Outspoken minister says America 'stuck in past'Digby Jones, Britain's trade and investment minister, has accused the US of being a protectionist economy and spoken of his fears that a new President will lead the country into 'another bout of isolationism'.
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'Please don't listen to the siren voices of protectionism, it does not become you,' he told an audience of entrepreneurs and executives in Boston, Massachusetts.
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'Ten years ago they genuinely thought globalisation was Americanisation - that it was all about basketball, McDonald's and Coca-Cola all around the world,' he said. 'It's perfectly obvious this isn't the case. America is having a problem accepting it. Do I think Americans have grasped it's a different century? I'm not sure they have.'
While many British business leaders and politicians will privately agree with the criticism, such an outspoken public attack from a high-ranking minister risks deepening tensions with the US.
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Jones also warned the US that restricting who comes to study and work in the country will damage the economy, and benefit more open economies, such as Britain's, in the long run.
Jones is concerned that any one of the three remaining likely presidential candidates - Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or John McCain - will make the US pull up the trade drawbridge.
Guardian UK Honestly, if there is a drawbridge to pull up, I do not believe 'we' own it.
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