HOUSTON – (April 27, 2022) – A panel of experts will explore recent trends in international trade and provide policy recommendations for strengthening the global system during a May 4 event hosted by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Support for free trade and open markets in the United States and worldwide has declined in recent years. President Joe Biden and his predecessors have shown growing interest in pursuing “Buy American” policies, and this protectionism has broad bipartisan backing in Congress. Yet barriers such as tariffs and quotas pose substantial risks that could negatively impact economies around the globe, especially developing countries.
The expert panel will discuss the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the commercial relationship between the U.S. and China, and restructuring the World Trade Organization. Renowned historian, economist and journalist Marc Levinson, author of “The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger” and “Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas,” will provide keynote remarks and sign copies of both books after the event.
What: Baker Institute event, “Trends in Global and Regional Trade: The Views from North America”
Who: Tony Payan, director of the Baker Institute’s Center for the United States and Mexico; Marc Levinson, economist and historian; Daniel Chow, the Frank E. and Virginia H. Bazler Chair in Business Law at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law; James Gerber, nonresident scholar at the Center for the United States and Mexico and professor emeritus of economics at San Diego State University; and Simon Lester, nonresident fellow in the Baker Institute’s International Economics Program and co-founder of WorldTradeLaw.net. David Gantz, the Baker Institute’s Will Clayton Fellow in Trade and International Economics and the Samuel M. Fegtly Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law, will moderate.
When: Wednesday, May 4, 7:30-11 a.m.
Where: Doré Commons, James A. Baker III Hall at Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston.
Admission is $15 and requires registration. Members of the Baker Institute Roundtable, Roundtable Emerging Leaders and U.S.-Mexico Forum receive complimentary admission through the link included in their email invitations. Rice faculty, staff and students also receive free admission.
Members of the news media who would like to attend may contact Avery Franklin, media relations specialist at Rice, at averyrf@rice.edu or 713-348-6327.