In the wake of the global financial crisis developed and developing countries alike have come to accept that cross-border financial flows can be excessively volatile. Indeed, there is an emerging consensus that cross-border finance needs to be regulated in order to prevent and mitigate financial crises. Furthermore, an unprecedented number of emerging market and developing countries have been re-regulating cross-border finance in the wake of the global financial crisis. Ironically however, many of those same nations are expressing concern that global economic governance institutions, including those dealing with international trade, have constrained the policy space that nations will need to aptly deploy the proper regulations to mitigate the harmful effects of cross-border financial flows.
This two-day workshop, which is sponsored by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Boston University’s Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) with support from the Ford Foundation, will bring together policy-makers, negotiators, and experts on these issues to assess the rationale for capital account regulations and best practice for their use, as well as to discuss the proper global economic governance structures needed to facilitate the re-regulation of cross-border finance. The goal of the workshop is to understand the nature of capital flows in developing countries since the Lehman crisis in 2008,what country experience has been for nations attempting to manage such flows, and the extent to which global economic governance institutions such as the G-20, IMF, World Bank, and the WTO have facilitated such managements. The workshop will yield a series of policy recommendations to improve the management of capital flows at the national and global levels.
This event is open to the public.
09:00-09:30 hrs - Opening Remarks: Richard Kozul-Wright and Kevin P. Gallagher
09:30-10:45 hrs - Session One: Regulating Cross-Border Finance for Development
Panelists will present for twenty minutes each on the rationale for and historical experience with regulating capital flows in emerging market and developing countries.
- Yilmaz Akyuz, South Centre, Geneva Switzerland
- Rogerio Studart, Executive Director, Brazil and other countries, World Bank
10:45-11:00 hrs - Coffee Break
11:00–13:00 hrs - Session Two: Recent Experiences in the Regulation of Cross-Border Finance
Panelists will present for twenty minutes each on recent country experiences with regulating capital flows and offer some ‘design principles’ for other countries thinking about implementing similar regulations.
- Daniela Magalhães Prates, Unicamp, Brazil (inflows experience EMDs in general, Brazil and South Korea specifically)
- Sabri .Oncu, The Center for Advanced Financial Research and Learning, the Reserve Bank of India, (India) (Indian experience)
- Robert Wade, London School of Economics, United Kingdom (Iceland experience)
15:00-17:00 hrs - Session Three: (AT WTO): Capital Account Regulations and the Trading System
Panelists (Viterbo and Anderson) will speak for 12 minutes each to examine the extent to which the WTO and international investment agreements give countries the flexibility to regulate capital flows. Panelists (Carim, Castrillon, and Alfredo Gomes) will speak for 12 minutes each to share their countries’ experiences at the GATS and with international investment agreements with respect to governing capital flows.
- Annamaria Viterbo, University of Turin, Italy (GATS)
- Sarah Anderson, IPS (BITS/FTAs)
- Xavier Carim, Department of Trade & Industry, South Africa
- Erivaldo Alfredo Gomes, Ministry of Finance, Brazil
- Mateo Villalba, General Manager, Central Bank of Ecuador
09:30–11:15 hrs - Session Four: Global Governance Challenges and Opportunities to Regulating at “Both Ends”
Panelists will speak for 12 minutes each to examine the extent to which international institutions are facilitating the global governance of capital flows.
- Daniela Gabor, IWE Bristol, (New IMF Rules)
- Kevin P. Gallagher, Boston University (G-20 and FSB)
- Rogerio Studart, Executive Director, Brazil and other countries, World Bank
- Anna Viterbo, University of Turin, Italy (WTO and IIAs)
11:15-11:30 hrs - Coffee Break
11:30-13:00 hrs - Session Five: Final Roundtable: Policy Space for Regulating Capital flows: Formulating an Agenda
Chairs speak for 5-7 minutes each will offer the key lessons from previous panels and coordinate a group discussion that leads to an agenda for emerging market and developing countries’ pursuit of a better governance.
- Yilmaz Akyuz, South Centre, Geneva
- Richard Kozul-Wright, UNCTAD, Geneva
- Kevin P. Gallagher, GEGI, Boston University, United States
- Ricardo Gottschalk, UNCTAD, Geneva
