Moderator Pete Engardio of Business Week

The second discussion in the Reuters Forum series -- New Economy, Old Politics: Do We Need New Rules to Ensure Fair Growth? -- will be held on Wednesday, February 14, at 6 p.m. at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, Broadway and 116th Street. To register, call (212) 854-6840, or register online at http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/reuters - where the discussions will also be webcast.

Moderated by Pete Engardio, Business Week, the panel discussion will feature Ambassador Thomas Niles, U.S. Council for International Business; John Ruggie, United Nations; Joseph Stiglitz, Stanford University, and Lori Wallach, Global Trade Watch.

Among the issues to be discussed are:

• Why has East Asia, even with the recent crisis, done so well in the past three decades?
• Why have regions such as Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Europe benefited little by opening their markets?
• Why have some developing nations used trade to industrialize, while others remain stuck at the sweatshop level?
• What is a multinational's responsibility when it comes to social issues such as labor conditions, the environment and human rights in countries where they operate? Is it really feasible to devise global standards on such issues? Is there a danger that imposing Western-designed standards will actually harm the interests of the world's poor, who desperately need work of any kind?