DETROIT (Feb. 1, 2011) – An international mix of academics, government officials and practitioners — including President Bill Clinton’s former U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky — will gather in Detroit Feb. 11 to examine legal and regulatory aspects of the U.S.-China economic relationship.
The one-day academic conference, convened by the University of Michigan Law School, Wayne State University Law School and the U-M Center for Chinese Studies, will focus on the economic relationship between the two countries as it works through the World Trade Organization (WTO) mechanism, with debate and discussion of current trade-related cases and controversies. The conference will also address critical issues impacting the relationship, including currency, labor rights, technology sharing and cross-investment, climate change, and domestic energy policy and regulation.
In addition to Ambassador Barshefsky, who led the U.S. government’s negotiations resulting in China’s entry into the WTO, other prominent participants will include: Yongjie Li, Director of the Treaty and Law Department of the PRC Ministry of Commerce; Ruosi Zhang of the WTO Secretariat in Geneva; former WTO Appellate Body member Merit Janow; U-M economist and Associate Dean of the Ford School of Public Policy Alan Deardorff; former Director of the USTR China Desk Timothy Stratford; China labor law specialist and U-M Center for Chinese Studies Director Mary Gallagher; Wayne Law WTO expert Julia Ya Qin; and conference organizer and Michigan Law China expert Nicholas Howson.
Ambassador Barshefsky will deliver a lunchtime keynote address titled “The Politics of Trade and Globalization: The U.S.- China Relationship.”
All sessions will be held at Wayne Law and are open to the public, with a nominal charge required for lunch. Registration information is available at law.wayne.edu/us-chinaconference.php. Please contact Ms. Holly Hughes at (313) 577-3620 for further information.
Parking is available for $4.75 in WSU Structure #1 across from the Law School on West Palmer Street in Detroit. For directions to the Law School or to view a campus map, visit campusmap.wayne.edu/location/LAW.
