Name: Lutnick vs Reeves: UK Finance Minister Hits Back At Trump's Commerce Secretary Over Global Security
Uploaded: 2026-01-21T02:30:46.000Z
Duration: 8 min 46 s
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Globalization has failed the west and the United States of America.

It is what the WEF 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.

And what we are here to say is that America first is a different model, one that we encourage other countries to consider, which is that our workers come first.

We can have policies that impact our workers.

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.

And if you're going to be dependent on someone, it darn well better be your best allies.

And so that is a different way of thinking.

I viewed the WEF as not a flagpole in the middle, but

in fact they are the flag whichever way the wind blew.

Why would Europe agree to be net zero in 2030 when they don't make a battery?

So if they go 2030, they are deciding to be subservient to China, who makes the batteries.

Why would the United States of America, which has oil and natural gas, try to convert to all electricity?

Electricity and electric cars make perfect sense to them.

I want people to think about, is that America first is the job of our government to take care of our workers, to make sure their lives are better for it, and

And I would suggest that policy is something for other countries to deeply consider, to take care of their own.

And then we will work out wonderful relationships between us.

I am very struck by and taken by the idea of putting your own country first and considering your own security and resilience.

I think it's about three years ago now that I gave a speech where I coined the term securinomics, which is all about building security and resilience in your economy.

And the days when it didn't matter where things were made and who made them were in the past.

And that's become increasingly Clear since the pandemic, when we were over reliant on PPE and medicines from abroad, and

then again when Russia invaded Ukraine because of what happened to oil and gas prices.

I guess for an economy like the uk, the way in which we will pursue our national interest is going to be different from the way in which the US pursues theirs.

You are a much bigger economy and we can't do everything on our own, so.

And nor should we try to, because we'd end up doing nothing well.

But we do have real strengths in the UK in our defence sector, in life sciences, in business and financial services.

And even a country as big and as strong as America also relies on its allies.

And I guess the sort of area where I think that we do need to sort of continue that dialogue between countries that share each other's values is how we can work together in our mutual interests to advance our values in a very unstable and uncertain world.

And, you know, if you say, could you picture the world without the us and what would the world be like?

But you've also got a lot of allies around the world, in the United States, Britain.

Feeling is mutual, but we do need to think about what.

Where the threats are and who our friends are.

And I think that's probably more stark for smaller economies, but

I was in the States, as you know, last week for a meeting of G7, plus a few other finance ministers, to talk around critical minerals.

Now, you do have some reserves of critical minerals, but not everything you need.

90% of your critical minerals at the moment come from the us, from China.

But you won't be able to do that without the help of Canada and Australia and other countries.

And so, for all of your strengths, we do also need to think how we can preserve some of the things that the US has benefited from in the NATO alliance and the Western alliance, not because it is the benevolent or the right thing to do, but

because I profoundly believe it is in your country's national interest.

The other thing I just wanted to say, Adam, in terms of sort of building security and resilience, but

for my country, it's about our industrial strategy, where we're really focusing on these sectors, where we are really good, but

we're not going to be a semiconductor superpower in the uk.

So we've got life sciences, biotech, financial services, which is obviously absolutely crucial for financing things like the exploration of critical minerals and the extraction of those critical minerals.

We've got real strength with the London Metal Exchange in London, for example, but

we, we have some reserves of lithium and tungsten.

We're not going to be a big global support supplier of critical minerals.

And our trade strategy is also around our security and resilience, where we are, we are trying, and

I absolutely acknowledge that we are trying to reduce barriers to trade.

You know, we've done trade deals this day with you, with India, with Korea, and

we're also reducing trade barriers to the eu.

There's more that we want to do together between the UK and Canada.

We regard it in our national interest to reduce cost of living for people in Britain, but

also providing more opportunities for businesses in the UK to then export around the world.

And, you know, energy security is important to us as well.

We do have some reserves of North Sea oil and gas and they will be important for many decades to come.

But we are a net importer of, of oil and gas.

We do have, because of the shallow waters in our seas, a big opportunity is around wind technology.

We don't have what you have in the us and so we've got to find our own way to boost our energy security.

And we strongly believe that renewables is a really important part of that mix, as is nuclear.

There hasn't been sufficient investment in nuclear for a long time.

We've signed off a size will see a big nuclear reactor as well as small modular reactor in North Wales.

So, you know that security for us is around energy security, our security through our industrial strategy and our trade strategy as well.