Lecture Abstract:

The present crisis in global trade relations did not come out of nowhere. Even if the US and China pull back for now from outright trade war- by no means a certainty-the underlying problems will still be there. The failure of policymaking at both national and international level to provide positive responses to social and economic concerns related to globalization, or cope with the shifting balance of economic power, has enfeebled the rule-based trading system. Rebuilding a more robust trade consensus requires a more inclusive and holistic approach to the effects of trade policies both within and among countries and to the linkages among issues.

About the Speaker:

Evan Rogerson is an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Centre for Multilateralism Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Previously, he held senior positions in the WTO until his retirement in 2017.

He joined his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1976 after graduating from Auckland University, working on secondment at the Treasury before postings in Brussels and London. His work in those postings focused on trade policy, particularly New Zealand’s trade and economic relations with the EU.

He joined the GATT Secretariat in 1986, working in the Agriculture Division before going to the Director-General’s Office in 1993, becoming Chief of Staff to Director-General Renato Ruggiero from 1995 to 1999. He subsequently headed the Council and TNC Division, where he was Secretary of the WTO’s top bodies, the Ministerial Conference, the General Council, the Trade Negotiations Committee and the Dispute Settlement Body. In 2012 he came back to the Agriculture and Commodities Division as Director. In this role he headed the Secretariat team for the successful negotiations to abolish agricultural export subsidies in 2015.

Mr Rogerson has written on trade themes in the RSIS Commentary series, in regional media and in other publications. He is a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) and the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun.