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
    Juliana Suess
    May 24, 2019
    On the eve of Britain’s exit from the European Union, the country is redefining its international approach. The United Kingdom has already taken action by becoming involved in new economic commitments, new trade agreements in Commonwealth countries but also from a diplomatic point of view in West Africa. While development aid remains a focal point of its intervention in Africa, it risks being undermined by the Brexit and its economic consequences. However, the United Kingdom is now ...
  • Authors
    May 22, 2019
    The trade tensions between the United States and China will cause only minor immediate damage to their giant economies. However, tariffs have important and diverse effects on individual sectors and cause heightened uncertainty. The main adverse effects on Sub-Saharan Africa will therefore be through global investor confidence, economic growth and commodity prices, and these effects could be severe if the dispute escalates further and endangers the rules-based trading system. The tra ...
  • Authors
    Michael Baltensperger
    January 13, 2019
    China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an international trade and development strategy. Launched in 2013, it is one of the ways China asserts its role in world affairs and captures the opportunities of globalisation. The BRI has the potential to enhance development prospects across the world and in China, but that potential might not be realised because the BRI’s objectives are too broad and ill-defined, and its execution is too often non-transparent, lacking in due diligence and ...
  • December 13, 2018
    Moderator John Yearwood, Executive Board, International Press Institute Speakers Uri Dadush, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South Anabel Gonzalez, Former Minister of Foreign Trade, Republic of Costa Rica Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Founder and Chief Executive, International Centre...
  • December 13, 2018
    Moderator John Yearwood, Executive Board, International Press Institute Speakers Uri Dadush, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South Anabel Gonzalez, Former Minister of Foreign Trade, Republic of Costa Rica Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Founder and Chief Executive, International Centre...
  • Authors
    Sabine Cessou
    October 8, 2018
    « Amérique latine, crises et sorties de crises », telle était la première des deux thématiques des 6èmes Dialogues stratégiques, organisés le 4 avril par HEC Paris (Centre de géopolitique) et OCP Policy Center. Un tableau mitigé a été dressé, avec des signes de reprise et une croissance supérieure à 2 % qui n’empêchent pas des situations de crise comme au Brésil, au Nicaragua ou au Vénézuela. Crise d’un modèle d’oligarchies anti-capitalistes Au Vénézuela, la corruption paraît si e ...
  • Authors
    Bouchra Rahmouni
    April 5, 2018
    Depuis la création de l’OMC, l’économie mondiale a enregistré deux évolutions majeures : la mise en place des chaînes de valeur globales et la conclusion de méga-accords commerciaux régionaux (Accord transatlantique Europe-États-Unis, Accord de Partenariat Transpacifique entre l’Amérique du Nord et une dizaine de pays asiatiques, partenariat unique total entre l’ASEAN, la Chine, le Japon et la Corée du Sud, plus la partie océanique). Le commerce intra-régional n’est plus une simple ...
  • Authors
    March 15, 2018
    President Trump’s proclamation that, because of national security concerns, he will apply a 25% tariff on all steel and a 10% tariff on all aluminium imports into the United States – except provisionally and dependent on NAFTA negotiations those from Canada and Mexico – affects, respectively 5.1 billion Euros and 1.1 billion Euros of EU exports. These are not trivial sums. However, the invocation of the national security exception in this case has implications that go far beyond nar ...
  • February 21, 2018
    تعتبر 2018 بلا شك نقطة تحول في تطور الاقتصاد العالمي. أوروبا، بعد أن بدأت في الخروج من الأزمة في عام 2017 ، من المرجح أن تدخل مرحلة نمو قوي ومستدام بفضل الزيادة الهيكلية في الإنت°اج الصناعي، إضافة الى الانعكاسات الإيجابي°ة للمشروع الإصلاحي المؤيد لأوروبا موحدة الذي يحمله الثن°ائي الفرنسي الألماني. كما ان آسيا تستمر في تأكيد مكانتها كمحرك رئيسي للاقتصاد العالمي، حيث اصبحت ثلاثة بلدان من اسيا )الصين واليابان والهند( تنتمي لقائمة أكبر خمسة اقتصادات عالمية في عام 2018 . هذه التطورات تدف ...