The AWA AUSSENWIRTSCHAFTSAKADEMIE GmbH held its Foreign Trade Conference in Münster on May 11 and 12, 2026, marking its 30th anniversary. The anniversary conference was held under the theme “Understanding history. Contextualizing the present. Shaping the future.”

Prof. Wolffgang served as moderator on both days of the conference. Together with AWA Managing Director Matthias Merz, he opened the event with a retrospective on three decades of AWA and a look ahead to new formats.

The first day of the conference was devoted to current trade policy in relation to the U.S., practical issues regarding customs valuation, and groundbreaking developments in the areas of customs and sales tax. Prof. Wolffgang moderated a panel discussion on the status of customs reform and the revised Union Customs Code (R-UCC), as well as the concluding general discussion of the day. The program concluded with a future forum on AI agents and strategic risk analysis in the customs and foreign trade sectors.

The second day focused primarily on export control law. Topics included 30 years of developments in export control, economic security and counterintelligence in the age of AI, as well as the ECJ ruling of January 29, 2026 (C-291/24) on corporate fines under criminal sanctions law. In a concluding international panel discussion, Prof. Wolffgang joined experts from the U.S. and China to discuss the key challenges European companies face in reconciling EU, U.S., and Chinese export control laws.

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