December 12, 2023, 11:00-12:00
Karina Fernandez-Stark is a Senior Fellow at the Duke Center for International Development and a co-founder of TradeUpgrader. As an expert in policy development for trade, competitiveness, skills development, gender, and SMEs, she has consulted for the Inter-American Development Bank, OECD, UNCTAD, and the World Bank, amongst others. She has published numerous books, research reports, and articles on industrial upgrading and social and economic development. Together with Gary Gereffi, Ms. Fernandez-Stark authored the highly cited book The Global Value Chain Analysis: A Primer and more recently published the book “China’s New Development Strategies.” Her areas of expertise cover a wide range of economic sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and services.
Speaker presentation
How North America can Turn Today’s Turbulent Economic Environment into a Competitive Advantage
In today’s turbulent economic environment, the world’s understanding of global manufacturing competitiveness is being redefined from one based on profit to one founded in resiliency, quality, and sustainability. North America is poised to influence this to its advantage, and in doing so reinvigorate its global leadership. While much of the current debate on this issue in the United States has focused on reshoring to North America to reduce dependence on Asia, there are limits to this strategy—ranging from the cost and size of the labor pool to a convergence of capabilities in the region. Regional integration across the Americas would combine the high-value leadership of North America with the powerhouse supply of raw materials in the Southern Cone of South America, a large and growing low-cost labor force, broad diversity in development levels, and abundant green energy. Together, they would create more enduring advantages for global industries.