EconPol Europe’s Annual Conference 2018

The impact of international trade and protectionism on the European economy was examined at EconPol Europe’s annual conference on the 19 and 20 November, with a keynote speech by Maria Martin-Prat (Director, Directorate General for Trade, European Commission). Video of the speech is available here.

Following introductions by Ulrike Wolf-Prexler and Clemens Fuest (available on video in full here), the challenges of EU trade policy making were discussed by a policy panel including Maria Åsenius (Head of Cabinet to Commissioner Malmström), Sébastien Jean (Director of CEPII), Bernd Lange (Chair of European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade), Andrea Montanino (Chief Economist, Confindustria) and Eckart von Unger (Senior Manager, BDI). See the video of the discussion here.

On day two, a plenary session on new protectionism and its costs included Simon J. Evenett (University of St. Gallen), Gabriel Felbermayr (ifo Institute), Stefano Schiavo (University of Trento) and Hylke Vandenbussche (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven).

Video footage is available of the following presentations:

New Protectionism: Forms, Scale, and Effects (Simon J Evenett)
The US-China Trade War: Effects on Europe (Gabriel Felbermayr) 
US-EU Trade: the Cost of non-TTIP (Hylke Vandenbussche)
The Impact of Trade on European Firms and Workers (Stefano Schiavo)

 Day two of the conference also examined:
   • productivity growth in Europe
   • the banking union and capital markets union
   • Europe and the risk of disintegration
   • migration and the welfare state
   • convergence and divergence in the Eurozone
   • sovereign debt markets in the Eurozone.

Over 150 policy makers, researchers and academics attended the conference, which also saw the launch of the EconPol policy brief, “Who is paying for the trade war with China?”. The paper achieved international interest, with coverage across the world – you can see a digest here.