Speakers

• Jesús Seade, Under Secretary for North America, Ministry Foreign Affairs of Mexico
• Eric Farnsworth, Vice President, Council of the Americas

A candidate for Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ambassador Jesús Seade Kuri offered wide-ranging comments on global trade at the 2020 Washington Conference on the Americas. He was introduced by COA's Eric Farnsworth and a video message from former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Alec Watson.

Seade, who served as a chief negotiator for Mexico for the updated North American trade agreement that went into effect July 1, spoke of the danger to the United States, China, and other countries if the WTO is allowed to become irrelevant. He argued that the WTO should be playing an important role in educating the global public about the benefits of trade, and that the new director general must have the expertise, relationships, and negotiating skills to play the role of honest broker among countries, build trust, and coordinate efforts that lead to real results in the trade arena, including in fields such as digital trade. Seade also stressed the need for more attention to private sector interests, both in terms of encouraging multilateral companies to expand trade and opening space for small- and medium-sized enterprises to participate in global trade.

• Learn more about the Washington Conference of the Americas.

Speakers:

• Nicole Bivens Collinson, Managing Principle, Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg
• Eric Farnsworth, Vice President, Council of the Americas
• Eugene Laney, Head of International Government Affairs, DHL Express, U.S.

This DHL panel focused on how businesses can maximize the benefits of USMCA. The experts discussed trade and compliance in the context of the new North American trade deal, which went into force on July 1, and the benefits of the new pact. Panelists also covered the state of global trade, market access and customs, and digital trade, among other topics. “In the post-war environment, the United States had been the primary driver of global trade and liberalization, and now, it is the primary disruptor of the institutions and trade patterns we’ve seen since the end of World War II,” said AS/COA’s Eric Farnsworth, adding that the United States was trying to change the basic model of global trade for its own purposes. Farnsworth also spoke about how the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated changes in global supply chains. “Both at the policy and pragmatic level we’re in transition in global trade,” he said.

AS/COA Vice President Eric Farnsworth spoke to Bloomberg’s Balance of Power about recent events in Latin America and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

"It does seem to be like a season of discontent across much of South America," Farnsworth said. He called what is occurring in Chile “essentially a middle-class protest,” adding that with commodity prices low, there are less resources, and people are beginning to get frustrated.

“Many of us have used Chile as an example of what many in Latin America could aspire to be,” he said. “But what the problem is, is that those high expectations haven’t been met.”

Regarding USMCA, Farnsworth expressed optimism: “This is a moving target, but there is a certain optimism coming out of Congress.” He added: “I’m optimistic that they can move this forward, but they have to want to.”