In order to strengthen international communication and build academic atmosphere, on the afternoon of 26th June, CIWTO invited Professor Zhang Honglin of Illinois State University (ISU) to give a lecture titled “From Comparative Advantage to Competitive Advantage: Why Has Trade Protectionism Gone So Far?” to the CIWTO faculty and students in Room 607, Keyan Building. The lecture was hosted by Dean Tu Xinquan. CIWTO faculty members, including Li Yang, Liu Bin, Lu Yue, Li Siqi, Du Yingxin, Sun Na, together with all the first-year graduate students participated the wonderful lecture.
      Zhang Honglin (Kevin H. Zhang) is professor of economics at Illinois State University (ISU). He received his Ph.D. from University of Colorado-Boulder and completed his post-doctoral research at Harvard University. Dr. Zhang used to serve as consultant for the Harvard Institute of International Development, and vice president of Chinese Economists Society (CES). Professor Zhang Honglin firstly described the concept of comparative advantage and competitive advantage, and the content, forms and objectives of trade protectionism. He then introduced three core contents and three major divergence of the international trade theories, as well as specific applications of comparative and competitive advantage in industrial upgrading, supplemented with the case of Britain Empire to vividly illustrate the theory. Next, Professor Zhang explained the underlying reasons and background of Trump’s trade protectionism, the effect of globalization to both the United States and China etc. Professor Zhang also gave his own insights on the way the U.S. dealt with globalization. Finally, Professor Tu and Professor Zhang had a discussion on the topic of global tax system.       During the 1.5 hours’ seminar, Professor Zhang brought us the knowledge of international academic frontiers, which enabled us to have a clearer understanding on trade protectionism. We gave great thanks for Professor Zhang’s wonderful speech and looked forward to Professor Zhang’s next visit!

 
Contributor: XU Xiaoxian Translator: WANG Yanru Reviser: HUANG Yu