Tuesday, July 2, 2019

WCP chairholders presented their research on recent trade policy under the theme of the Global Review of Aid for Trade during the 2nd day of the 2019 WCP Annual Conference, WCP advisory board members served as discussants for each of the session.
Amrita Bahri, the WCP co-chairholder from Mexico presented her research on how to achieve women empowerment through A4T.  She highlighted five benchmarks to measure gender-responsiveness of trade agreements in her paper, Pierre Sauvé from the advisory board member joint the discussion.  Wilma Viviers , WCP Chairholder from South Africa and Ali Parry, research scientist from North-West University’s TRADE research presented a paper titled ‘Are digital advances and inclusive growth compatible goals? Implications for trade policy in developing countries’, their presentation explored what inclusive growth actually means, reflected on the digital era and its various manifestations (including e-commerce, robotics, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT) and 3D printing) and discussed whether there is a discernible alignment in the goals and patterns of digital growth and inclusive growth, respectively. Stephen Karingi has led the discussion on the paper.  Peter Pinguang Ying, professor from WCP Chair in China gave a presentation on his paper "Competitive Neutrality in China: Current Practices, Future Directions in a World of Rising Trade Tensions" , Prof Lionel Fontagne commented on this presentation and raised the question around state-owned enterprise and competition laws.  Michael Ewing‑Chow, WCP Chairholder from Singapore, shared his views on the new trade frontier agenda: responding to change in the world economy and digital trade. He presented three responses : Scarcity and the TPR, A Digital Trade Regulator’s Checklist and Provide for DS options. Prof.Mark Wu commented on his presentation.