The international trading system is facing an imminent existential threat, subjected to stresses of an unprecedented magnitude since the 1930s. First and foremost, this threat stems from US protectionist trade policies, which have been piling up since early 2017, are shrouded in mystery and are without economic, geopolitical or domestic justification. This lecture will address significant actions on the part of the US government: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) withdrawal, the neglect of essential economic principles, the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the trade war with China and the clear aim to cripple the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Ernesto Zedillo is the Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and Professor of International Economics and Politics at Yale University. He served as President of Mexico from 1994 to 2000.

Mr Zedillo is also Chairman of the Board of the Natural Resource Governance Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health. He is a member of The Elders and serves on the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the High-Level Board of Experts on the Future of Global Trade Governance and on the Selection Committee of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, among others. 

Mr Zedillo earned his bachelor’s degree from the Natìonal Polytechnic Institute’s School of Economics in Mexico, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University.