Professor Patrick A. Messerlin, professor of economics at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris
and director of the Groupe d’Economie Mondiale de Sciences Po (GEM), gave a special lecture
at Seoul National University’s Graduate School for International Studies on October 8th, 2009.
The lecture, titled The World Trade Regime, WTO, and Large Scale Economic Crises, addressed
the current state of global trade, potential challenges for the future, and policies to resolve these issues.
In general, while protectionism in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis as not as severe as
expected, professor Messerlin maintained that efforts to further liberalize and reform the world
trading regime must be redoubled if nations are to successfully tackle climate change, resource
scarcity, and the distorting effects of industry subsidization. These efforts would involve both
current negotiations in the WTO as well as involvement from new parties in the G20. Finally,
during the Q&A session, professor Messerlin answered questions on a wide range of topics
such as the G8, agricultural protections, and the EC’s preferential trade agreement with ACP.
His responses, however, were consistent with the contents and message of his lecture.