LEANZ AGM and Hon Tim Groser seminar on the international rules-based order

The Law and Economics Association of New Zealand (LEANZ) and Bell Gully invite you to the LEANZ AGM and a seminar (in-person and online) where Hon Tim Groser will discuss the international rules-based order.

Wednesday 2 July 2025

Bell Gully , Level 4/40 Lady Elizabeth Lane, Wellington

Attendees are welcome to arrive from 5.00pm, with refreshments available. The AGM commences at 5.30pm until 6.00pm, followed by the seminar from Hon Tim Groser, with further refreshments to follow till 7.30pm.

About the seminar:

The International Rules-Based Order: are we at the cusp of a requiem or a re-set?

From being a ‘junior investigating officer’ in the NZ Treasury’s External Economics Division in 1974 (for LEANZ members of a ‘certain age’, his immediate Treasury boss was Roger Kerr) to a variety of other positions with rather fancier titles, Tim Groser has seen at first hand the transformation of New Zealand from a deeply protectionist country, fearful of engagement economically with the outside world, to an aggressive promoter of trade liberalisation and integration into the global economy. Shaping that 50-year career (Tim insists that today he is only warming up) has been US leadership of the International Rules-Based System.

As Tim put it in a recent speech: ’the Admiral of the Globalisation Fleet, the US of A, appears to have gone on indefinite shore leave since around 2015. Can the rest of the fleet find its way to safe harbour or is it time to abandon ship?’

Hon Tim Groser - bio

After joining the NZ Treasury as a junior economist in 1974, Tim became deeply involved in Australia/NZ economic relationships which then evolved into the CER Agreement. In the early 1980s, Tim served as the Foreign Affairs adviser to both Prime Minister Muldoon and Prime Minister David Lange in the Prime Minister’s Department. In 1986, Tim was then appointed NZ Chief Trade Negotiator with responsibility for the last successful multilateral Trade Negotiating Round, the Uruguay Round. He served as Ambassador to Indonesia 1994-97. Appointed as ‘Principal Economic Adviser’ to MFAT in late 1997 he then initiated the first step towards TPP, via a strategy with (initially) Singapore and then Chile. After two years as CEO of the NZ-Asia Foundation, in 2002 Tim was appointed Ambassador to the WTO and chaired the Agriculture Negotiating Group – the first New Zealander to do so. He served as NZ Trade Minister, NZ Climate Change Minister (International) and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs 2008-15. He is the political author of the ‘NDC’ (National Determined Contribution) in climate change - arising directly from his facilitation of US/China bilateral climate change negotiations after the failure of the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. From 2016-19 Tim was Ambassador to the United States. Tim was recently appointed Chair of the Advisory Group on Supercritical Geothermal Energy.

CPD Hours

Lawyers may note that if this seminar is part of your learning objectives in your CPDPR, then attendance at this event can count for one hour of your 10 CPD hours. Please contact a LEANZ representative at the event to confirm your attendance.

Online attendance (Zoom): from 5.30 pm onwards

Zoom link and access details:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89376462420?pwd=ysGiFbQ9TTHSqm0fSqI2azCKVwLyq4.1

Meeting ID: 893 7646 2420
Passcode: 741414