Free trade was built on the proposition that economic liberalisation could create prosperity across the world. That proposition now confronts a resurgence of tariffs, subsidies, industrial policy, investment controls and domestic production mandates. Governments that once championed open markets are placing national interest, technological sovereignty and economic security ahead of free trade. Is economic nationalism a temporary correction to the excesses of globalisation, or does it signal a retreat from the principles on which modern global economy was constructed?