A Trade Bargain to Secure Supplies of Medical Goods

Simon Evenett of the University of St. Gallen and L. Alan Winters of the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) discussed their paper “A Trade Bargain to Secure Supplies of Medical Goods” at a virtual event held by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) and the UKTPO on July 10, 2020. Their study argues for a new reciprocal trade arrangement for medical products in which importers agree not to return import restrictions to pre-COVID-19 levels and exporters agree to qualify their use of export restrictions. Chad P. Bown, Reginald Jones Senior Fellow, PIIE, and Anabel González, nonresident senior fellow, PIIE, shared their insights.

Chad P. Bown has been Reginald Jones Senior Fellow since March 2018; he joined PIIE as a senior fellow in April 2016. Bown previously served as senior economist for international trade and investment in the White House on the Council of Economic Advisers. With Soumaya Keynes, he cohosts Trade Talks, a weekly podcast on the economics of international trade policy.

Simon Evenett is professor of international trade and economic development and MBA director at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and coordinator of the Global Trade Alert. He is an associate fellow of the UKTPO.

Anabel González, nonresident senior fellow since October 2018, 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 (2014–18).

L. Alan Winters is professor of economics and director of the UKTPO, University of Sussex, a leading contributor to the debate on Brexit. He was chief economist at the British government’s Department for International Development (DFID) from 2008 to 2011 and director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank from 2004 to 2007.