By Isabelle Durant, Acting Secretary-General, UNCTAD
Today, 14 June, come and join us at the UN Trade Forum 2021. Transforming global trade is one of the ways to ensure a better recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.
This crisis has highlighted the fundamental role of trade in moving goods and services from where they are efficiently produced to where they are needed. The pandemic has also exposed the fault lines of our development path, notably the one that depends on effective participation in just-in-time global supply chains. It has also exacerbated the vulnerability and inequality present in our world.
But COVID-19 is not the only crisis we face. A climate and environmental emergency threatens to compromise the progress we have achieved and the development prospects of future generations. A recovery is not enough. 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.
The UN Trade Forum was created as a space for dialogue on how trade can be harnessed for a more prosperous, inclusive and sustainable world. This year’s discussions on a green and inclusive recovery from the pandemic will touch upon some of the most important contemporary trade debates.
As such, the 2021 UN Trade Forum provides a key stepping stone towards UNCTAD15, the quadrennial conference to be held in October, which will determine the priorities and work programme of UNCTAD over the next four years. Today, our impressive high-level panel will discuss the lessons that could be drawn from the current crisis and the policy responses needed to make sure trade can be key to a green and inclusive recovery process. The panel will also address how to reduce trade tensions and strengthen multilateralism, ensuring that trade does not revert to the pre-crisis status quo.
The first session will discuss the main national and multilateral trade elements needed to foster climate change action, and green and circular economy solutions. Speakers will address how trade policies and rules can better support green development, and how the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” and the need for trade-climate readiness can be mainstreamed within the multilateral trading system.
Finally, the second session will address how policymakers can ensure trade contributes to an 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.
