European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis will open the conference with a discussion with WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on global trade challenges and the EU’s role in helping find global responses to them.
This full-day virtual event will include panel discussions on the three core objectives of the new EU Trade Strategy:
- Supporting the recovery and fundamental transformation of the EU economy in line with its green and digital objectives;
- Shaping global rules for a more sustainable and fairer globalisation, and;
- Increasing the EU’s capacity to pursue its interests and enforce its rights, including autonomously where needed.
The event is an opportunity for everyone interested in hearing from a range of officials and experts on the present and future of EU trade policy and of global trade. We will seek answers to a variety of questions, including:
- How should the EU respond to global challenges including growing unilateralism, the crisis of the international rules-based trading order, the acceleration of climate change, and the digital transformation?
- How can we reform the WTO so that it can support the stability and predictability of international trade?
- How can global trade rules contribute to a more sustainable and fairer globalisation, and address in particular the challenges associated with the green transition?
- How can the EU maximise the benefits of international trade to its companies, and how can the EU enforce its rights more assertively?