Global Implications of the Tariff War: A Focus on the New South

March 27, 2026

This interview analyzes how tariff wars are transforming global power dynamics, disrupting trade systems, and redefining trade policy as a geopolitical tool, while examining the risks and opportunities for emerging economies and the Global South, the repositioning of regions like Latin America and Africa within shifting supply chains, and whether these tensions mark a lasting shift toward a fragmented global trade system or a temporary phase.

Speakers
Marcus Vinicius de Freitas
Senior Fellow
Marcus Vinicius De Freitas is Senior Fellow at Policy Center for the New South, focusing on International Law, International Relations and Brazil, and is currently a Visiting Professor of International Law and International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, China. Previously, he was a Professor of The Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation in Sao Paulo, where he served as the coordinator of their International Relations Program from December 2012 until December 2013. He was president of the Sao Paulo Directorate of the Progressive Party, having run for vice governor of the State of Sao Paulo in 2010, where his party polled in third place with more than 1.2 million votes. He also served as the Administrative Director of the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Housing Co ...
Diego Marroquin Bitar
Fellow - Americas Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
window.location="https://www.policycenter.ma/adelcommunity/diego-marroquin-bitar"; ...

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    October 29, 2026
    Wars are decided by those who hold military power, but their costs are increasingly borne by those who have little or no voice in the decisions that start them. The US–Iran war shows this imbalance very clearly. Its economic consequences have gone far beyond the battlefield and have disrupted energy markets, trade routes, food supplies, public finances and investment in the Gulf, Europe, Africa and Asia. The most striking feature of the conflict, however, is not only the size of the ...
  • October 23, 2026
    In this episode, Mehran Haghirian explores the global economic consequences of disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, beyond oil and gas. He examines their impact on trade, fertilizer suppl ...
  • October 22, 2026
    Strategic hedging is rational when it preserves a worthwhile choice at a tolerable cost while respecting existing commitments. Drawing on the literature on hedging and Latin American autonomy, this Policy Brief examines contrasting illustrations of that proposition. It distinguishes ambiguity about future alignment from uncertainty about existing obligations and explains how clearly bounded commitments can reconcile autonomy with credibility. The cases reveal different vulnerabiliti ...
  • October 15, 2026
    The Policy Center for the New South, in partnership with The Asian Network, is organizing a webinar titled “Emerging Powers and the Remaking of Global Order” to examine the growing role of emerging powers and the Global South at a time of profound transformation in the international sys...
  • October 14, 2026
    في ظل التوترات الجيوسياسية المتصاعدة، تتغير طرق التجارة العالمية وتتبدل معها موازين الممرات الاستراتيجية. تفتح هذه الحلقة من «حديث الثلاثاء» النقاش حول التقاء المسارات البحرية والبرية داخل هذه الممرات، والعوامل التي تتحكم في طبيعة السلع التي تعبرها. وتبحث كذلك في ما يمكن للمغرب أن يجنيه...
  • Authors
    Florent Parmentier
    October 12, 2026
    Cet article soutient que le Chief Geopolitical Officer (CGO) doit être repensé à partir de l’expérience des entreprises africaines. Dans un environnement multipolaire et fragmenté, leur principal défi n’est pas seulement la gestion des risques, mais la préservation de plusieurs options stratégiques simultanément selon une logique de hedging. Trois modèles de CGO sont à distinguer : l’intermédiation (Office chérifien des Phosphates (OCP), Tanger Med), l’intégration régionale (Ethiopi ...
  • October 09, 2026
    Can Nigeria’s Dangote refinery help strengthen Africa’s energy security amid disruptions to global supply routes? This discussion considers how expanding local refining capacity can reduc ...
  • Authors
    Paul Isbell
    October 9, 2026
    In the first seven Policy Briefs of this ongoing series of analysis on Pan-Atlanticism: The Atlantic Basin in a Multipolar-Transnational World, we developed the argument that the strategic significance of the Atlantic Basin is on the rise for a range of international actors (states, regions and non-state agents) and from distinct political or ideological perspectives. In addition, in the most recently published Policy Brief -- “The U.S. and the Current International Reconfiguration: ...