On the Curious Case of Pasta, Shrimps, and the Unraveling of the Liberal Trade Order
trade-wars
From pasta tariffs to seafood bans, food trade is becoming a favoured tool for political signalling — a symptom of the world fragmenting back into 1930s-style trading blocs.
Major powers are increasingly using food trade restrictions as political weapons rather than economic tools. US tariffs on Italian pasta and China’s largely symbolic ban on Japanese seafood are cases in point — moves designed to send diplomatic messages rather than achieve real economic impact. The world is fragmenting into competing trading blocs reminiscent of the 1930s, abandoning the post-1945 liberal trade order, even as nations stay dependent on the very supply chains they are disrupting. The result risks an “expensive redundancy” rather than genuine resilience.
Originally published on Substack, November 19, 2025.