Abstract

COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of supply chains, as the negative economic impacts of COVID-19 were spread through supply chains to many parts of the world. Vulnerability of supply chains has also been surfaced by a US-China decoupling. Many companies and countries are reconstructing supply chains to deal with a rapidly changing political and economic environment. This webinar examines how COVID-19 affected supply chains and how companies and governments have responded to the challenges, and attempts to identify appropriate policy response.

About the Speaker

Shujiro Urata is Professor Emeritus of Waseda University, and Senior Research Advisor at Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Faculty Fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), Specially Appointed Fellow at Japanese Centre for Economic Research (JCER), Distinguished Senior Fellow at Institute of Developing Economies (IDE), and Visiting Researcher at Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). Professor Urata received his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University. He is a former Research Associate at the Brookings Institution and an Economist at the World Bank. He specializes in international economics and has published a number of books and articles on international economic issues. His recent co-edited books include Emerging Global Trade Governance: Mega Free Trade Agreements and Implications for ASEAN (Routledge, 2018) and East Asian Integration: Goods, Services, and Investment (Routledge, 2019).