WTO and the Political Economy of Reform

Speaker: Tu-Anh Vu-Thanh, Global Leaders Fellow, Oxford and Director of Research at the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program in Ho Chi Minh City

Chair and convenor: Dr Matthew J Walton

Conventional wisdom holds that international trade agreements can be used as external pressures and credible commitments to overcome opposition to and lock in domestic economic reforms. This belief, however, underestimates the ability of politicians to use international trade agreements to leverage their policy choices and, at the same time, circumvent these very agreements. As a result, trade agreements may not be conducive to reforms as expected and, in some cases, even become counterproductive. This presentation will illustrate these insights by analyzing the political economy of state-owned enterprise reform in the context of Vietnam’s accession to the WTO.

This event is hosted by the Southeast Asia Seminar Series, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford. For further information please contact asian@sant.ox.ac.uk.