Transcripts For CSPAN3 WTO 20240705 : vimarsana.com

Washington, d. C. This is just over an hour. Ok. Good morning, everyone. I am randy henning. I serve as the faculty chair of the International Economic Relations Program and in dean shannon haiders absence it is my privilege to welcome you to the beautiful sis atrium for our special event, global trade, the Global Commons and geopolitics. Opening observation and introduce our two speakers and turn it over to them for the conversation. This event is organized by the school of International Services International Economic Relations Program. As a celebration of the inauguration this Academic Year of its two new masters degrees. These degrees combined study in International Trade finance, political economy and Research Methods to place students in International Organizations similar to the world trade organization, Government Agencies and the private sector. The second of these two degrees is a stem degree of which i am particularly proud for its innovations. This particular event is the first of what we foresee as an annual series on Global Economic governance. Our guest speakers as you know ar wto director generale Ngozi Okonjo Iweala and never city president sylvia burwell. President burwell is the first woman to serve in this role. Prior to the au, she held two cabinet positions in the u. S. Government, health and Human Services and the director of management and budget. She held leadership positions in the bill and Melinda Gates foundation and the walmart foundation, two of the largest foundations in the world. President burwell has led the university over the last six years including through and a star pandemic and started the 500 Million Dollar change cant wait Capital Campaign to fund new efforts to support students including a brandnew student Thriving Center at the heart of campus and a use comprehensive strat and aus comprehensive strategy changemakers for a changing world. She has overseen a more than doubling of Research Funding from external organizations and under her leadership au became the first urban university in the United States to achieve Carbon Neutrality and launch the first Antiracist Research and policy center. Dr. Okonjo iweala in College Graduated magna cum laude from harvard with a degree in economics and earned a phd in regional economics. She had a 25 year career at the world bank as an economist rising to the number two position of managing director of operations. She served twice as nigerias finance minister. The first woman in that role steering the country through trade and macroeconomic reform as well as a debt restructuring and extensive institutional we organization. She briefly acted as foreign minister in 2006. In 2012, she was the first woman and african candidate to contest the presidency of the world bank group, the first genuinely contested transition for that position. Dr. Ngozi has been chair for the vexing alliance and the African Union special envoy to immobilize Financial Support for the fight against covid19. She currently cochairs the Global Commission on the economy and climate with Nicholas Stern and paul pullman. She chairs the board of the Nelson Mandela institution and is a trustee for the carnegie endowment. Among her many contributions it must be mentioned she donated her chief economist to the International Economic Relations Program as our newest faculty member. Bob has organized this event with me and i am grateful to him. Please join me in welcoming president burwell and dr. Ngozi to this conversation. Pres. Burwell thank you, professor henning. And thanks everybody for coming out this morning. It is a very busy week for her this week and we are grateful you are here today. We are going to take a trip around the world today i think it is fair to say in our beautiful atrium. We are going to take a trip around the world with someone whos breadth and depth in this issue is unparalleled. So it is going to be a real treat. We are going to have time for questions. I will watch the clock and make sure we have for your question so be thinking about that as we are having a little bit of a dialogue. I had the privilege of meeting her in the first time i think when i was at the gates foundation, early to thousands. I was working on increasing agricultural productivities for smallholder farmers as well as all the Health Issues we are working on and had the opportunity to meet you then. And then it was every issue we worked on, not just agriculture anything we were working on as a foundation and working in and on the continent of africa. We were incredible counsel and help. Our paths have crossed many times since then. It is an Incredible Opportunity today. I do want to mention we know you have over 20 Honorary Degrees from the fabulous universities around the world but your last visit here to this campus was last spring when we know you were given what you probably think it your most important Honorary Degree from american university. So we are thrilled you have come back and so appreciative. Going to start with the reason you are here this morning. You are here for the Spring Meeting for the world thank each most of the people that are here would probably be familiar that is going on. I just wanted to start with you are here at these world thank you meetings. What are the three most important objectives from where you sit now and the leadership role you have both in wto but in the World Economic system . What are the three objectives you have for these meetings . Dr. Ngozi thank you, sylvia and let me say what a delight it is. I really do feel part of american university. Every day or every other week, bob sends me some email or another to remind me. It was such a lovely ceremony for the Honorary Degree. I feel part of this. I feel like i am with family and thank you again for having me, sylvia. Your path has been absolutely amazing so it is nice to chat with you this morning. You asked me for the three main objectives of coming here. I came for the Spring Meeting but every time i come to washington i also take the opportunity to check in with the ustr if i can. Sometimes with congress. I was there two weeks ago because congress is not in session now. I did my round then. My first objective was to accomplish something which is rather incredible. Yesterday the United States deposited an instrument of acceptance of the subsidies agreement. The First Agreement on environmental sustainability ever negotiated at the wto. [applause] pres. Burwell very big. Dr. Ngozi that agreement had been negotiated to do away with 22 billion dollars in harmful subsidies encouraging overfishing of oceans and destroying ocean health. We finally got it over the finish line last june. Now my objective is to actually get implementation. We need two thirds of members to ratify and our objective is to get it all done by next february. To have the United States, early on in the game. One of the largest fishing economies sends a huge signal. Im going through to the ustr. The second objective, during the Imf World Bank meeting you also have a meeting of the g20 finance ministers. Those are going on in parallel. During this time of very tense geopolitical, this geopolitical tension you referred to which is not Getting Better on the whole last week. I felt the u. S. And china tensions were difficult and may not be Getting Better anytime soon. One of my objectives is to remind the g20 finance ministers and all the other finance ministers and central bankers that are here that there are two important things we need to remember. One, we hope these geopolitical tensions will not manifest in fragmentation of world trade. We hear a lot about decoupling different trading blocs and some of that may happen but we need balance. If the world fragments into trading blocs, the losses to both developed and developing countries but in particular developing countries is huge. Having that conversation that we need to keep in mind that fragmentation will be costly to the world economy, we should not throw the baby with the bathwater. We should not forget that trade integration has helped the world to achieve great poverty reduction, improvement in Living Standards and we know it did not do everything. Some people were left behind but we need to fix that. Not throw away the system should that is a very important objectives i would like to put across with these finance ministers. We have shown that from the wto standpoint if we decoupled into two blocks, 5 loss in global gdp in the long term. That is huge. I think my third objectives is through what i have to say is to remind everybody that the multilateral trading system is a Global Public good. I have termed at that. It is a Global Public good. We need multilateralism to solve some problems. So even as we have global geopolitical tensions, even as we have strategic competition, we must remember we also need strategic cooperation to solve Climate Change and all the other issues of the global problems. Pres. Burwell thank you so much and we are going to go into those a little more. Before we do that, we started with the present. Im going to go back a little bit to your childhood in nigeria. Can you talk a little bit about how your childhood in nigeria impacts what you do today . Dr. Ngozi thank you. I think my childhood i was very fortunate to be brought up by first my grandmother until i was almost nine. My parents were studying abroad. They were on scholarship in germany so they could not take me. They did not have enough money so they left me with my grandmother who was a loving and very disciplined person. But she was also about community. And learning life was not about yourself but about how you serve your community. It was very important. Learning skills very early in life. I learned how to cook by the time i was eight years old. And to make sure i helped with the house. All those things have influenced who i am. My parents came back and both of them became University Academics by the way. I think that continuation of the theme of service, education is not about yourself. It is about what you can use it to do for others. Really continued with my parents and in particular my father who thought his daughters in particular could do and should do everything mi5 brothers too mi5 brothers too. That has led me to a career of service both nationally and internationally and into the wto. For me the question i always ask myself in any environment is, how is it going to help others . If it will serve others and make a difference, than i am in. If it will not, i am not excited about it. Pres. Burwell that is great and i hope that is inspiring to all of our students who are here and to our faculty and staff and the whole community. Thank you because as we think about the school of International Service, we are not a school of international relations. We are a school of International Service because we deeply believe what you just said in terms of why do you do it and the incredible thing is in terms of assignments, you get assigned to anything and everything because of the breadth and depth of your talent and skills. You can help and serve in so many ways and have. Im going to go from childhood to be in finance minister in nigeria. When you were in when you were the finance minister of the country and that is when we first met, at that time, nigeria sometimes was known for some challenges. Challenges around issues of corruption. Challenges around the issues of having Natural Resources and what that means in terms of both the countrys economy as well as issues of equity in the country. Those were issues you were dealing with them. Those issues seem to be corruption, other resource issues. Seemed to spread around the world including some might even say right here at home. As you think about how you worked on those issues then, what lessons would you give our students and all of us in terms of thinking about those issues and working on them whether it is in your own home country or internationally in global setting . Dr. Ngozi thank you. That is a very challenging question. But when you think about those issues, the word reform comes into your mind. Because in order to solve these issues, you have to reform certain institutions. You have to change certain policies. And the way business is done. The biggest thing you need to focus on is when you reform and you may change, there are winners and there are losers. If you dont bear that in mind, you are going to get into trouble so you have to think through the reforms you are doing and ask yourself who are the winners. Because you have to if they are very difficult to reform, make sure the winners understand they are winners. And that they actually back the reforms because the losers are going to be very loud and they are going to do things that maybe trying their best to affect those reforms. That is one lesson i learned. Not just to go into a blind. Winners and losers is very important. Sometimes you may try to coax the losers to believe that ultimately they win which is the case. It is not that they are going to lose in the long term should but since they are making money off of something and are going to lose in the short term they fight so you need to coax them that this reform ultimately will benefit everybody and their interest is in it. But it is difficult. That is why i said forget the winners because they will be the ones who will back you. There will be silent people who dont understand whether they are winners or losers. Communicate the reforms and why they are important and what it is going to do to change the trajectory for the country and for people individually. You have to explain to those people why they must go through a tough time to get to the good time. That is the big challenge that i think applies everywhere. We are in very difficult times now. In country after country, you find tremendous polarization. A lot of populism. Protectionism is creeping in. It is unprecedented in my view what we are seeing now. Got to find means if you are a policymaker of trying to explain to people whatever you are trying to do is for the benefit of all. Its not for one segment or another, you have to find out those people who have been left behind. Remember i referred to the fact that globalization the multilateral system, left some people behind. You have to find a way to be inclusive of them now. If you do not include them or you dont explain that you are trying to be inclusive, you will continue to have the sentiment which divides and that doesnt help any country or any economy. Host thank you and that answer you just gave and one of your objectives about communicating trade as a Global Public good, bring that together with the next question. I have worked on nasa in the clinton years in terms of trade agreements. I worked on the accession of china to the wto. I spent time on that issue. I worked with my colleague on the tpp which was the agreement we got, we just couldnt get it through the congress. All of that and that evolution and what you are talking about in terms of the polarization especially in the area of trade, here in the u. S. , trade has become even more controversial than the times that i worked on it. You were talking about that communicating about as a public good. Do you believe there is still consensus in the u. S. That market opening and multilateralism and trade are the way to go . How do you think about where we are in terms of that . I know you were talking about some of the solutions, the communications and those sorts of things. We could spend some more time, but do you think we are at a place where its no longer a dominant view so we have to maybe think differently about how we communicate . To think different layabout these pieces and parts . Dir. Okonjoiweala i absolutely do. After talking to people on the hill, to congresspeople, in spite of perhaps these views the trade may not be the best liberalizing open trading system. May not be to the interest of the country, they still listen. By far and away, that is not the consensus anymore. If feel like that consensus is gone. People are very focused some of them focused on domestic issues. Not really out internationally. There is a bit of article about this. We used to be his colleagues at the Peterson Institute, a very nice article. He used to be a Deputy Director general but the Peterson Institute does some really nice work and analysis on some of these issues. They really did lay out that consensus is no longer there. The issue is this is the throwing out of the baby with the bathwater that i was talking about. If the multilateral trading syste