IPN and the Adam Smith Institute will host a lunchtime seminar on May 28 in London, featuring Dan Ikenson, associate director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC.

"Us vs. Them? The global economy in a time of economic nationalism."

DATE: Thursday, 28th May 2009, 12:30pm – 14:00pm [buffet lunch provided]

LOCATION:  23 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BL

RSVP: Denise Teixeira (IPN), 020 3393 8410

EMAIL:       events   AT    policynetwork   DOT  net

Rising unemployment and economic contraction spawned by the financial crisis have inspired governments in almost every major economy to “do something.”  Often that has included raising barriers to trade, subsidising domestic industries, compelling local lending while deterring lending abroad, and preventing the benefits of Keynesian “stimulus” spending from “leaking” outside national boundaries. The mantra of both the Right and the Left has become “British jobs for British workers,” while the American government precludes “bailed-out” financial institutions from hiring foreign workers.

But is this inward-looking thinking anachronistic for the modern global economy? Over the past 50 years, falling barriers to trade have led to an unprecedented division of labour.  Where supply chains were once very small and usually entirely domestic, they have evolved into highly efficient transnational operations, often spanning several countries.  It’s no longer “our” producers vs. “their” producers; nowadays our producers are the customers of their producers and vice versa.  Collaborations of our producers and their producers compete against other collaborations of our producers and their producers.

The impact of rapidly increasing levels of trade in recent decades has been overwhelmingly positive in terms of innovation, job creation, growth, and poverty reduction around the world.  But changes in trade policy thinking didn’t keep pace with changes in commercial reality, which has kept the door ajar for a resurgence of economic nationalism.  Does that spell the end of the global supply chain?  Daniel Ikenson, trade expert at the Cato Institute in Washington D.C., will discuss these issues.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Daniel Ikenson is associate director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies , focusing on WTO disputes, regional trade agreements, U.S.-China trade issues, steel and textile trade policies, and antidumping reform. Ikenson has been involved in international trade since 1990.

Before joining Cato in 2000, Ikenson was director of international trade planning for an international accounting and business advisory firm. Before that, he co-founded the Library of International Trade Resources (LITR), a consulting firm providing interactive information access and international trade consulting. And before that, he was a trade policy and antidumping analyst at a few different international trade law practices in Washington, DC.

Ikenson is the author of many studies and articles on trade policy and is the coauthor of Antidumping Exposed: The Devilish Details of Unfair Trade Law . He has appeared on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, MSNBC, ABC News, and NPR. His articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Australian, the South China Morning Post, Business Day (South Africa), Mint (India), National Review Online, and elsewhere.

We hope you can join us.