James Bacchus Keynote Speaker

Chief Judge of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (1996-2003)
University Professor of Global Affairs and Director of Center for Global Economic and Environmental Opportunity, University of Central Florida.
Former Member of the Congress of the United States.

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James Bacchus's Biography

James Bacchus is Distinguished University Professor of Global Affairs and Director of the Center for Global Economic and Environmental Opportunity of the University of Central Florida. He was a founding judge and was twice Chairman – the chief judge – of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization.

James is a former Member of the Congress of the United States, from Florida, and a former US trade negotiator. He serves on the United States Leadership Council of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, served on the High-Level Advisory Panel to the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, chaired the global Council on Governance for Sustainability of the World Economic Forum, and chaired the Commission on Trade and Investment Policy of the International Chamber of Commerce.

He is adjunct scholar for the Cato Institute in Washington, DC; global fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Canada; and distinguished fellow of the European Institute for International Law and International Relations. He has been Pao Yue-Kong Chair University Professor of international law at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.

Professor Bacchus is the author of Trade and Freedom (Cameron May, 2004); The Willing World: Shaping and Sharing a Sustainable Global Prosperity (Cambridge University Press, 2018), named one of the “Best Books of the Year” by the Financial Times of London; The Development Dimension: Special and Differential Treatment in Trade (Routledge Press, 2021), with co-author Inu Manak; and Trade Links: New Rules for a New World (Cambridge University Press, 2022), named one of the “Best Books of the Summer” by the Financial Times.

James writes, speaks, and works worldwide on issues relating to trade, investment, finance, climate change, the environment, sustainable development, and international and global governance, and especially the connections among them all.

James Bacchus's Speaking Topics

Trade Links in the New Pandemic World

Trade is linked to almost all else in the global economy and the global biosphere in which all international commerce in conducted. How can the international rules for trade be reimagined to lower barriers to trade and meet the commercial challenges of the 21st century while also helping achieve global goals for economic, environmental, and social sustainable development?

The Future of World Trade

In a reaction to economic globalization, countries throughout the world are turning inward and away from freer trade and from global cooperation in trade. Is there a future for free trade? Is there a future for the World Trade Organization, which makes freer trade possible through international agreement?

The United States and China

Are the United States and China unavoidably coupled economically, or can they de-couple and go their separate ways in the global economy? What is the future of the US-China trade relationship? Can there be peaceful economic competition, or must their two-way and other trade relations inevitably be part of their increasingly contentious geopolitical rivalry?

The United States and the United Kingdom

Is the special relationship still special? Can the United States and the United Kingdom work side by side in meeting the many challenges of global governance? Can the two countries even conclude a two-way trade agreement? What is the future, if any, of their longstanding special relationship?

The United States and the European Union

What is the future of the trans-Atlantic relationship between the United States and the European Union? Can they align and cooperate as they must on trade, energy, climate change, national security, and much more? Or will their cooperation be frayed by contention and competition to the advantage of their mutual adversaries in the world?

The United States and the Asian Economy

Asia is much more than China. Can the United States forge stronger economic relationships with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, and the other nations of South Asia and Southeast Asia that neighbor China and that, as a counter to China, wish to trade, invest, and otherwise do more business with the United States?