ECIPE Webinar: Where Next for Globalisation?

Governments are seeking to control globalisation, WTO rules are weakening, yet trade continues much as before. President Trump has not changed this world, and the EU is struggling to put together a coherent action plan to maintain competitiveness in the face of Chinese strength. Manufacturing jobs are not returning despite political pressure, and services trade is growing.

As outlined in the paper, “The WhatsApp World Order: Learning to Live with the New Global Political Economy”, technology rather than politics was the prime driver for today’s extensively inter-connected world. Major companies in particular operate globally to deliver trade around new barriers. Networks of experts provide a hidden wiring, and this is all before the effects of Artificial Intelligence are seen.

This webinar will examine the current state of globalisation with reference to how it arose and the prospects for the coming years. In particular panellists will look at the relations of the major powers, and consider the prospects of trade wars, managed trade, or renewed rules that bind them in the future. For Europe there is also the question as to its future prospects in the face of a rising Asia, and for all governments the issue of how best to influence economies they no longer control.