Sungjoon Cho

Two very different observations on (de-) globalization have caught our eyes lately. First of all, according to the most recent statistics provided by the Global Trade Alert (composed by Prof. Simon Evenett at St. Gallen), pro-trade and investment measures across borders have shown the biggest decline ever for the past

At long last, the Article 22.6 Report of the Arbitrator on the Boeing-Airbus dispute is out.  Note that this dispute concerns an original dispute in which the United States (on behalf of Boeing) sued the European Union for the latter’s subsidies on Airbus. Another report in a parallel

Two researchers from the Kiel Center for Globalization (Haiou Mao and Holger Görg) have just published a working paper entitled “Friends like This: The Impact of the US – China Trade War on Global Value Chains.”  Based on the notion of “cumulative and indirect tariffs” in global value chains (GVCs), the

There is a Chinese saying that “when there is a policy from the above, there is a reaction from the below” (“上有政策, 下有对策”). This is exactly what has happened since the inception of trade wars.  Both domestic and international businesses have attempted to avoid the punitive tariffs through various means,

This is a supplemental post to Simon’s earlier one that provides an excellent summary of the Russia – Traffic in Transit panel report.  Here are some aspects of the panel report that I found interesting and worth further reflection. First, one might say that this landmark decision is characteristic of

How will trade wars unfold?  Are we doomed?  History may scare us.  Before the dawn of the American Republic, it was the trade wars among thirteen Confederates that wreaked havoc on the fragile Articles of the Confederation.  Fast forward, the interwar trade wars, triggered by the ill-famed Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act

In the previous post, I introduced main finding of the recent McKinsey report (“Globalization in Transition: The Future of Trade and Value Chains.”)  The report highlighted the growing importance of services and the relative decline of goods production in global value chains (GVCs).  Likewise, GVCs have become more technology and

The answer might be in the affirmative according to the recent report by McKinsey Global Institute, titled “Globalization in Transition: The Future of Trade and Value Chains.”  Here is a summary of its main findings. 1. “Goods-producing value chains have grown less trade-intensive.” 2. “Services play a growing and undervalued

Many worry that the current United States–China trade wars, and negotiations therefrom, might undermine the WTO dispute settlement mechanism (DSM).  Curiously, however, both the United States and China have not completely bypassed the WTO DSU.  In fact, both countries have invoked the WTO DSM in tandem with their unilateral/

The Year of the Golden Pig has begun with the ostensible reckoning of the U.S. – China trade wars.  Apple shocked its investors by releasing a gloomy sales forecast in China.  Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, said that “while we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not