Tariffs and Trade Wars Are Already Obsolete and Donald Trump doesn’t know

By Rodrigo Lañado

24 minutes ago

3 min read

I’d like to share this article, which I believe is especially relevant to what’s happening right now, based on Chapter 16 of my book “The Second Renaissance: A Permacultural Guide for Designing the Communities of the Future and How to Live Well in the Age of Collapse and Artificial Intelligence.”

The book will soon be available for purchase in both print and digital formats through our website store: www.hombresdemaiz.com

// Chapter 13.6 – The End of Tariffs: The Economy of Code and Glocalization

While the world powers remain entangled in 20th-century trade wars (as we’re currently witnessing with the Trump administration), imposing tariffs to protect their interests, a silent revolution is dismantling that logic from its roots. It’s called additive manufacturing or 3D printing—a technology that allows the sharing of digital files to locally print physical objects at low cost and without paying tariffs.

This is not just a technical advancement: it marks the beginning of a new “glocal” economy (local manufacturing with global reach)—distributed, regenerative, and resilient. High-tech small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are leading this transition, creating everything from prosthetics to homes printed in local clay, while reducing transport, waste, and environmental impact.

In this new era, the economy no longer relies on maritime routes or geopolitical treaties, but on provider-user networks operating in real time. We no longer trade objects, but code. The old vertical, centralized, and extractive model becomes obsolete in the face of a horizontal, bioregional infrastructure, where things are printed when needed, where needed, and only if needed. Human-made systems are beginning to show their limits.

Key Points:

1. 3D printing as “tariff-free commerce”:

Tech SMEs can share digital files to manufacture products locally, avoiding tariffs and logistics costs—reducing time, cost, and environmental footprint.

2. The end of the geopolitical era of tariffs:

Even if governments like the U.S. try to impose new tariffs, this strategy is doomed to fail in the face of a decentralized, digital, and distributed model.

3. The Third Industrial Revolution:

Unlike subtractive manufacturing (which creates waste), 3D printing is additive, precise, and nearly zero-waste—fit for a world facing climate crises, mass migrations, and supply chain collapse.

4. Glocalized economy and provider-user networks:

3D printing shifts us from a buyer-seller market to a provider-user network, where software is shared at low cost within distributed networks.

5. Economic and environmental impact:

Physical transport costs $12.8 trillion per year (11.6% of global GDP). Replacing part of this through 3D printing lowers prices, speeds delivery, and reduces up to 11% of global emissions.

6. Example of 3D construction:

Italian architect Mario Cucinella printed a clay house in 200 hours using local materials and minimal waste—offering a solution to the global housing crisis.

7. The rise of high-tech SMEs:

These companies are more agile than large centralized corporations and better equipped to handle climate and logistics disruptions. They already account for over 50% of global employment.

8. An irreversible transition:

Governments may try to slow this shift with taxes or regulations, but the decentralization, efficiency, and accessibility of 3D printing make it unstoppable.

9. Toward a distributed and democratic economy:

Unlike the previous model that concentrated wealth, this new infrastructure can redistribute economic power—democratizing production and reducing inequality.

3D printing doesn’t just challenge tariffs—it renders them irrelevant. It democratizes production, decentralizes power, and opens the way for regenerative trade, aligned with climate, context, and life itself. It is a tool of the Second Renaissance—a way to produce intelligently, without destruction, and to distribute wealth without hoarding it.

This new paradigm is already in motion. And it’s hard to see how it could be stopped—simply because it’s becoming too economically convenient for too many.