After many politicians long assumed that economic globalization would bring peace and prosperity, we are now seeing increasing tensions in international trade policy. Measures sold by governments as protection for domestic industry mean that many companies are faced with higher costs for imported materials and goods. Increasing protectionism and the tendency to seal off entire economies have had a long impact on international trade policy. There are more and more non-tariff trade barriers, more state subsidies that distort free competition and politically motivated export restrictions on critical technology.
This problem, which has been exacerbated not least by Donald Trump’s re-election as US President, was the focus of a public panel discussion organized by the Academy in cooperation with the Development & Peace Foundation (sef) and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. Following introductory remarks by AIA Director Mayssoun Zein Al Din and FNS Program Manager Ludger Kersting, the panel discussion was chaired by Marcus Kaplan (sef:), Prof. Dr. Clara Brandi (IDOS/University of Bonn), Prof. Dr. Rolf Steltemeier (UNIDO Germany) and business journalist Dr. Ursula Weidenfeld.
The panel agreed that the world trade system is currently under massive pressure and is likely to change significantly. The importance of the WTO was viewed controversially overall and all three panelists expected the WTO and bilateral agreements to coexist. Legislation on the Supply Chain Act was also the subject of controversial debate: The normative significance of these measures was emphasized just as much as the bureaucratization was criticized. The audience consisted of around 60 people who, among other things, asked questions about the influence of demographic factors on global trade policy and fundamentally questioned whether globally and interculturally accepted concepts of justice even exist. They also questioned how rule-based the international world order still is. At the reception that followed, there was also an intense debate on the question of whether development and foreign policy should be merged in the future German government’s departmental structure or remain separate ministries.
