This event is co-sponsored with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Trade tensions rose sharply in 2018 between the United States and China as both sides imposed steep tariffs on imports of certain goods. The mounting tension between the world’s two largest economies caused global markets to drop, and uncertainty remains as to whether negotiators will be able to break the impasse and end the trade war. What can we expect in 2019 for US-China economic relations? What happens if the United States and China fail to reach a final agreement on trade issues? Join the Adam Smith Society and Council on Global Affairs as trade experts Phil Levy and Derek Scissors discuss the state of trade relations between the United States and China and the implications for the global economy.

Phil Levy (@philipilevy) is senior fellow on the global economy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Previously, he taught at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, was senior economist for trade for President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, and a member of Secretary of State Rice’s Policy Planning Staff. He writes regularly on various topics, including economic relations with China. Levy received an AB from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a PhD from Stanford University.

Derek Scissors (@DerekScissors1) is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on the Chinese and Indian economies and on US economic relations with Asia. He is also chief economist of the China Beige Book. Scissors is the author of the China Global Investment Tracker and a series of papers that chronicled the end of pro-market Chinese reform and predicted economic stagnation in China as a result. Before joining AEI, he was a senior research fellow in the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation and an adjunct professor of economics at George Washington University. Previously, Scissors worked for London-based Intelligence Research Ltd., taught economics at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, and served as an action officer in international economics and energy for the US Department of Defense. He has a BA from the University of Michigan, an MA from the University of Chicago, and a PhD from Stanford University.