The USA played a pivotal role in designing the postwar global economic architecture and for decades, the USA has been a fervent champion of the liberal economic order, promoting free trade and solidifying the rules-based international order it created.

However, long gone are the days where the world was dominated by a sole superpower. With the swift catch-up of the BRIC econo-mies, it is apparent that America’s unipolar moment is over. Yet, amidst today’s crucial transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world, the USA has surprisingly been upending the economic order that it has built over the last 70 years, heightening concerns of a full-blown trade war that could destabilise the global economy.

This worrying trend has raised many questions on how trade would be conducted in a multipolar world:• Should we characterise USA’s recent manoeuvres in international trade as a recalibration or a retreat?• Will WTO survive the current onslaught by US under Trump• As the shift towards multipolarity continues, would the present protectionist impulses be likely to intensify? • How would the emerging multipolar world affect economic regionalism? • Can the BRICs economies capitalise on America’s relinquishment of economic leadership? • To what extent will Brexit weaken the transatlantic liberal economic order and the EU’s relative strength in trade?

These are some of the issues that will be discussed by the panelists.

PANEL DISCUSSION ON“TRADE IN A MULTIPOLAR WORLD”

23 August 2018 (Thursday) | 2.30 pm – 4.30 pm (Registration starts at 2pm)NTU @ one-north, FH1 (Level 1)

11 Slim Barracks Rise Executive Centre Singapore 138664* light refreshments will be served after the panel discussion

Register HERE (by 21 August 2018, 10am)Directions to venue: http://bit.ly/NTU-OneNorth-Directions

Abstract

A/P Kim Soo Yeon

Moderator Panelists

Dr Razeen Sally Dr Henry Gao Louise Dalingwater Jean-Baptiste VelutRazeen Sally is Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS.

Henry is Associate Pro-fessor of Law at the Sin-gapore Management Uni-versity.

Louise Dalingwater is Associate Professor of British Studies at Univer-sité Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.

Jean-Baptiste Velut is Associate Professor in American Studies at the Sorbonne Nouvel-le University of Paris.

Kim Soo Yeon is Head of the Depart-ment of Political Science, NUS.