Digital, green and open? Global Trade policy at crossroads

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• GGP: Global Governance Programme

The 2021 World Trade Forum, taking place on 14 and 15 October, will address lessons and implications of trade policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, research on digital and trade dimensions of programs to green the economy, EU external policies and prospects for plurilateral cooperation under the umbrella of the WTO.

The 2021 World Trade Forum, co-organised with the World Trade Institute at the University of Bern, brings together leading trade practitioners and scholars, government officials, and representatives of international and nongovernmental organisations. Sessions will address lessons and implications of trade policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, research on digital and trade dimensions of programs to green the economy, EU external policies and prospects for plurilateral cooperation under the umbrella of the WTO. The forum in 2021 will comprise plenary sessions only – due to COVID-19 related space constraints, it will not have the usual structure with several parallel sessions at the same time.

Every year, a book related to the World Trade Forum is published with Cambridge University Press. For 2021, the book project is managed by Henry Gao (Singapore Management University), Damian Raess (WTI) and Ka Zeng (University of Arkansas). The book project this year will organize parallel sessions in November on the topic 'China and the WTO'.

All sessions will be hybrid, with speakers that are on site or on-line. All sessions will be live-streamed.