New Thinking in International Trade: National Strategies to Build Comparative Advantage

The Woodrow Wilson Center's Program on Science, Technology, America, and the Global Economy is hosting a major, half-day conference on November 16 to examine the economic strategies of advanced and emerging market countries and their impact on the United States.

The purpose of this conference is two-fold: First, to explore how the national policies of foreign competitors are designed to change their respective comparative advantages and thus the pattern of world trade; and second, to evaluate the appropriate U.S. public and private sector policies for dealing with the evolving competitive strengths of other countries.

This conference is the second in a series of policy forums examining new trends in global competition and new thinking in international trade theory and policy. Panelists and participants will discuss national strategies to shift comparative advantage in Europe and Asia and examine recommendations for responsive U.S. policies. The panelists will also look closely at the policy implications of the new thinking for trade negotiations with advanced and developing countries.

The first conference with Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson, Sloan Foundation President Ralph Gomory, and New York University's Harold Price Professor of Entrepreneurship William Baumol focused on new thinking on international trade that takes account of the impact of overseas innovation on the U.S. comparative advantage and the potential gains from trade.

Conference Agenda

7:00 – 7:30 AM
Registration and Continental Breakfast

7:30 – 7:45 a.m.
Opening Remarks
--Kent Hughes, Director, Program on Science, Technology, America and the Global Economy, Woodrow Wilson Center
--The Honorable Lee H. Hamilton, President and Director, Woodrow Wilson Center

7:45 – 9:00 a.m.
Keynote Addresses
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)

9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
Panel I - Strategies in Industrial Countries

Chair/Moderator Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post
France and Germany--Mark Lehrer, Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University
Japan--Mark Tilton, Purdue University
United Kingdom and Ireland--Gary Hufbauer, Institute for International Economics

9:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Discussion

10:00 – 10:15 a.m.
Coffee and Conversation

10:15 – 10:45 a.m.
Panel II - Strategies in Emerging Market Countries

Chair/Discussant John Cranford, CQ Weekly
China--Carl Dahlman, Georgetown University
India--T.N. Srinivasan, Yale University
Southeast Asia--Bryan Ritchie, James Madison College, Michigan State University
10:45 – 11:15 a.m.
Discussion

11:15 – 12:15 p.m.
The Honorable Peter Peterson, Blackstone Group

12:15 – 12:45 p.m.
Luncheon and Panel III – Policy and Private Sector Implications

Chair/Discussant Bruce Stokes, National Journal

Negotiating with Advanced Developing Countries--Vinod Aggarwal, University of California, Berkeley
Investing for Competitiveness--Susan Butts, Dow Chemical Company
U.S. Public Policy--Rob Atkinson, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
What Can the United States Do?--Ralph Gomory, President, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

12:45 – 1:15 p.m.
Discussion

1:15 – 1:45 p.m.
Summary Remarks--
Taffy Kingscott, National Defense University
Kent Hughes, Woodrow Wilson Center

1:45 – 2:30 p.m.
Brainstorming and Discussion

Moderators (invited):
Katherine Hauser, TransAtlantic Business Dialogue
Christopher Hill, George Mason University
Mark Lehrer, Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University
Lee Price, U.S. Senate Finance Committee
Bryan Ritchie, James Madison College, Michigan State University