Event Summary
Ignacio Garcia Bercero, director of the European Commission Directorate-General for Trade, presented the European Union’s new trade policy agenda, including discussing how it compares to the Biden administration’s focus on crafting a foreign policy for the middle class and new thinking on WTO reform. Anabel González, nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), was the discussant. PIIE executive vice president and director for studies Marcus Noland led the discussion and Q&A session.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Ignacio Garcia Bercero joined the European Commission in 1987. He currently oversees activities related to multilateral affairs, strategy, and economic analysis. Between 2012 and 2019, he was responsible for overseeing EU activities relating to neighboring countries, the United States, and Canada. He coordinated the work of the EU-US High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth and was chief negotiator for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations.
Anabel González has been with PIIE since October 2018. She is host of the Institute's Trade Winds virtual event series. She was senior director of the World Bank’s Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice from 2014 to 2018, and previously served as minister of trade of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014.