If the Davos elite can’t tackle Trump’s tariffs, what are they even there for?

The annual talkfest is presented as an event that is responsible for influencing political, economic and social currents. It’s nothing of the sort, writes Chris Blackhurst. If business leaders really wanted to make a difference to workers and consumers, they could start by looking closer to home

Soon after his inauguration, Donald Trump will address the Davos World Economic Forum. His appearance is being hailed by the Davos groupies as a feather in the gathering’s cap, a sign that it really matters. That the new US president will be speaking virtually is skated over. So too is the fact this will be the third time he has addressed the summit. More telling, though, will be the manner of his delivery. It will be a lecture, a talking-to, Trump informing them exactly how he sees it and what they can expect from his second term. And if tariffs are something they’re worried about, don’t expect any hard challenges from this audience.

The truth is that Trump does not need them – none of the business leaders present hold any sway over him. He will do what he wants and they must lump it.

Nevertheless, Trump’s speech is being held up as a sign that Davos is vital. Spoiler alert: it isn’t, never has been and never will – no matter how much the delegates want us to believe it. They present their annual talkfest as an event of major global significance; a conference that reshapes the planet, and is responsible for influencing political, economic and social currents. It’s nothing of the sort.

This year, the attendees have listed wars, extreme weather and disinformation as their biggest concerns. That sounds mightily grand, but they’re the issues that many ordinary people would give if pressed to think globally and just as they cannot curb them, neither can those assembling in the Alpine ski resort.

That’s not what those jetting into Switzerland and trekking up the mountainside would say. They will insist their discussions carry real weight, that the world and its political leaders are hanging on their every word.

It’s true that this year, as in previous years, several world leaders will make the effort to visit in person or will speak, as Trump is doing, via camera. But it’s a veneer, a gloss, designed to make Davos appear more significant than it really is.

The political titans will do it because they can reach in one place the chiefs of some of the world’s wealthiest. It beats having to meet them individually. It’s an opportunity to state their case, to make a good impression, to outline their agenda to those in the hall and to the watching wider audience. It’s a chance too, as Rachel Reeves, the beleaguered British chancellor is taking, to press the case for greater inward investment.

But in terms of reshaping international events and trends, not so much. The great and the powerful are headlining to give Davos a reason for being – especially for the corporate chiefs heading off to run up expenses and add to skyrocketing carbon emissions.

Otherwise, Davos would fall back upon its underlying purpose, as the provider of one vast, international networking jamboree, with some skiing attached.

That’s the real reason why they bother. Before they pack, the industry kings and queens make sure they’ve enough business cards. They check their diaries are packed with breakfast, lunches, dinners, coffees and receptions. If they’re grand enough to have entourages, they’re briefed as to the arrangements and they go through who else they might like to meet, who they would like to see and where they should be seen.

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves pictured during the 2023 World Economic Forum (AFP/Getty)

Like any such occasion, there will be unexpected encounters, those that aren’t planned. This is part of the appeal. It’s remarkable how often you’ll hear Davos devotees talk about what they got from this year’s pow-wow, and how “you would not believe it but I bumped into so and so over late-night cocktails around the piano. We agreed to get together later, back in London.”

Davos would have far greater resonance if the coveted pass holders – they carry degrees of seniority – held a mirror to themselves and focused on improving the standards of their own business communities and how they’re perceived.

Instead of bothering themselves with wars, wilder weather and disinformation – none of which they can come close to changing – they could:

• Name and shame bankers, private equity and hedge funders earning grotesque bonuses and those who behave incautiously and recklessly with other people’s hard-earned money
• Pledge (and mean it) not to take advantage of offshore tax structures and secretive havens
• Agree to pay their junior workers more and not use cheap labour
• Put in place better pension arrangements for all their employees
• Out those who sell weapons to some of the planet’s most odious governments.

That would just be for starters – the list of what they choose not to do anything about, preferring to brush it under the soft-pile carpet, is long.

That of course, would be too close to home, too uncomfortable, too threatening to profit margins. It may appear like a leftist wishlist – that’s doubtless how they would bill it – and so can be disregarded. It isn’t. It might just be what people would say if they were stopped in the street and asked what they would like Davos to achieve.

There is a difference between what Davos could do if it was so minded and what Davos would rather do. It’s a calendar fixture that specialises in turning the other cheek, in not doing much at all.

Trump will lambast and the delegates, with their expensively procured tans, will glow with pride. They will be at one: the leader of the free world and those who like to tell us they also lead.