The risk of trade wars and big challenges to international trade rules will be highlighted at the University of Otago's latest Foreign Policy School this month.
The 54th annual school, which starts on June 28, focuses on "economic policy in the 21st century, the challenges and opportunities".
"New Zealand very much benefits from the rules-based order of trade," Dr Wesselbaum, the school co-director, said yesterday.
Any crumbling of that multilateral rules-based approach, including the World Trade Organisation itself, was "a danger to New Zealand's trade".
At present, New Zealand could take any legitimate trade issue to the WTO and was likely to win, but there were also threats to the WTO itself.
"If we lose that, it's not going to be very good for us."
Trade wars, such as the one between China and the United States, would harm overall trade, including for New Zealand.
Dr Wesselbaum said he was "very pleased" with the line-up of speakers at the upcoming school, which include Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker, and US scholars Karen Eggleston, of Stanford University, and Mark Rosenzweig, of Yale University.
After an expansion of trade and growing prosperity last century, the return of tariffs was "undermining the positive global growth effects" of trade.
But there were chances to strengthen international co-operation and foster a new era of sustained global economic growth that that could bring benefits for many people, and "not just a few", he said.
