Schedule: (POSTPONED BECAUSE OF WEATHER - April 14 is new date

• Registration and Buffet Breakfast: 8:00 to 9:00 AM
• Overview Session: 9:00 to 9:45 AM
• Highlighted Economic Sector Session - Energy: 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM
• Business Opportunities Session: 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
• Post-Seminar Networking 12:00 to 12:30 PM
  

Location: Canadian Embassy, 501 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001

Directions/Metro: Judiciary Square or Archives Metro Station

Parking Available: Several parking garages nearby (Expensive)

Registration:

Wharton Member & Guest Fee: $40/person, inclusive, through 4/11/09 at 6 pm (includes breakfast, full program, any materials handed out, and networking

Non-member Fee (and members/guests after 4/11): $60
Click here to reserve your place(s)!!!

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Program description:

This Seminar is to examine the current economic situation and facilitate the development of business opportunities involving the United States, Canada and Mexico. We have co-sponsorship of this program by the Wharton Club, the US-Mexico Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian-American Business Council. We expect to have an interesting group of people in attendance, and have scheduled the program to maximize question and answer and networking opportunities.

NAFTA has vested in the sense that the all provisions are fully phased-in as of December 31, 2008. Some people are calling for modifications and restrictions, and others are calling for expansion, but the basic trade facilitation elements are operational.

This is an appropriate time to take stock of the situation in the context of the world economic situation and the potential of North America, and to look at practical aspects of business opportunities. We will have an overview of the North American Economic Situation in the context of NAFTA and NAFTA issues, with a review of the key economic sectors where there is existing and potential economic interaction. We will then have a focused presentation on the energy sector since it is central to the challenges and future potential of the region.

There will certainly be many opportunities in getting us to a world of sustainable energy and green industry from the existing situation where 80% of our energy needs are met by fossil fuels. In the third segment of the program we will benefit from the participation of people who are actively engaged in business and business development between Mexico, Canada and the US and who are knowledgeable about opportunities with new technologies and programs to assist entrepreneurs and grow trade.

We are pleased to be able to bring together some of the most knowledgeable experts on NAFTA, key economic sectors, Energy and related issues, and business development for presentations.

Presenters include:

• Michael Eckhart, President, ACORE (American Council on Renewable Energy) (at right)
  
• Joseph Dukert, President-Elect of US Association for Energy Economics (USAEE), and author of a forthcoming book entitled Energy dealing with all major sources of energy
• Gary Hufbauer and
  
• Jeffry Schott, Senior Fellows at the Peterson Foundation, co-authors of NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges
• Al Zapanta, President of the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce
• Representatives of the Canadian-American Business Council
• Trade development experts from the Mexican and Canadian government commercial services.
  

This event is co-sponsored by the Wharton & Harvard B-School Clubs of Washington, DC, The United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian-American Business Council.

About the Presenters:

• Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Reginald Jones Senior Fellow since 1992 (Reg Jones, former GE Chairman, was a Wharton alum), was formerly the Marcus Wallenberg Professor of International Finance Diplomacy at Georgetown University (1985–92), senior fellow at the Institute (1981–85), deputy director of the International Law Institute at Georgetown University (1979–81); deputy assistant secretary for international trade and investment policy of the US Treasury (1977–79); and director of the international tax staff at the Treasury (1974–76). He has written extensively on international trade, investment, and tax issues. He is coauthor of Economic Sanctions Reconsidered, 3rd edition (2007), US Taxation of Foreign Income (2007), Toward a US-Indonesia Free Trade Agreement (2007), US-China Trade Disputes: Rising Tide, Rising Stakes (2006), The Shape of a Swiss-US Free Trade Agreement (2006), NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges (2005), Reforming the US Corporate Tax (2005), Awakening Monster: The Alien Tort Statute of 1789 (2003), The Benefits of Price Covergence (2002) and World Capital Markets (2001), and coeditor of The Ex-Im Bank in the 21st Century (2001), Unfinished Business: Telecommunications after the Uruguay Round (1997) and Flying High: Liberalizing Civil Aviation in the Asia Pacific (1996). He is author of Fundamental Tax Reform and Border Tax Adjustments (1996) and US Taxation of International Income (1992), and coauthor of Western Hemisphere Economic Integration (1994), Measuring the Costs of Protection in the United States (1994), NAFTA.

• Jeffrey J. Schott joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics in 1983 and is a senior fellow working on international trade policy and economic sanctions. During his tenure at the Institute, Schott was also a visiting lecturer at Princeton University (1994) and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University (1986–88). He was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1982–83) and an official of the US Treasury Department (1974–82) in international trade and energy policy. During the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations, he was a member of the US delegation that negotiated the GATT Subsidies Code. Since January 2003, he has been a member of the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee of the US government. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy of the US Department of State.
  

Schott is the author, coauthor, or editor of several books on trade, including Economic Sanctions Reconsidered, 3rd edition (2007), Trade Relations Between Colombia and the United States (2006), NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges (2005), Free Trade Agreements: US Strategies and Priorities (2004), Prospects for Free Trade in the Americas (2001), Free Trade between Korea and the United States? (2001), NAFTA and the Environment: Seven Years Later (2000), The WTO After Seattle (2000), Restarting Fast Track (1998), The World Trading System: Challenges Ahead (December 1996), The Uruguay Round: An Assessment (1994), Western Hemisphere Economic Integration (1994), NAFTA: An Assessment (1993), North American Free Trade: Issues and Recommendations (1992), Economic Sanctions Reconsidered: History and Current Policy (second edition, 1990), Completing the Uruguay Round (1990), Free Trade Areas and U.S. Trade Policy (1989), and The Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement: The Global Impact (1988), as well as numerous articles on US trade policy and the GATT.

Schott holds a BA degree magna cum laude from Washington University, St. Louis (1971), and an MA degree with distinction in international relations from the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University (1973).

• Joseph M. Dukert, who is President-Elect and a Senior Fellow of USAEE, is an independent energy analyst with special expertise in North America’s energy situation. His latest book, entitled simply Energy, is scheduled for release shortly in the business and economics series of Greenwood Publishers (photo at left). It deals with the problems of reconciling the potentially conflicting policy goals of adequacy, affordability, reliability, environmental acceptability, and time-deadlines in an increasingly interdependent world.
  

Dr. Dukert is a Senior Associate (non-resident) with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and he wrote the chapter on North America in the 2007 CSIS book, Energy Cooperation in the Western Hemisphere: Benefits and Impediments. Over many years he has been involved in the development of critical U.S. government documents and reports, including the national energy policies published under a succession of Presidents.

He has been a senior advisor to the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation and a consultant to the International Energy Agency. He has lectured at a number of universities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as well as at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. State Department. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame (magna cum laude); and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in international relations from Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies.

• Michael T. Eckhart is founding President and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE). He also is co-chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE), a member of the Steering Committee of the REN 21 global policy network, and co-head of the North American Secretariat of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP). He is a 2008 recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, a 2006 recipient of RSA's Good Deal for All Award, and a three-time participant in the Clinton Global Initiative.

In 1998 he was named Renewable Energy Man of the Year of India for his work in bringing financing to solar energy markets, and in 1999 formed a $50 million joint venture between Shell and ESKOM in South Africa which electrified 10,000 off-grid homes with solar home systems.

He has over 25 years of experience in renewable energy, power generation, high technology, and finance. Previously, he was Chairman/CEO of United Power Systems, Inc.; Co-founder and Vice President of the venture capital firm Aret. Mr. Eckhart is a graduate ofthe Harvard Business School.

• Al Zapanta is the President and CEO of the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce and is responsible for operations in eight regional offices in the United States and nine in Mexico. He holds the rank of Major General in the US Army Reserve. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School and the Inter-American Defense College of the National War College who has had a remarkable and varied career in the military service, in the private sector and in government. He received a plethora of decorations in the Vietnam War, led a UN peacekeeping force in the Western Sahara, and was recently awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal with respect to Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Restore Hope in Somalia and Restore Democracy in Haiti. In the private sector he worked as an industrial engineer for Bethlehem Steel and had a long career for ARCO that included serving as the company’s Director of Government Affairs, negotiating agreements with Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) and the acquisition of the copper mines of Anaconda, as well as, work on legislation concerning oil and gas, environmental and transport matters. He has held numerous Presidential appointments starting as a White House Fellow and progressing to Assistant Secretary of the Interior, and has headed and served on commissions and missions with respect to matters such as infrastructure, transportation, energy, water resources, international trade technology and various investigations, has served as Chairman of the Reserve Forces Policy Board at the Defense Department, and since 2001 has served as a private sector delegate to the U.S. - Mexico Partnership for Prosperity.

• Jean-Philippe Linteau is the Senior Trade Commissioner for the International Business Development and Investment Program at the Canadian Embassy in Washington. Mr. Linteau joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1997 and was posted to South Korea, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Mr. Linteau holds a Masters in Environmental Science from the University of Toronto and a B.Sc. In agriculture from McGill University in Montreal. Prior to joining the Canadian Government, Mr. Linteau managed an environmental NGO in Montreal.