Thursday, December 3, 2020

Some weekend webinars on trade and investment

In the times of Covid, two interesting webinars in trade and investment worth watching.

The first one, is on what should India's trade policy strategy be focused on? Should it be inward or export oriented? Should it be import substitution based or export orietnted? More protectionism, a la the major world economies or should it still repose its faith in globalisation.

Arvind Subramanian feels India should not abandon its hitherto export oriented strategy. What implication does this have for engaging in world trade rules? Would it change India's strategy in engaging in multilateral negotiation and mega-regionals like RCEP?

Dr.Harsha Vardhan Singh makes a distinction between border measures as against domestic regulation. He speaks about the experience of Asian economies in protectionism, connecting to global value chains, establishing lead firms and providing protectionist incentives like tariffs. lack of effective implementation of getting good value chains into the country compounds the problem.

On the investment front, it was about investment treaty reform and the Carribean region. CCSI had this seminar on investment treaty reform. Chantal Ononaiwu explained Caricom's position on investment treaty reform. The impact of ISDS cases on small states was an important point.

Some weekend reading (oops, webinar) work!

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