The New Landscape of World Trade Policy

Trade policy is moving to the "front burner." Two major negotiations are underway in the Asia Pacific: the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) centered on ASEAN and the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) agreement supported by the United States. Another negotiation is about to start between the United States and Europe. We cannot predict the political future, but our economic analysis suggests large income gains from the interaction and eventual consolidation of these tracks.

Professor Petri’s research and teaching focus on international trade, finance, investment and economic integration, with emphasis on Asia. A member of the Brandeis Economics faculty since 1974, he served as the founding Dean of the Brandeis International Business School from 1994 to 2006. He is also a Senior Fellow of the East-West Center in Honolulu; a Visiting Fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics; has consulted with APEC, the World Bank, the OECD, the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank and other organizations; and has held visiting appointments at universities in China and Japan. His A.B. and Ph.D. degrees are in Economics from Harvard University. Petri has published more than 100 books and articles; his current work focuses on major trade agreements under negotiation in the Asia-Pacific region, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) initiatives.