Our fifth “Erasing the And” took place on March 28th, 2023, and focused on the link between trade and human rights with a panel discussion with Catherine Feingold from the AFL-CIO, Anasuya Syam from the Human Trafficking Legal Center, and Eric Biel from the Fair Labor Association. A central challenge to developing a new consensus on trade is ensuring that trade rules better protect human rights, that exploitation of labor is reduced, and that the benefits of trade are shared by workers and communities. Recently, the connection to trade policy has played out most clearly in the area of labor standards and efforts to stop trade in goods made under abusive labor conditions. Our panel discussion focused in particular on the rise in the use of import bans on goods made with forced labor and how such bans could inform the trade agenda moving forward. The panel was moderated by our Co-Director Jennifer Hillman, with opening remarks by Elisa Massimino, Executive Director of Georgetown's Human Rights Institute.

In commemoration of International Women’s Day, CITD hosted an “Erasing the And” roundtable focused on trade and gender on March 8th, 2023. Trade is no longer viewed as “gender neutral”, and trade agreements are increasingly incorporating gender provisions. Yet deeper research and more tailored legal and policy approaches are needed to ensure that women’s needs are met. CITD’s event shared highlights of the December 2022 WTO World Trade Congress on Gender, featuring Anoush der Boghossian, Head of the Trade and Gender Unit at the WTO, followed by a panel discussion including Nadia Rocha, Lead Economist, Global Trade and Regional Integration at the World Bank, CITD Co-Director Professor Katrin Kuhlmann and Advisory Board Member Professor Amrita Bahri. Professors Kuhlmann and Bahri will also presented research on how to ensure that trade agreements can be better designed and implemented to address the challenges that women face around the world, which they presented and at the WTO Gender Congress.

Our third “Erasing the And” took place on November 30th, 2022, and focused on the relationship between trade and social inclusion. Although trade is not primarily to blame for rising inequality and social conflict, it is not wholly innocent either. International trade law plays a powerful role in fomenting the conditions under which people thrive, implicating social equality and inclusion. The impacts of trade and rapid technological change on income inequality and the security of work have become politically salient issues in the United States and Europe, challenging the international trade legal order. Social inclusion is an issue in developing economies as well, where issues of equity drive trade debates within and between nations. This talk and discussion addressed how international trade law can and should be retooled to support social inclusion worldwide, despite a brief interruption by the fire alarm.

Our second Erasing the "And" took place on October 24th, 2022, focused on trade and climate change. There is a growing interest in carbon pricing and carbon border adjustments (CBAs) as a policy tool to protect economies that pursue relatively aggressive climate policies, while also encouraging broader international adoption of such strategies. During the discussion, panelists Maureen Hinman of Silverado Policy Accelerator and Matt Porterfield of the Climate Leadership Council explore issues arising from these policies, as well as differing approaches for setting equitable and effective carbon pricing models with CITD's Katrin Kuhlmann and Jennifer Hillman.

The Center on Inclusive Trade and Development (CITD) launched the “Erasing the And” series on October 3, 2022. Our first “Erasing the And” focused on trade and access to medicines. The June 2022 WTO MC12 TRIPS waiver on COVID-19 vaccines has prompted conversation about the measures necessary to improve access to medicines in low- and middle-income countries. The keynote address, by Jayashree Watal, and the subsequent panel discussion explored the impact of this measure, its possible extension to pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, and the broader link between intellectual property, public health, and development.