With growing geopolitical tensions, shifting alliances, technological disruptions, and rising protectionism, understanding the emerging geoeconomic order is critical for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Georgetown Americas Institute (GAI) is proud to host GEO-LAC: Latin America in the New Geoeconomic Order, a dialogue series exploring the evolving landscape of global trade, investment, supply chains, and economic alliances, placing Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) at the center of the conversation.
As part of this series, GAI will host a conversation with Eduardo Pedrosa, executive director of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat. With extensive experience in international economic cooperation and regional integration across the Asia-Pacific, Pedrosa brings a unique perspective on the evolving role of APEC as a platform for dialogue and policy coordination among major economies in the region.
The discussion will examine the evolving role of the APEC forum at a time when the global trading system is undergoing a significant transformation, shaped by geopolitical tensions, industrial policy, and rapid technological change. It will explore how APEC economies are navigating these shifts while advancing cooperation on trade facilitation, supply-chain connectivity, and emerging policy areas such as the digital economy, innovation, sustainability, and economic resilience. Particular attention will be given to the interaction between APEC and other major regional initiatives, as well as the implications for LAC’s engagement with the Asia-Pacific region, including the role of APEC members from Latin America (Chile, Mexico, and Peru) in strengthening cross-Pacific trade, investment, and global value-chain integration.
The event will feature a conversation hosted by Nicolás Albertoni and Antoni Estevadeordal from the Georgetown Americas Institute’s Latin America in the Global Economy program.
Featuring
Eduardo Pedrosa is the executive director of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat. His appointment was formally welcomed at the 35th APEC Ministerial Meeting in Lima, Peru, on November 14, 2024. Prior to his appointment at APEC, he was the secretary general of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), one of the three official observers of APEC. Pedrosa is an expert on regional economic cooperation working on a diverse range of issues including trade, finance, digitalization, climate change, and structural reform. Over the past 20 years, he has consulted for governments and businesses across the Asia-Pacific. He was the coordinator of PECC’s State of the Region report, which provides an independent assessment of the prospects and risks to regional economic as well as priorities for APEC. Pedrosa is a thought-leader on economic affairs, authoring and editing a wide variety of articles and books including Trade and Connectivity in the Post-COVID-19 World (with Pascal Lamy, World Economic Forum, 2020); Globalization, Inequality and the Rise of Protectionism (Duke, Dialogue Review, 2015); Towards an ASEAN Economic Community: Matching the Hardware with the Operating System (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009); and An APEC Trade Agenda: The Political Economy of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (with Charles Morrison, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2007). Pedrosa is also a member of the Advisory Board of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report. He has previously worked for the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the Philippine government.
Nicolás Albertoni is a visiting fellow at the Georgetown Americas Institute, where he will organize a series of events on trade for the Latin America and the Global Economy (LAGE) program . He previously served as vice minister of foreign affairs of Uruguay (2022-2025). He has authored several articles and books on Latin America Development and Integration, including Trade Protectionism in an Uncertain and Interconnected Global Economy (Routledge, 2024). Albertoni has two Ph.D.s and three master’s degrees (one from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service) in the areas of political science, economics, and international relations. He is also an alumnus of the Global Competitiveness Leadership Program (GCL, 2012) at Georgetown University. In 2021, he received the Order of Arete from the University of Southern California, the highest honor accorded for an academic contribution. In 2023, he was recognized by the Club of Madrid as one of the 30 decision-makers and leaders around the world, and in 2018, he was included in the list of Global Americans New Generation of Public Intellectuals.
Antoni Estevadeordal is a resident fellow at the Georgetown Americas Institute, where he leads the project Latin America in the Global Economy, and senior research fellow at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI). He previously held senior roles at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), including IDB representative in Europe, head of the IDB Migration Initiative, and manager of the Integration and Trade Sector. His expertise spans international development, trade and investment policy, and regional integration. He has published extensively in major journals and authored several books. He served as a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on the Future of Logistics, and has also taught at leading universities in Spain, the United States, and China. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from Harvard University and a B.A. in economics from the University of Barcelona.