- When: Tuesday, 28 July 2020 (9:00 am to 10:30 am EDT)
- How to Join: The online event will be live streamed here.
COVID-19 has spawned new trade restrictions and threatens to widen old trade divisions. How far can trade agreements be a bulwark against protectionism? Modern trade agreements cover not just trade but a range of policy areas, such as international flows of investment and labor, and the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. The goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. These agreements matter for economic development. Their rules influence how countries, and hence the people and firms that live and operate within them, transact, invest, work, and, ultimately, develop.
This event will introduce the Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements and the underlying database—the result of collaboration between the World Bank and experts from academia, the International Trade Centre (ITC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and World Trade Organization (WTO). The Handbook provides new data and analysis of the “deepening” of trade agreements. A panel of three leading experts will discuss the role trade agreements will play in a post-COVID-19 world and how they may shape future patterns of trade and global value chains.
For details of the agenda and speakers, click here.