Twelve months ago, President Donald Trump declared “liberation day” and launched a tariff war against the entire world, including key American trade partners in East Asia. Over succeeding months, additional tariffs were announced, modified, and withdrawn against countries and specific goods, such as steel and aluminum. Henry Gao, law professor at Singapore Management University and a trade expert, will take stock of the lasting impact of Trump’s weaponization of tariffs on East Asia and the global trading system. He also will ask whether the tariff war could bring a silver lining: the opportunity to finally address long-festering problems with the old trade system.
The Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia (TRILA) programme, based at the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore, builds on a decades-long tradition of advancing and enhancing the teaching and researching of international law in Asia. More than the strengthening and fostering of teaching and research cultures, TRILA also aims to cultivate a vibrant community of international law scholars across the Asian region. Tony Anghie, the head of TRILA will reflect on the evolution and impact of TRILA and explore the changing landscape of legal academia in Asia. The conversation will situate TRILA within the broader Global South and international efforts to rethink the teaching of international law and the role of Asian scholars in changing and reshaping international law.
In 2003, the U.S. Congress added a civil liability provision to the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) permitting victims to seek damages from those who engaged in or benefitted from forced labor and human trafficking. Over the last 20 years, labor advocates have sought to use this statute to hold accountable companies who rely on forced labor inside the United States or occurring overseas, including in Asia. Cases have been filed against U.S. companies using workers trafficked from China or importing shrimp peeled by Cambodian migrants in Thailand, tuna caught by Indonesian fisherman, and equipment made by Chinese prisoners. Three experts will discuss recent cases brought under the TVPRA based on forced labor in Asia, and will explain the debate among federal courts over extending civil liability under the TVPRA to overseas actions.
*Please note that this event has been rescheduled. We will update the information as soon as a new date is set.
We continue our speaker series about Taiwan’s status in the world with a look at its relationship with the European Union. None of the EU’s twenty-seven member states has diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but nineteen member states and the EU itself have opened quasi-embassies there and the EU holds a ministerial-level trade and investment dialogue with its government. In recent years, as tensions with China have heightened over trade disputes and the war in Ukraine, the EU Parliament has increasingly emphasized Taiwan’s shared democratic values and their similar experiences living with a powerful, authoritarian neighbor. Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, a scholar who divides her time between Brussels and Taiwan, will unpack the drivers and limitations of Europe’s affinity for Taiwan..
Timothy A. Gelatt Dialogue on the Rule of Law in East Asia
