Must Do Better: Trade & Industrial Policy and the SDGs

Many governments reckon their trade policies promote environmental improvements, the clean energy transition, improved conditions for workers, and other aspects of sustainable development. Yet many critics and promoters of trade reform pour cold water on the notion that commercial policy should target the Sustainable Development Goals. To take this discussion forward, the Global Trade Alert team has prepared a factual assessment of what commercial policy has contributed to the SDGs since the Agenda 2030 came into effect in 2016 and how much more it could contribute from here on. Also, we tackle head-on the apparent tension between openness and advancing SDGs and put forward suggestions to resolve it.