ECIPE & Clingendael Webinar: The New Economic Diplomacy – Views from the US, China and EU

The new economic diplomacy is about decision-making and negotiation in international economic relations. In the face of shifts in the balance of economic power and the progressive emergence of a more multi-polar economic order, decision makers have turned more and more to power-based action as opposed to rules-based negotiation. Established channels of international economic cooperation, such as in the WTO and other multilateral bodies, are seen as either not representing – or no longer serving – the interests of leading economic powers such as China and the USA. National policy preference formation is increasingly shaped by geopolitical calculations. The policy instruments used increasingly take the form of unilateral measures ranging from Trump’s tariffs, export controls on chips and critical minerals to the use of business/commercial relations in the pursuit of strategic political objectives. This ECIPE-Clingendael-hosted discussion will therefore address the question of what an analysis of economic diplomacy can tell us about these trends and prospects for reviving more collaborative rules-based approaches.