The E15 Initiative Washington Launch

The Peterson Institute for International Economics hosted the Washington launch of the E15 Initiative on March 9, 2016. The E15 Initiative convenes leading international thinkers in 15 thematic expert groups and 3 task forces to bring fresh perspective and recommend solutions to challenges facing the global trade and investment system. The Initiative is co-managed by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and the World Economic Forum in collaboration with 16 partnering institutions.
March 9, 2016, 3:00 AM EST
Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC
Gary Clyde Hufbauer (PIIE), Robert Z. Lawrence (PIIE), Ricardo Melendez-Ortiz (International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development) and Richard Samans (Global Green Growth Institute)

The event highlighted the recently launched E15 Report, which offers detailed suggestions for improving governance of the global trade and investment system in the 21st century. An expert panel discussed the findings of the report as well as assessed the impacts of current trade and investment trends. Panelists included PIIE Senior Fellows Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Robert Z. Lawrence, as well as Richard Samans, member of the managing board of the World Economic Forum, and Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, cofounder and chief executive of ICTSD.

Robert Z. Lawrence has been a nonresident senior fellow at the Institute since 2001. He is the Albert L. Williams Professor of Trade and Investment at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was appointed by President Clinton to serve as a member of his Council of Economic Advisers in 1999. Previously, he held the New Century Chair as a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and founded and edited the Brookings Trade Forum.

Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz has been cofounder and chief executive of ICTSD since 1996. He is also a principal convener of the E15 Initiative. He was a former member of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Trade and the World Trade Organization's Director General Advisory Group. He served as cofounder and executive director of Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano, principal adviser to the Colombian minister of economic development, chief trade negotiator, chief of administration of the Office of the President of Colombia, spokesperson for the G-77, and Colombian negotiator in Uruguay Round of the GATT.

Richard Samans is a member of the managing board of the World Economic Forum. From 2011 to 2013, he served as director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute. Samans previously served in the US White House as special assistant for international economic policy to President Bill Clinton and senior director for international economic affairs of the National Security Council. Since 2007, he has also served as chairman of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board.

Event Materials