Trade Matters

Trade can bring broad benefits - more choice, lower prices, new markets for European exporters, but the gains are widely shared and hard to notice, while the pain can hit specific sectors, regions, and communities with real force. In this episode, we look at one of the clearest symbols of that tension in Europe – the farmers protest - and unpack what is really behind it. We explore why trade debates are inevitable, how good policy can balance competing interests, how ambitious trade strategies can also be fair and sustainable at home. In this Episode of Trade Matters we speak to Alexander Anton, Secretary General, European Dairy Association; Max Schulman, Senior Advisor, Cereals oilseeds at Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners; and John Alistair Clarke, Journalist, lecturer, adviser; former WTO ambassador and senior Commission trade negotiator.

Trade policy is negotiated in a careful, technical language, but debated in public through simplified narratives used either as a weapon or as a promise of instant prosperity. In this episode, we explore why EU trade has such a communication problem, and how the gap between Brussels and everyday life has allowed misunderstandings to grow. We look at how technocratic explanations can sound detached, while populist narratives simplify trade into fear and blame, and who carries responsibility for this broken conversation? Above all, we explore what’s missing most in the trade debate with our guests - Tom Moylan, Director of Moylan Communications, Host of the „Trade-Off“ podcast of DG Trade; Asdis Olafsdottir Head of Information and Communication at EFTA; Jerry Zagoritis, Founder and Chief Strategist at Campaign Lab; Antonio Lopez-Isturiz White MEP, Member of AFET Committee.

Europe is often seen as a regulatory power, but is it also a trade power? In this opening episode, we explore how the European Union uses trade to open markets and shape partnerships. We take stock of where Europe stands today: its strengths as the world’s largest trading bloc, the success stories that delivered real results, and the agreements that became politically controversial at home. Most importantly, we ask what EU trade power really means in a fragmented world of today and why Europe’s ability to trade effectively depends as much on trust and public legitimacy as it does on negotiation skills.

Trade was once treated as a technical subject, but today it has become a political battlefield. In Europe, trade triggers real concerns. Agreements negotiated over years can collapse in a single political moment. Not necessarily because the deal is “bad”, but because public trust is fragile, the benefits are hard to see, and the debate is too often shaped by fear, not facts.

Europe cannot afford to get this wrong. In a world that is growing more fragmented by the day, trade is part of how Europe protects its interests and defends its way of life. It is also how Europe projects its values, builds influence without force, and creates partnerships without dependence.

Our new podcast aims to bring that bigger picture closer, making trade easier to understand, easier to discuss, and ultimately easier to decide on, together.

Please welcome TRADE MATTERS, where together with Dr. Eoin Drea from Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies we explore how Europe trades, why it matters, and how we can build a better public conversation around it.

First episode drops this week on all major podcast platforms!