The US and China, as well as the US and the EU, have held a series of high-level trade talks on trade deficit reduction. The recent zeal of the US for tariffs and customs against its main trading partners and the consequent tit-for-tat counter-measures have yet to derail the global economic outlook. However, the long term mood has significantly shifted away from conditions favoring trade liberalization. The risks are increasing, and uncertainty is rising over what comes next and how seriously the underlying global trade regime is going to be harmed. The seminar examines the consequences of the recent twists and turns in the trade policies, including their implications for the European Union and Finland as well as their responses.
Puhujat
Programme Director, Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto
Senior Economic Advisor, European Political Strategy Centre, European Commission
Panelistit
Senior Economist, Bank of Finland
Director General, Department for External Economic Relations, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
Puheenjohtaja
Dr. Mika Aaltola is the Director of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. He also holds the rank of Docent at Tampere University. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, Sciences Po (CERI), and Johns Hopkins, a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota as well as a tenured professor of International Relations and European Union Affairs at Tallinn University (part-time). Aaltola’s areas of expertise include the U.S. global role, dynamics of major power politics, democratic vulnerability, pandemic security, and Finnish foreign policy.
His published peer reviewed monographs include research on Finnish foreign policy (Tampere University Press, 2003), on the cultural foundations of the U.S. foreign and security policy (Brill, 2008), on ethics and humanitarianism as geopolitical practices (2008, Palgrave), on pandemic security (Routledge 2012), on the power politics of U.S. global infrastructure (Palgrave 2014, Routledge 2016, co-authored). His latest published monograph is Democratic Vulnerability and Autocratic Meddling – The ‘Thucydidean Brink’ in Regressive Geopolitical Competition (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2021). He has also published a monograph on Finnish foreign policy after Crimea (Docendo 2019) as well as an edited volume together with Mikael Wigell and Sören Scholvin (Geo-economics and Power Politics in the 21st Century: The Revival of Economic Statecraft, Routledge, 2018).
He defended his doctoral degree at Tampere University in 1999 (“The Rhythm, Exception, and Rule in International Relations: The Case of Mad Cow Disease”), received his MA degree from Tampere University (1994) and BA degree from Columbia University (1992).