On May 26th, 2015, at the invitation of President of CIWTO Tu Xinquan, Robert A. Rogowsky, Professor of Middlebury Institute of International Studies, visited China Institute for WTO Studies of UIBE and gave a keynote lecture themed “One Belt One Road” at the Room 607 in Yifu Research building. Vice President of UIBE, Professor Zhao Zhongxiu, Deputy Director of International Office Li Xiaomeng, President Tu Xinquan, Secretary Gao Yuan, Teacher Li Siqi, Teacher Sun Na, Teacher Dai Zhen and all the graduate students attended this lecture.

Professor Zhao Zhongxiu introduced that Professor Robert, former U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) chief economist, is an external expert of UIBE, and he has deep and original understanding on international trade and development.

The theme of this lecture was “A U.S. Perspective on “One Belt One Road”. Professor Robert noted the content, development, significance and influence of the "One Belt One Road" strategy. He analyzed Geopolitical, Power Game and the adjustment of International Order etc. Professor Robert said “The New Silk Road” linked the eastern and western, which was good for the Trade Facilitation between China and EU and could help the developing economies along the line to revitalize their economy.

For Russia, though the area of ” One Belt One Road ” in geography through the Russian sphere, but it would challenge Russia’s influence in this area. But Professor Robert also said that Russia depended a lot more on China than China did on the Russia, so Russia couldn’t hinder the promotion of the "One Belt One Way" strategy. He noted that the strategy contained a large number of countries, and the political and economic development level vary widely, so the "One Belt One Way" strategy still faced high difficulty challenge.

Besides this, Professor Robert expressed his opinions on TPP and AIIB. He analyzed the reasons of China setting up AIIB. One of the reasons was that US Congress stopped China to have a bigger say in IMF and ADB so that China needed to build new institutions to achieve their demands. He also mentioned that the US would join the AIIB sooner or later, and once US joined, Japan would also join the AIIB.

At last, Professor Robert communicated with the attendance about ”One Belt One Road”. President Tu Xinquan asked Professor Robert the economic and political significance of “One Belt One Road”. Professor Robert said it included both economic significance and political significance, but the economic benefits was smaller as the cost of cargo transportation between China and Europe and “One Belt One Road” in this area was difficult to bring a greater breakthrough.

(By Han Jingxin)