With the COVID-19 crisis and the climate emergency negatively impacting the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental), what the world needs is a more coherent policy mix to protect the planet and ensure more inclusive development.
Inevitably, this must include trade policy. However, designing a coherent policy mix is a challenge. Some policy tools may contribute to environmental sustainability but may appear protectionist, while some trade-enhancing economic policies may appear adversary to the progress of a green/blue economy.
This session will address how policymakers can ensure trade contributes to inclusive recovery and how the gains from trade can reach the most vulnerable groups, including women, youth and migrant workers.
Speakers will also discuss the preconditions for developing countries to benefit from the growing digital economy and how best to protect consumers in the digital era.
Speakers:
- Mr. Nobumitsu Hayashi, Deputy Governor, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)
- Ms. Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
- Mr. Silver Ojakol, Chief of Staff of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat.
- Ms. Claudia Lima Marques, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
- Ms. Mercedes Aráoz, Professor of Economics, Universidad del Pacifico, and Former Second Vice President of Peru
Moderator:
- Ms. Miho Shirotori, Officer in Charge, Division on International Trade and Commodities, UNCTAD
HAYASHI Nobumitsu is Deputy Governor of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (“JBIC”), a policy-based financial institution wholly owned by the Japanese government. He is in charge of the global finance operations of the Bank. In this role, he has overseen the Bank’s international finance operations that involves, among others, global trade, sustainable infrastructure or global environmental preservation and is leading the Bank’s effort to support the recovery from the COVID-19 impact in various jurisdictions and industries.
Prior to joining JBIC, he held various senior positions on international finance, economic policy and administration at the Government of Japan, including Commissioner of the National Tax Administration in 2014. He was also Director-General of the Finance Bureau (Ministry of Finance) in 2013, President of the Policy Research Institute (Ministry of Finance) in 2012, and Executive Director for Japan at the World Bank Group from 2010 to 2012. He was Executive Assistant to Prime Minister in 2007.
He holds LLB from University of Tokyo.
Ilze Brands Kehris assumed her functions as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights on 14 January 2020, heading the UN Human Rights Office in New York.
Ms. Brands Kehris combines extensive expertise in political science, conflict prevention and human rights, with a specialisation in minority rights, and long-standing experience in intergovernmental fora and with civil society organisations.
From 2017 to 2019, Ms. Brands Kehris served as independent Expert Member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the treaty body monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Between 2016 and 2019, she served as a senior research fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund University, in Sweden.
She has previously held several leadership positions in national and regional level human rights organisations, including as Member and Chairperson of the Management Board of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency, and Director of the Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Ms. Brands Kehris also held the positions as Director of the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, first Vice-President and Member of the Advisory Committee on the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and Member of the Management Board and Vice-Chairperson of the Executive Board of the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. She also served as Director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Mills College in California, USA, a Master of Arts in Political Science (International Relations) from Columbia University in New York, USA, where she also pursued Ph.D. studies. Ms. Brands Kehris, who is Latvian, speaks English, Russian, French, Latvian and Swedish.
Silver Ojakol is the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat’s Chief of Staff. In his role, he oversees the implementation of the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Mr. Ojakol, a Trade Economist by training and practice, has a strong track record and familiarity with domestic, bilateral, regional and multilateral trade policy and trade development. He has carried business research and conducted multiple trade promotion missions.
He participated in several negotiations for regional integration such as COMESA; EAC; Tripartite COMESA- EAC-SADC FTA and the EAC-EU EPA, developing negotiating priorities. Furthermore, he has been at the forefront in the efforts to eliminate non-tariff barriers to trade at the regional level. More recently, he served as Chief Technical Negotiator and Chairperson of the Negotiating Forum in the negotiations for the AfCFTA.
Claudia Lima Marques is a full Professor of Private International Law at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul-UFRGS in Porto Alegre, Brazil. World President of the International Association of Consumer Law-IACL (Brussels) and Chair of the ILA's Committee on International Protection of Consumers (London). General Rapporteur of the Federal Senate to update the Brazilian Consumer Protection Code (Law 14.181/2021).
Former President of the BRASILCON-Brazilian Institute of Consumer Law and Policy (Brasilia) and from of ASADIP- Asociación Americana de Derecho Internacional Privado (Paraguay).
PhD in Law from Heidelberg, LL.M. from Tübingen, SDJ UFRGS, Expert on European Integration (Sarre). Doctor honoris causa from Giessen, Germany and Savoie Mont-Blanc, France. Lawyer and arbitrator in Porto Alegre (Brazil). Member of the Senate Committee of Jurists responsible for reviewing and updating the Brazilian Civil Code (Bill 4/2025) and to create the Artificial Intelligence Framework Law (Bill 2328/2023).
She is Director of the CDEA-Center for European and German Studies, from DAAD (UFRGS-PUCRS), professor at the PhD UNINOVE (São Paulo), current Editor of the Consumer Law Journal-RDC, and Environmental Law Journal-RDA, both by Thomson Reuters (São Paulo) and the Macau Journal of Brazilian Studies, China. She served as an independent expert at the UN Tourism Commission to elaborate on the International Code for the Protection of Tourists (UNWTO).
Her fields of expertise are Consumer and Contract Law, Private International Law, Protection of the weaker party, Digital Services, Family and Child Law, and Mercosur.
