Yale Sponsors Conference on Hemispheric Trade Debate

The Hemispheric Trade Debate, a two-day conference sponsored by Yale University to discuss the pros and cons of free trade in the Americas, will be held in the York Room of the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale April 3-4.

“Nearly a decade has passed since the negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), yet debates continue to rage in the U.S., Canada and Mexico over how successful NAFTA has been,” said conference organizer Raphael Folsom, a student at Yale. “In the spring of 2001 President George W. Bush stated that he hoped to extend the arrangement to the rest of the hemisphere, calling for a new ‘Free Trade Area of the Americas.’ As negotiations move forward, the Hemispheric Trade Debate at Yale hopes to foster public discussion of the FTAA initiative by bringing together leading academicians and policymakers from around the region to discuss the consequences of such an agreement.”

The conference, free and open to the public, begins April 3 at 9 a.m. Panels on Thursday and Friday discuss hemispheric trade and the lessons of history; the environment; democracy and human rights; labor; winners and losers; and the politics and future of hemispheric trade.

The Hemispheric Trade Debate is sponsored by the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Fund, the Yale Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies, the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, the Economic Growth Center, the Sustainable Americas Project, the Orville Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights, the Department of Economics and the Department of History. Faculty advisers include Dan Esty, Gil Joseph, Gustav Ranis and Florencio López-de-Silanes.

For more information, contact Beatriz Riefkohl at the Yale Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies, 203-432-3420 or visit www.yale.edu/las/ftaa.html.

The conference agenda follows.

Thursday, April 3
9-10:30 a.m.
Panel One: Hemispheric Trade and the Lessons of History
Speakers:
* John Coatsworth (Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs, Harvard)
* Steven Topik (Professor of History, University of California, Irvine)
Moderator: Seth Fein (Assistant Professor of History, Yale)

10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Panel Two: Labor
Speakers:
* Francisco Zapata (Professor of Sociology, Centro de Estudios Sociológicos El Colegio de México El Colegio de Mexico)
* Peter Schott (Assistant Professor of Economics, Yale School of Management)
* T.N. Srinivasan (Samuel C. Park, Jr. Professor of Economics, Yale)
* Sandra Polaski (Senior Associate, Trade, Equity and Development Project, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
Moderator: Florencio López-de-Silanes (Professor of Finance and Economics; director, International Institute of Corporate Governance, Yale School of Management)

1:15-2:45 p.m.
Panel Three: Democracy and Human Rights
Speakers:
* Amy Chua (Professor of Law, Yale Law School)
* Adolfo Gilly (Professor of Political and Social Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
* José Antonio Cheibub (Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale)
Moderator: TBA

3-4:30 p.m.
Panel Four: The Environment
Speakers:
* Stephen Bunker (Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
* Chadwick Dearing Oliver (Pinchot Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies and director, Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry, Yale)
* Olga Ojeda Cárdenas (Director of International Affairs, Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, Mexico)
* John Audley (Director, Trade, Equity and Development Project, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
Moderator: Daniel Esty (Professor of Environmental Law and Policy; director, Center for Environmental Law and Policy; director, Yale World Fellows Program)

Friday, April 4
9-10:30 a.m.
Panel Five: Winners and Losers
Speakers:
* Jaime Serra Puche (Senior Partner, Serra Associates; Former Minister of Finance of Mexico; Former Minister of Trade of Mexico, Chief Negotiator of NAFTA)
* Andrew Schrank (Assistant Professor of Sociology, Yale)
* Kathleen McAfee (Assistant Professor of Geography and Sustainable Development, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Management)
Moderator: Jennifer Bair (Assistant Professor of Sociology, Yale)

10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Panel Six: The Politics and Future of Hemispheric Trade
Speakers:
* Jaime Zabludovsky (Consultant, Inter-American Development Bank; Former Ambassador of Mexico to the European Union; Chief Negotiator for the Mexico-European Union Free Trade Agreement; Deputy Chief Negotiator for NAFTA)
* José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs (Trade Unit Chief, Organization of American States)
Moderator: Gustav Ranis (Frank Altschul Professor of International Economics; Henry R. Luce Director, Yale Center for International and Area Studies)