Olivier Roland via Flickr
Towards Secure, Sustainable, and Values-Based Supply Chains
A Transatlantic Conversation
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed structural deficiencies in global supply chains when the United States, the European Union, and many other countries experienced a sudden lack of access to critical medical goods. At the same time, as the widespread semiconductor chip shortage has revealed, deepening geo-technological competition is straining global manufacturing supply chains. Additionally, allegations of forced labor and the increased visibility of climate change worldwide is driving consumers and governments on both sides of the Atlantic to consider whether there needs to be a new balance between efficiency and economic integration vs. promoting shared values and security goals.
The United States, Germany, and the EU have all identified strengthening supply chain resilience as a policy priority. In the United States, President Biden has signed an Executive Order that kickstarted government reviews of industrial supply chains from pharmaceuticals to computer chips to critical minerals. The German government has drafted a new supply chain law that would oblige German companies to take action against human rights violations and failure to uphold environmental standards by their foreign suppliers. Last year, the EU launched its “Action Plan on Critical Raw Materials” to diversify access to rare earth materials used for electronics and consumer goods. And EU member states have asked the European Commission for an EU Action Plan in 2021 to create global supply chains that promote human rights and include social and environmental due diligence standards and transparency.
This panel discussion will engage government officials, parliamentarians, and experts from Germany and the United States to highlight opportunities for transatlantic cooperation to create more resilient global supply chains. Among other issues, this cooperation could focus on ensuring access to goods related to public health; enforcing human rights, including banning forced labor; promoting climate-friendly inputs in production processes; and identifying mechanisms to deal with trade in goods that affect U.S. and European security, such as sensitive technology manufactured in China.
Speakers
Katharina Dröge has been a member of the Bundestag since 2013 and is the Parliamentary Spokesperson on Economic Policy for The Greens. She grew up in the small town of Ladbergen in North Rhine-Westphalia and has a degree in Economics from the University of Cologne. She has also since 2014 been a member of the advisory board of the Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railways, Bonn. Katharina Dröge is also a member of the Parliamentary Advisory Board of the World Population Foundation; British-German parliamentary group of the German Bundestag; Amnesty International; Association of Friends and Supporters of the Cologne Child Protection Association; Terre des Femmes; Old Cologne Carnival Society “Schnüsse Tring” 1901 eV.
Dr. Stormy-Annika Mildner was recently appointed as the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Germany and has been in that role since January 2021. She previously served as Head of Department, External Economic Policy, at the Federation of German Industries. In spring 2010, she was a visiting fellow at AGI in Washington, where she is still a non-resident Senior Fellow. In fall 2011 she was a visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund’s Transatlantic Academy in Washington. Ms. Mildner conducted her Bachelor studies in economics and North American studies at the Free University of Berlin and earned a Master of Science in international political economy from the London School of Economics (2000). She wrote her PhD thesis at the Free University of Berlin on the economic and political rationale of export credit finance in the United States.
Matt Murray joined the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Trade Policy and Negotiations in September 2020. In that capacity, he leads four offices that oversee the State Department’s engagement to open new markets, resolve trade disputes, protect intellectual property rights, and promote agricultural innovation to benefit all Americans. Before his assignment to this role, he was the Economic Minister Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China. He also has served as Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, Australia. Matt joined the Foreign Service in 1998 and is a member of the Senior Foreign Service. He has master’s degrees from the U.S. Army War College and the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor’s degree from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.
Peter Rashish is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Geoeconomics Program at AGI. He has served as Vice President for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Senior Advisor for Europe at McLarty Associates, and has worked at the World Bank and the OECD. He has also been a consultant to the Atlantic Council, the Bertelsmann Foundation, the German Marshall Fund, and UNCTAD. He has testified before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade and the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia, advised three U.S. presidential campaigns, and been a faculty member at the Salzburg Global Seminar and a speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival. He earned a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.Phil. in international relations from Oxford University.
Moderator
Marianne Schneider-Petsinger is a senior research fellow in the US and the Americas Program at Chatham House, responsible for analysis at the nexus of political and economic issues. She writes and speaks on global trade, transatlantic economic cooperation and the United States’ use of geo-economic strategies and tools. Before joining Chatham House in 2016, she managed the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue, an international membership body representing consumer organizations in the EU and US She also worked for a think-tank on transatlantic affairs in the US and an economics ministry in Germany. She is a regular speaker and panelist at events and conferences as well as guest commentator on broadcast news She holds a BA in International Affairs and Economics from the University of Maine, and completed her Master’s degree, focusing on International Trade and Finance, at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
This event will convene via Zoom. Contact Yixiang Xu with any questions at yxu@aicgs.org.
This event is supported by and presented in partnership with the Heinrich Boell Foundation Washington, DC.
