Case Centre Names UVA Darden Professor’s Case on Trump and the WTO Among the Year’s Best

24 February 2020

By Dave Hendrick


A recent case by University of Virginia Darden School of Business Professor Peter Debaere has been named among the best of the year.

The Case Centre named Debaere’s “Trump Says the WTO is a Disaster” the best case in the economics, politics and business environment category as part of the 30th annual Case Centre Awards and Competitions.

Debaere, a professor in the Global Economies and Markets area at Darden, explores President Donald Trump’s well-documented skepticism of global trade and criticism of the World Trade Organization in favor of bilateral trade agreements — as well as the implications of his sentiments for the future of global trade policy.

Is the WTO actually a disaster, the case asks, or an important tool for commercial rulemaking and adjudication?

“Like no other president before him, Donald Trump has used trade policy to engage other countries,” Debaere said regarding the interest in his case. “Just think about the trade war with China, the renegotiation of NAFTA, the tension over trade with Europe. There is a strong urge in students to discuss and try to make sense of this fairly unusual approach.”

Debaere teaches the case in the Darden First Year elective “Managing International Trade and Investment.”

Following the announcement of the award, Debaere said a good case is one that makes a broader point via specific circumstances and details, which he saw in the WTO matter.

“It took me a while to figure out that the theory of [General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade]/WTO was a good way to approach what we experience in the international arena,” said Debaere. “It is the case that the United States is a big player and has leverage. We, however, live in a multilateral world in which unilateral actions by a big player tend to be ineffective, especially in the long run, as counties can retaliate or decide no longer to cooperate. It is exactly with such a world in mind that the WTO and the GATT were designed.”

The awards are based on data regarding actual case usage, providing what the organization says is a snapshot of the topics being used to teach.

About the University of Virginia Darden School of Business

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business prepares responsible global leaders through unparalleled transformational learning experiences. Darden’s graduate degree programs (MBA, MSBA and Ph.D.) and Executive Education & Lifelong Learning programs offered by the Darden School Foundation set the stage for a lifetime of career advancement and impact. Darden’s top-ranked faculty, renowned for teaching excellence, inspires and shapes modern business leadership worldwide through research, thought leadership and business publishing. Darden has Grounds in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Washington, D.C., area and a global community that includes 18,000 alumni in 90 countries. Darden was established in 1955 at the University of Virginia, a top public university founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

 

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