The three-day forum was attended by 40 participants. The course kicked off with opening remarks from Hinrich Foundation Founder and Chairman, Merle A. Hinrich. He was followed by Hinrich Foundation Research Fellow Stephen Olson, who spoke in the first session of day 1, titled ‘Where Are We With Global Trade Now?’.

In the session, Olson described the underlying cause of the US-China trade frictions and how these two fundamentally different economic systems can be reconciled under a single set of global trade rules. He also said that a complete economic decoupling is unlikely over the longer-term, however, a certain degree of economic dis-integration was already occurring and would continue.

The first session closed with a discussion between the Olson and participants, who were eager to know more about the ongoing US-China trade war and how it would impact the companies and countries.

“Session 1 gave deep insights that we can use to help manufacturers understand the US-China trade frictions better,” said Yeoh Oon Tean from Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers.

The second session of day 1 commenced with Alex Capri’s, Visiting Senior Fellow at NUS, presentation on ‘Key Trends Impacting Global Value Chains (GVCs)’. In his presentation, Capri emphasized on the links between trade policies and new business challenges and how localization, fragmentation and decentralization are affecting GVCs. He also spoke on trade challenges and opportunities arising from the platform economy, data flows and cross border e-commerce.

His presentation was followed by a class discussion and lunch for the participants.

After having a sumptuous lunch, participants engaged with panelists, who talked about Asia’s digital landscape and data privacy, security and cross border trade in the third session of day 1. The panel discussion was moderated by Stephen Olson and panelists included:

Angela Xu, APAC Lead, Google’s Privacy Legal Team
Clarisse Girot, Senior Fellow, Asian Business Law Institute (ABLI) and,
Elizabeth Chelliah, Deputy Director, Principle Trade Specialist, Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The session highlighted how data privacy regulations are redrawing value chains and examined GDPR and its impact on Asian policy makers. The panelist also provided insights on how companies are restricting operations across data localization law.

The last session of day 1 concluded with an ideation exercise on Asia’s e-commerce landscape led by Clarisse Girot and accompanied by Arwan Shah Ismail from Indonesian E-Commerce Association (IDEA) and Ooi Tiat Jin from Asia Pacific MSME Trade Coalition.

The participants were required to reflect on the day’s learning and apply salient themes to assigned questions as well as strategic roadmaps pertaining to sustainable trade, ideas and solutions.

The day closed with participants identifying cross-border business opportunities that are arising for small business, examining the policy challenges confronting cross border e-commerce and discussing the kinds of regulatory bodies and frameworks required in this new trade environment.

The day 2 of the workshop commenced with Karen Murphy, Vice President, Global Trade FLEX, and Alex Capri speaking on ‘The US-China Technology Rivalry and Its Impact on Value Chains’. They talked about the US export control and licensing requirements, dual-use technologies and how they impact trade, and why US sanctions are lethal.