Beyond Tariffs: The New Multipolar Trade Web
Virtual Briefing Series
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET
It has been just over a year since President Trump’s “Liberation Day” global tariff announcement. Since then, the global trade landscape has shifted as countries hedged against their traditional dependence on the U.S. market. Driven by the increasing use of trade as a political weapon and constant tariff disputes, long-time allies like Canada, the UK, and the EU are now diversifying their trade partnerships as evidenced by landmark moves like the new EU-India trade deal and recent diplomatic pivots toward China. How is the web of trade alliances being re-woven and what are the implications for Washington? How is the U.S. private sector adapting to this complex new reality? And will this move toward strategic autonomy lead to a more stable global equilibrium or simply spark more conflict between competing regional blocs?
Join us for a virtual discussion on the changing landscape of global trade on Wednesday, April 22, from 12 PM to 1 PM ET, featuring Edward Alden, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Alice Slayton Clark, Senior Vice President of Trade, Investment and Digital Policy at the United States Council for International Business, and Dr. Adam Posen, President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics
THIS SESSION IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
SPEAKERS:
Edward Alden
Edward Alden, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Edward Alden is senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), specializing in U.S. economic competitiveness, trade, and immigration policy. His latest book is When the World Closed Its Doors: The Covid-19 Tragedy and the Future of Borders, co-authored with Laurie Trautman. The book explores how the COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented border closures worldwide and details the serious human consequences that followed. It argues that even as states are increasingly resorting to border restrictions, they are inadequate for addressing pandemics, drugs, migration and other external challenges.
Alden recently served as the project director of a CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force, co-chaired by former Michigan Governor John Engler and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, which produced the report The Work Ahead: Machines, Skills, and U.S. Leadership in the Twenty-First Century. In 2011, he was the project codirector of the Independent Task Force that produced U.S. Trade and Investment Policy. In 2009, he was the project director of the Independent Task Force that produced U.S. Immigration Policy.
Alden’s previous book, Failure to Adjust: How Americans Got Left Behind in the Global Economy, focuses on the federal government’s failure to respond effectively to competitive challenges on issues such as trade, currency, worker retraining, education, and infrastructure. His earlier work, The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security Since 9/11, was a finalist for the Lukas Book Prize, for narrative nonfiction in 2009. The jury called Alden’s book “a masterful job of comprehensive reporting, fair-minded analysis, and structurally sound argumentation.”
Alden was previously the Washington bureau chief for the Financial Times, and prior to that was the newspaper’s Canada bureau chief, based in Toronto. He worked as a reporter at the Vancouver Sun and was the managing editor of the newsletter Inside U.S. Trade, widely recognized as a leading source of reporting on U.S. trade policies. Alden has won several national and international awards for his reporting. He has made numerous TV and radio appearances as an analyst on political and economic issues, including on the BBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR, and PBS NewsHour. He is a columnist for Foreign Policy, and his work has been published in Foreign Affairs, Fortune, the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Toronto Globe and Mail, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.
Alden has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of British Columbia and a master’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Berkeley. He pursued doctoral studies before returning to a journalism career. Alden is the winner of numerous academic awards, including a Mellon fellowship in the humanities and a MacArthur Foundation graduate fellowship.
Alice Slayton Clark
Alice Slayton Clark, Senior Vice President of Trade, Investment and Digital Policy at the United States Council for International Business.
Alice Slayton Clark is USCIB’s Senior Vice President of Trade, Investment and Digital Policy. She is a seasoned international trade professional with a strong background working with the Executive Branch, US Congress, and multilateral organizations.
Clark’s career includes roles as Senior Government Relations Advisor, International Trade Consultant, International Trade Specialist at some of the biggest US law firms, where she gained deep experience developing and implementing successful strategies for companies, associations, and foreign governments. She also represented client issues before federal and foreign officials, business leaders, business associations, government committees, and trade conferences. She began her career promoting constituent interests and new policy proposals as a foreign affairs and trade legislative advisor in the House and Senate.
Clark serves as the Vice Chair for the Business at OECD Trade Committee, shaping policy positions and speaking on behalf of the business community of the 38 OECD countries. She is a member of the Women’s Trade Policy Forum and Washington International Trade Association where she has led panel discussions on current trade topics. She also held numerous leadership roles, including as the President of the Women in International Trade (WIIT) group, where she recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Alice holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Spanish from Oberlin College. She has lived and worked overseas in Europe and Latin America and is fluent in Spanish with basic German proficiency.
Dr. Adam Posen
Dr. Adam Posen, President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Adam S. Posen is President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He has contributed to research and public policy on G20 macroeconomic policies, inflation targeting and central bank independence, European economic integration since the euro, Japan’s recovery from its Great Recession, and recently a series of influential articles on the future of globalization amidst China-US conflict.
From 2009 to 2012, Posen served as an external voting member of the Bank of England’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). He served seven terms on the Panel of Economic Advisors to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. He is the recipient of the CBE medal for his service to British economic policy and of the Order of the Rising Sun with Gold Rays for his contributions to Japanese economic policy. He received his BA and PhD from Harvard University.
THIS SESSION IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
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Image credit: Image by Kevin Schwarz from Pixabay
