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Reshaping the World Trading System After DohaProfessor Robert Wolfe
Queen's School of Policy Studies, Queen's University, Ontario
Date: Wednesday 30th November 2011
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The Emerging Powers in International Trade Policy
Braz Baracuhy
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brazil
Date: Wednesday 7th December 2011
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The Social Implications of GlobalisationKenneth Heydon
LSE and formerly Deputy Director for Trade OECD
Date: Wednesday 25th January 2012
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Lessons from the Doha Development Agenda
Alejandro Jara
Deputy Director General, World Trade Organisation
Date: Thursday 2nd February 2012
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Towards an EU-Japan Comprehensive Trade and Investment Agreement?
At this seminar, representatives of the European Commission and the Governments of Japan and the United Kingdom discussed the findings of a recent report ("Toward a Comprehensive Economic Integration Agreement (EIA) between the European Union and Japan") by Dr Mark Manger (LSE) on the potential for such an agreement, and the current state of play in the scoping exercise conducted by the European Commission and the Japanese Government.
Date: Thursday 7th June 2012
Speakers:
Yoshinori Kodama, Director, European Union Economic Affairs Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan
Antonio Parenti, Deputy Director and Head of Unit, Trade Relations with the Far East, Directorate-General for Trade, European Commission
Eamon Cassidy, Deputy Director, Trade Policy Unit, BIS-DfiD, UK Government
Mark Manger, Lecturer, Department of International Relations, London School of Economics
Stephen Woolcock, Head of the International Trade Policy Unit, London School of Economics (Chair)
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eBay and cross border trade
Simon Schropp (Sidley Austin) and Marcelo Olarreaga (Graduate Institute Geneva) outlined the results from a ground breaking study of online cross border trade. The study, which used a huge and never before studied dataset, looked at the pattern of eBay cross border trade compared to comparative offline cross border trade. The results touch on a number of issues, from the role of distance and friction in online trade to the importance of institutions and the role of small and medium sized businesses in development. The results are significant and important for a range of interests from trade policy through development policy, strategies for private sector advancement and e-commerce policies
Date: Wednesday 7th November 2012
The paper is available here
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The prospects for an EU – Japan Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
Hosuk Lee-Makiyama
ECIPE, Brussels
Hosuk Lee-Makiyama is Director of ECIPE and discussed the prospects and issues involved in the launching of negotiations between the EU and Japan. In June 2012 the ITPU organised a first round discussion of the issues in an EU-Japan agreement. With the European Parliament recently coming out in support of negotiations and a decision of the EU Member States possibly imminent, we are pleased to welcome Mr Lee-Makiyama who has been following the issues closely in both Tokyo and Brussels to discuss the prospects of an EU-Japan agreement. There will be comments from Mr Yuki Sadamitsu (Special Advisor, METI, and Director of Research, JETRO London).
Date: Wednesday 5th December 2012
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US economic relations with Asia and the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Matthew Goodman
CSIS Washington
Matthew P. Goodman holds the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy at CSIS. Previously, he was White House coordinator for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the East Asia Summit (EAS), where he oversaw U.S. policy development in those forums. He also served as director for international economics on the National Security Council staff and was responsible for the G-20, G-8, and other international forums. Prior to joining the White House, Goodman was senior adviser to the under secretary for economic, energy, and agricultural affairs at the U.S. Department of State. He also worked with the deputy secretary of state on the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR).
Date: Wednesday 16th January 2013
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Commercial Diplomacy
Commercial diplomacy in which governments and business jointly seek out contracts or business overseas or try to attract inward investment is something that all governments engage in. With the desire to promote export led growth the trend is if anything towards more efforts along these lines. But how is this best done, what are the conditions for success and is there evidence that it has any effect? Two speakers will address these and other questions.
Ambassador Kishan Rana formerly with the Indian foreign service and now Emeritus Professor at DIPLO, has written and lectured widely on the topic of commercial diplomacy. Dr. Huub Ruel of the University of Twente, The Netherlands, has recently completed a volume entitled Commercial Diplomacy and International Business: a conceptual and empirical exploration.
Date: Thursday 7th March 2013
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An Asian View of the World Trade Organization
Difficulties in the Doha Development Agenda of the WTO have raised a number of questions concerning the causes of the negotiating impasse. One issue is whether changes in the balance of the world economy have undermined the ability to conclude trade agreements, because the established consensus of OECD countries on which previous rounds were based no longer exists. Masahiro Kawai and Ganeshan Wignaraja of the Asian Development Bank will discuss the Asian view of the WTO.
Masahiro Kawai is Dean and CEO of the Asian Development Bank Institute. He has taught at Johns Hopkins University and at the University of Tokyo as well as having served as the World Bank’s Chief Economist for the East Asia and Pacific Region, as Deputy Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs of Japan’s Ministry of Finance, and as Special Advisor to the President of the Asian Development Bank. He is a co-editor (with Ganeshan Wignaraja) of Asia's Free Trade Agreements: How is Business Responding?
Ganeshan Wignaraja is Director of Research of the Asian Development Bank Institute and is an executive editor of the Journal of Asian Economics He was Principal Economist at the Asian Development Bank’s Office of Regional Economic Integration and Chief Program Officer at the Commonwealth Secretariat and has held research positions at Oxford University, the OECD, and the United Nations Institute for New Technologies.
Date: Wednesday 13th March 2013