News: Centre of Excellence
Biden and Berlin: How Germany can help reset transatlantic relations
Andreas Freytag, Professor and Chair of Economic Policy, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena and Visiting Professor with IIT.
The election result in the United States (USA) is now certain. Despite the refusal of leading Republicans to recognize the election result and to congratulate the election winner, everything now speaks in favor of the next (and thus 46th) President of the USA being Joseph R. Biden, Jr. This means an experienced Washington insider will again sit in the Oval Office, marking a return to more typical pre-Trumpian forms of policy and diplomacy.
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In Conversation with Europe - EU Diplomats visit Adelaide
On 21-23 October a group of twenty-two EU ambassadors and heads of mission came to Adelaide. They visited various businesses in the state and met Premier Steven Marshall to discuss how to further expand European connections with South Australia. On the evening of Thursday 22 October, The Centre of Excellence
co-sponsored a public panel discussion in the University of Adelaide’s Elder Hall which was followed by a dinner at the National Wine Centre.
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Where does the EU’s Eastern Expansion end?
Richard Pomfret, Professor of Economics & Jean Monnet Chair Economics of European Integration, the University of Adelaide.
Until 1989 the eastern border of the EU was set by the Cold War. Since the end of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, sixteen countries have joined the EU and the border has shifted many hundreds of kilometres to the east. Apart from the three Baltic countries, the EU’s eastern frontier is now the border of the Soviet Union established in 1945.
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Australia-UK relations and the CPTPP
Richard Pomfret, Professor of Economics & Jean Monnet Chair Economics of European Integration, the University of Adelaide.
On 17 September Jean Monnet Chair Richard Pomfret participated in an online discussion on Potential Benefits Of An Australia-Uk Free Trade Agreement with Elisabeth Bowes, Chief Negotiator, Regional Trade Agreements Division, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Vivien Life, Director Asia and Australasia Negotiations within the UK Department for International Trade. The webinar was chaired by Peter Draper, Executive Director of the Institute for International Trade at The University of Adelaide.
Asia-Europe Sustainable Connectivity (AESCON 2020)
The Asia-Europe Sustainable Connectivity Scientific Conference (AESCON) conference is a major ASEM preparatory event around the theme of connectivity. The conference was organized principally by the European Commission Joint Research Centre and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, and attracted participants from governments, think tanks, universities and the private sector. Initially scheduled to be held in Singapore on 25-27 February, the conference was postponed and held online on 22-25 September.
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Report on Potential Benefits of an Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement
IIT hosted an online discussion on potential benefits of an Australia-UK free trade agreement with Elisabeth Bowes, Chief Negotiator, Regional Trade Agreements Division, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and Vivien Life, Director Asia and Australasia Negotiations within the UK Department for International Trade. The two negotiators emphasized the like-mindedness of the UK and Australia when it came to international trade, implying that an agreement could be reached speedily.
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Joining the WTO
Richard Pomfret presented a paper on Uzbekistan’s WTO accession in the series Virtual Seminars on Applied Economics and Policy Analysis in Central Asia. The paper tracks what will be the longest ever WTO accession negotiations and emphasizes the changing nature of membership commitments since the WTO was established in 1995.
Brexit Done, A UK-EU Trade Agreement to Go?
By Richard Pomfret, Professor of Economics & Jean Monnet Chair Economics of European Integration, the University of Adelaide
A trade agreement between the UK and EU27 looks in trouble. The UK left the EU on 31 January. 2020 is the transition year when the Withdrawal Agreement is implemented and the UK and EU reach agreement on their future relations. Distracted by COVID, some people, e.g. Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney, argue that this timeframe for reaching agreement in future relations is too short, while UK negotiators insist that the deadline is non-negotiable.
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Europe and Australia: Seizing the opportunity for recovery and bounceback.
26 May, Peter Horn (Austrade General Manager, Europe) and Alison Burrows (Chief Negotiator, EU-Australia FTA) spoke in a webinar on Europe and Australia: Seizing the opportunity for recovery and bounceback
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Emerging from Lockdown: Threats to the international trade system
Richard Pomfret - Professor of Economics & Jean Monnet Chair Economics of European Integration, The University of Adelaide
As COVID-19 curves flatten globally and policymakers’ attention turns to resuming economic activity safely, attention is inevitably focused on domestic matters. What is the trade-off between the economic costs of caution that delays economic revival and the health costs of over-hasty removal of measures that are holding back the spread of the virus?
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