Peter Foster

Donald Trump is ripping up the rule book of global trading order, slapping tariffs on allies and enemies alike. In a world where policy often comes down to the whims of one man, global boardrooms are having to think fast about how to build resilience into their supply chains.

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As world trade editor of the Financial Times, Peter Foster uses his network of contacts to provide firsthand insight into the trials and tribulations of negotiating with the Trump White House that doesn’t always ‘chicken out’.

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From the coercive ‘poison-pill’ clauses inserted into trade deals with ‘Factory Asia’ countries like Cambodia and Vietnam, to the eve–of–deal demands to extort last minute concessions from trade partners, Foster takes up behind the scenes of a new rough and tumble world of trade talks.

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With the World Trade Organisation heading into a make-or-break year in 2026, Foster asks ‘what next for a global trading system already being pushed to its political limits by the onward advance of China’s manufacturing juggernaut?’

The US and China are now locked in a battle to achieve strategic dominance in the technologies that will shape all of our futures – from high end computer chips that drive the AI revolution to the rare earth metals that are critical to the green transition and defence supply chains.

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Relying on over two decades of frontline reporting of global affairs, including stints living in Beijing, New Delhi and Washington DC, the Financial Times’ world trade editor Peter Foster unpacks the possibilities for the strategic rivalry that will now define the 21st century.

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Using firsthand experiences – Foster first reported from China’s rare earth mines in 2011 – this talk charts how 15 years of international trade policy have left the western world increasingly exposed to Chinese strategic dominance in key sectors, from shipbuilding to solar panels.

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With US president Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping due to meet four times in 2026, and Beijing moving to achieve escalation dominance in its negotiations with Washington, how will Europe ride the wake from what Xi has called the “giant ship of China-US relations”?

After a messy divorce which left both sides feeling bitter and betrayed, the EU and the UK are back putting a brave face on things under Sir Keir Starmer. But as Financial Times journalist and author Peter Foster explains, patching up the differences between London and Brussels is going to require more than warm words. Brexit turned Brussels red tape into ‘red white and blue’ tape that continues to tie up British business in knots. With his deep network of contacts in both Whitehall and the European Commission and a decade of reporting every twist and turn of the Brexit story Foster takes us behind the scenes of the continuing negotiations. He explores the potential opportunity for Britain in Europe, but also the challenge of repairing a relationship haunted by the politics of populism on both sides of the Channel that show no signs of going away.