Transpacific Integration: China, the TPP and Beyond

On November 15th from 8:30am to 12:30pm, the Inter-American Dialogue, in partnership with the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS, will examine prospects for further transpacific trade integration. In recent years, countries in the Asia-Pacific region have embraced a series of new trade and integration frameworks, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and the Pacific Alliance. However, despite considerable progress, these agreements have lost some momentum. The fate of the TPP is especially uncertain. In the US, which must soon decide whether or not to pass the TPP, favorable views of free trade agreements peaked in 2014 at 59 percent, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. The recent election of Donald Trump as the 45th US president has generated additional uncertainty about existing and future trade arrangements. This event will examine the likelihood of continued progress on transpacific trade and investment facilitation in a rapidly changing global environment. 

We are pleased to be joined by contributors to Transpacific Integration: China, the TPP and Beyond, a new volume co-edited by Adrian Hearn of the University of Melbourne and the Inter-American Dialogue’s Margaret Myers, as well as other top experts on trade and integration. 

The event will take place at the Johns Hopkins SAIS (Rome Building), located at 1619 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC.

8:30 – 9:00

Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 – 9:15

Opening Remarks

9:15 – 10:45    Session 1: Toward Latin American Cross-Pacific Trade Integration

• Sergio Amaral, Ambassador of Brazil to the United States
• Juan Blyde, Lead Trade Economist, Integration and Trade Sector, Inter-American Development Bank
• Ariel Armony, Senior Director of International Programs; Director, University Center International Studies, University of Pittsburgh

Moderator: Carla Hills, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Hills & Company

11:00 – 12:30 Session 2: Making the Case for Multilateral Trade: Prospects for the TPP

• Miles Kahler, Senior Fellow for Global Governance, Council on Foreign Relations
• Cathleen Cimino-Isaacs, Research Associate, Peterson Institute for International Economics
• Naboth van den Broek, Georgetown University Law Center

Moderator: Adrian Hearn, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne

Co-hosted by: