The U.S. and the EU appear to be growing closer on both their understanding of where the WTO is falling short and what to do about it. This webinar will examine how to modernize the WTO’s negotiating, monitoring, and dispute resolution functions, with a particular focus on where there is a need for new rules and how to shape them within a multilateral trading system that has become more diverse and disorderly. The role of plurilateral agreements in areas like subsidies and state-owned enterprises as a stepping-stone to WTO reform will be an important focus of this session.
Opening Remarks:
- Dr. Sabine Weyand, Director-General for Trade, European Commission
Discussants:
- Amb. Rufus Yerxa, President, National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC)
- Prof. Gabriel Felbermayr, President, Kiel Institute for the Global Economy
This event is part of the KAS USA / AICGS Online Series: Transatlantic Trade Week: Where are Transatlantic Trade Relations Headed? China, the WTO, and Climate Change (June 28-June 30)
With the advent of the Biden administration, both the tone and the substance of transatlantic economic relations are already improving. Although a number of bilateral irritants remain, there is now an opportunity for a common agenda on a number of key trade policy challenges.
In this new context, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University are collaborating on a series of online events examining key trade policy challenges. These include agreeing a joint approach to China’s economic behavior through a better balance between engagement and enforcement; reforming the World Trade Organization through new rules in areas like subsidies and state-owned enterprises and reviving its dispute settlement system; and reconciling trade and climate policy goals through the WTO, supply chain strategy, and a carbon border adjustment mechanism.