The training kicked off at the Hinrich Foundation office in Singapore with a welcome address by President of the Washington, D.C.-based National Press Foundation Anne Godlasky and the Hinrich Foundation’s research director Chuin Wei Yap. Senior Research Fellow Stephen Olson’s keynote addressed the rising trend of using trade policy to accomplish non-trade objectives. In a wide-ranging discussion, Olson highlighted the economic rivalry between the US and China and the increasing weaponization of global trade.
In the panels that followed, former Singapore ambassador Bilahari Kausikan, one of the country’s foremost strategic thinkers, unpacked the geoeconomic impact of US-China rivalry, the war in Ukraine, China’s Belt and Road Initiative failures, and the geopolitical conundrums surrounding the Taiwan Strait.
Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria and Carlos Kuriyama from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat and the APEC Policy Support Unit discussed APEC’s role in facilitating sustainable trade.
Jason Grant Allen from the Centre for AI & Data Governance at the Singapore Management University highlighted the increasingly important role of artificial intelligence in facilitating cross-border trade and the inevitable need for a standardized global regulatory framework.
Amitendu Palit of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore and James Crabtree from the International Institute for Strategic Studies examined India’s potential, policy and strategic options as an emerging contender as a power broker in an increasingly fractious world.
Economists from the National University of Singapore and the Chinese University of Hong Kong deliberated the impact of the US-China trade war and discussed the viability of the existing strategies to reduce over-dependence on China. Denis Hew from Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy brought Fellows through a history of the ASEAN Economic Community, a regional aim to become a European-style common market, and whether the prospects of such a goal was realistic.
The four-day session wrapped on 26 July with panels on the hot-button issues such as challenges to globalization and supply chains by Deborah Elms of the Singapore-based Asian Trade Centre. Elms discussed a wide array of topics from climate-related shipping to the geopolitical impact of the South China Sea dispute on trade.
The training sessions included field visits to Singapore’s Marina Barrage, a massive dam to address the island-state’s many water-related challenges, and the Port of Singapore, the world’s busiest trans-shipment port.
Explore more content from International Trade Fellowship workshops and The National Press Foundation.
