Professor Reid speaks at International Trade Conference

Professor Emily Reid participated in an international conference Striking a Balance? The European Union’s Management of the Environment-Trade Nexus organised by the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies, College of Europe, Bruges on 6 October 2023.

Emily presented a paper 'The evolving environment-trade nexus in the EU and WTO: building blocks of a just transition?' in the first session of the conference, which focussed upon the evolving environment trade nexus at multilateral level.

Emily also had the privilege of chairing the third session, which was focussed upon unilateral EU tools to promote sustainable trade.

In Emily's paper she argued that notwithstanding the very important progress achieved to date with regard to the relationship between trade and environment in both the EU and WTO, the pursuit of sustainability shifts the paradigm in which the environment-trade nexus exists, reinforcing the significance of social development, and its interaction and interdependence with the environment-trade nexus.

This is reinforced by the call for ‘just transition’ (described by the ILO as, ‘greening the economy in a way that is as fair and inclusive as possible to everyone concerned, creating decent work opportunities and leaving no one behind’ (ILO 2023)).

Having evaluated the environment-trade nexus in the EU and WTO from this perspective, Emily asked the question whether there is a need for further evolution to achieve this objective and began to answer the question of what this might look like.