On June 17, Prof. Tu Xinquan, WTO Chairholder at UIBE, was invited to attend the Frontier Lecture of the Fifty-Person Forum on Global Economic Governance. He delivered a speech titled "China-U.S. Trade: Causes and Consequences", which was attended by more than 100 teachers, students and alumni from Tsinghua University.

In the keynote speech, Prof. Tu Xinquan first outlined the current global economic situation. He pointed out that the world economy is facing the challenge of a lack of new growth drivers, and the driving effect of technological progress on productivity has been continuously weakening since 2008. Subsequently, Prof. Tu reviewed the evolution of U.S. foreign economic and trade policies in recent years. He noted that after 2008, the U.S. gradually shifted from multilateral cooperation to regional cooperation and refocused on the Asia-Pacific region; while since 2017, U.S. foreign economic and trade policies have undergone drastic changes, with the continuous use of measures such as raising import tariffs, imposing export controls, promoting "friendshoring", and restricting technology transfer. These measures have been continuously escalated by successive administrations, and one of their fundamental purposes is to prevent other countries from benefiting from economic and trade relations with the U.S. Prof. Tu believed that behind the U.S. launch of the trade war and its anti-globalization trend, there are both political and economic factors such as the widening domestic income distribution gap and the rise of populist sentiments, as well as the U.S. re-evaluation of the strategic position of manufacturing in national security. However, in terms of actual effects, the U.S. trade war measures have had very limited effect in promoting manufacturing reshoring.

Prof. Tu pointed out that China has shown strong resilience and strategic resolve in responding to the current trade war, and has sufficient strength and confidence to cope with external pressures. At the same time, China's firm stance has also alleviated the pressure on other countries in economic and trade negotiations to a certain extent. In recent years, China has made remarkable progress in the diversification of foreign trade and the globalization of production, and expanding domestic demand has become a broad consensus among all sectors of society. These factors will provide strong support for the sustained development of China's economy and trade.

This lecture was hosted by Yuan Yuan, Assistant Dean of PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University (PBCSF).

During the interactive session, students and alumni at the venue actively raised questions. Prof. Tu Xinquan gave in-depth and detailed answers to issues such as the domestic supply and demand structures of China and the U.S., the evolution of the international monetary system, and the coordinated development of manufacturing and service industries.

This lecture was sponsored by the Fifty-Person Forum on Global Economic Governance and undertaken by PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University.

The "Fifty-Person Forum on Global Economic Governance" is a high-end think tank initiated by Zhu Min, former Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China and former Vice President of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and hosted by PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University. It is committed to conducting independent, forward-looking and academically supported policy research around the improvement and reform of the global economic governance system, and providing solutions for China to better participate in global economic and financial governance.

The "Frontier Lecture of the Fifty-Person Forum on Global Economic Governance" relies on experts and scholars related to the forum, takes global economic and financial governance as the core perspective, in-depth discusses frontier issues in various fields such as the world economy, international finance, international trade, international relations, digital economy, energy and climate change, and big health and elderly care, shares the latest academic research results, explores future policy trends, and contributes wisdom and strength to global economic and financial governance.