[WEBCAST] The WTO After COVID-19: The View From China
VIEW EVENT DETAILSThis program is part of the Asia Society Policy Institute's (ASPI) series entitled “Coronavirus, Asia, and the World.” ASPI presents web-only programs twice weekly to analyze the scope of the ramifications from the novel coronavirus across the Asia-Pacific region and the world. All events will be live-streamed on YouTube and Facebook. For information about future events in this series and for ASPI’s additional coronavirus content see here.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) had hoped that 2020 would be a turning point. Its Ministerial Conference was to be held in June and members hoped progress could be made on ongoing negotiations and WTO reform. Many of those plans have been disrupted as COVID-19 spreads through the world, but experts believe that the WTO has an important role in combating the pandemic, including ensuring that supply chains for critical goods, such as medical supplies and equipment, remain open, and trade barriers for these items are eliminated.
What exactly will the WTO's role be, as the world fights the virus? Will the organization be further weakened by COVID-19, or will it gain new momentum from its response? What are the prospects for WTO reform? And will the United States and China find areas to work together, or will they remain at loggerheads on WTO issues?
Please join the Asia Society Policy Institute on May 12 for a conversation between China's Ambassador to the WTO, Amb. Zhang Xiangchen and ASPI Vice President Wendy Cutler to address these questions.
SPEAKERS
Amb. Zhang Xiangchen serves as Ambassador & Permanent Representative of the People’s Republic of China to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Prior to his current position, Amb. Zhang was Deputy China International Trade Representative (Vice-Minister’s level) of the Ministry of Commerce of China (MOFCOM), Assistant Minister of MOFCOM, Director-General of the Policy Research Department of MOFCOM, Minister and Deputy Permanent Representative of Permanent Mission of China to the WTO, and Director-General of the Department of WTO Affairs of MOFCOM. Previously, Amb. Zhang was appointed as Chief Representative for China-Australia FTA negotiations. Before that, Amb. Zhang was a leading aide to China’s Chief Representative for GATT/WTO accession negotiations.
Amb. Zhang holds a bachelor’s degree in law, a master’s degree in international relations theory and a PhD in international politics from Peking University. His main publications include Capacity Constraint: A Fundamental Perspective for the Development Issue at WTO (February 2019), World Outside the Window: The WTO and Globalization in My Eyes (July 2008), Sino-US Relations After the WTO (September 2002), and Developing Countries in the WTO: Politics and Economics (January 2000).
Wendy Cutler is Vice President of ASPI and Managing Director of its Washington, D.C. office. She joined ASPI following nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Most recently, she served as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, working on a range of U.S. trade negotiations and initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. In that capacity she was responsible for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, including the bilateral negotiations with Japan.