To open the 2025 edition of Geneva Trade Week, this public event organized by the Forum on Trade, Environment and the SDGs (TESS) aims to shed light on prospects for fostering urgently-needed inclusive cooperation on trade and trade-related policies in support of sustainable development, recognising the complexities of the current geopolitical and trade landscape.

The event will bring together a diverse group of leading international experts and Geneva-based Ambassadors to the WTO to spur discussion on a proactive, forward-looking agenda on trade and sustainability and how to advance it.

Questions for discussion will include:

What are the greatest trade-related challenges frustrating action to advance sustainable development? What are the key trade-related needs arising from the impacts of the triple environmental crisis?

Where are the greatest opportunities for trade cooperation to rapidly make a significant positive contribution to sustainability, considering both the range of possible international processes (bilateral, regional, plurilateral, sectoral, multilateral) and types of cooperation? ,

What kinds of progress and outcomes on sustainability can be envisaged at the WTO, including in the context of the ongoing WTO reform process?

Speakers for the session will be:

Dmitry GROZOUBINSKI, Executive Director, Geneva Trade Platform

Carolyn DEERE BIRKBECK, Executive Director, Forum on Trade, Environment & the SDGs

Henry GAO, Professor of Law, Singapore Management University

Gabrielle MARCEAU, Honorary Professor International Public Law and International Organisation, University of Geneva

Trevor SUTTON, Senior Research Associate, Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy (Online)

Elisa TONDA, Chief, Resources and Markets Branch, UN Environment Programme

Ana Elena Sancho CALVINO, Associate Director of the Global Trade Alert, IMD

H.E. Dr. Msukisi QOBO Ambassador, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the WTO

H.E. Mr. Erwin BOLLINGER, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the WTO

H.E. Mr. Sumbue ANTAS, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Vanuatu to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva

Mr. Jeremy GREEN, Minister-Counsellor and Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Australia to the WTO