK OFF SOME MORE

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