CCSI welcomed Michael Beeman for a talk on his new book, Walking Out: America’s New Trade Policy in the Asia-Pacific and Beyond.
From tariff wars to torn-up trade agreements, “Walking Out” explores America's recent and dramatic turn away from support for freer, rules-based trade to instead go its own new way. Focusing on America's trade engagements in the Asia-Pacific, Michael Beeman contrasts the trade policy choices made by America's leaders over several generations with those of today--decisions that are now undermining the trading system America created and triggering new tensions between America and its trading partners, allies and adversaries alike. With enormous implications for the future of regional and global trade, this timely analysis unravels the implications of America's seismic shift in approach for the future of the rules-based trading order and America's role in it.
Michael Beeman, Visiting Scholar, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University, has taught international policy as a lecturer at Stanford University. From 2017-23, he was the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Japan, Korea, and APEC at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where he led negotiations for the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement and for the updated U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, among other initiatives. Prior to this, he served for over a decade in other positions at USTR. He holds a DPhil in politics (University of Oxford) and an MA in international relations (Johns Hopkins University).
