Trade policy, explained where it actually bites.
Trade Talks turns trade policy into a clear, current conversation about who pays, who retaliates, and what governments are trying to prove. Recent episodes track Trump tariffs, WTO reform, pharmaceutical supply chains, de minimis packages, and the legal limits of tariff power.
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Trade Talks is a serious, fast-moving guide to international trade policy as it is being made, contested, and sometimes improvised. The show has a narrow beat and uses that focus well. Chad Bowne centers the conversation on tariffs, trade rules, supply chains, retaliation, and the institutions that are supposed to keep global commerce predictable. Recent episodes are anchored in concrete policy moments: Trump’s “Tariff Day,” renewed steel and aluminum tariffs, pharmaceutical import threats, WTO reform submissions, and the possible end of de minimis treatment for low-value packages from China. The show does not treat those moves as isolated headlines. It asks how they fit into trade law, domestic politics, industry concerns, consumer prices, and the balance of power between the executive branch, courts, Congress, and trading partners. The tone is informed and direct. There is room for dry wit, especially when policy logic becomes strained, but the analysis stays grounded in text, history, and incentives. Guests such as Amy Williams and Ana Swanson bring reporting from Washington and the trade beat, while episodes with figures like Paul Krugman widen the frame to industrial policy, agglomeration, AI, Europe’s productivity gap, and the older economic theories now being tested by current events. Trade Talks works best for listeners who already care about policy, economics, law, business, or geopolitics, and want someone to separate the headline number from the mechanism underneath. It explains why a 10 percent tariff, a 25 percent metals duty, or a 100 percent pharmaceutical threat can mean different things depending on timing, exemptions, retaliation, and administrative capacity. It also keeps returning to a larger question: what happens when the United States becomes uncertain about the trading system it helped build? The result is a show that makes trade feel less like background infrastructure and more like an active arena of political choice.
Made for: For listeners who follow economics, public policy, global business, or Washington trade fights and want careful analysis beyond the headline tariff rate. It also suits curious non-specialists who are willing to sit with technical detail when the stakes are clear.
What sets it apart: Trade Talks combines trade-law specificity, economic reasoning, and timely reporting in a way few general economics shows attempt. Its strength is showing how a policy announcement travels through rules, industries, courts, supply chains, and trading partners.
Chad P. Bown (Peterson Institute for International Economics) hosts a podcast about the economics of international trade and policy. From trade wars to trade deals, this podcast covers trade developments with insights and economic analysis from one of the world's top trade geeks.
Tariff Day gets a forensic exam before you can accidentally call it Liberation Day.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A focused review of why the United States is pressing the WTO and what reform could mean for the trading system.
Trade Talks frames America's friction with the World Trade Organization as a question of purpose: what the U.S. government thinks the trading system has failed to deliver, why that concern has sharpened, and what changes it wants to see in WTO rules.
A focused read on pharmaceutical tariffs, supply-chain pressure, and the US-UK drug pricing deal.
Trade Talks gives the prospect of pharmaceutical tariffs of up to 100 percent a careful, policy-minded hearing, moving from supply-chain anxiety to the details of a US-UK pricing arrangement.
A clear look at how one year of tariffs turned into retaliation, de-escalation, and unfinished trade deals.
Trade Talks looks back at the year after President Donald Trump's April 2, 2025 tariff announcement, tracing how a sweeping policy became a cycle of retaliation, de-escalation, and rushed negotiation.
A clear guide to Tariff Day, China tariffs, and the costs that could reach American consumers.
Tariff Day plays as a clear, pointed look at how executive trade policy moves from announcement to real-world pressure on consumers, exporters, and the machinery of government.
Krugman connects agglomeration economics with Europe's productivity gap, industrial policy, AI, and Trump-era tariffs in a loose but useful Trade Talks conversation.
Paul Krugman's visit to Trade Talks gives the show room to range across the ideas that helped make him one of the world's best-known trade economists.
Sewing craft with culture in every seam.
Policy detail from the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.
Jameson Greer’s April Wall Street Journal op-ed called the WTO a failed institution, and Chad Bowne uses that opening to ask Maria Pagan why U.S.
Donald Trump’s April tariffs of up to 100 percent and the U.S.-United Kingdom Arrangement on Pharmaceutical Pricing frame Trade Talks episode 209 around drug prices and supply chains.
Trade Talks host Chad Bowne and Financial Times reporter Amy Williams assess the consequences of Donald Trump's April 2, 2025 Liberation Day tariffs.
Trade Talks host Chad Bown and returning co-host Samaya Keynes break down President Trump's April 2nd "Tariff Day," including a new 10% baseline tariff on most countries and country-specific rates like 34% for China and 49% for Cambodia.
Paul Krugman says the biggest trade problem now is concentrated production, with semiconductors in Taiwan, PPE in China, and chip equipment in the Netherlands.
This episode explores the contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelensky over a critical minerals deal and its broader implications for trade, national security, and China.
Chad Bowne discusses President Trump's announced 25% tariffs on the EU and explores Europe's potential response with former EU trade official Rupert Schlegelmilch.
This episode of Trade Talks explains the de minimis trade exemption, its history, how Chinese companies use it, and the implications of Trump's policy changes.
Chad Bowne and Ana Swanson discuss President Trump's new 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, comparing them to previous tariffs and analyzing their economic impact and trading partner responses.
An emergency episode of Trade Talks analyzing the new 10% U.S.