This webinar will launch the UNCTAD report: Better Trade for Sustainable Development: The Role of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS).

The event discusses the potentials and constraints of VSS in making international trade more sustainable in particular with regards to developing countries development opportunities. it seeks to foster the debate on the means of maximizing VSS contribution to sustainable development and minimizing their risks.

Building a way forward to understand the association between VSS and sustainability concerns is one of this dialogue's main objectives.

The discussion is compounded with questions such as:

• What are the possibilities and limitations of VSS to make international trade more sustainable, in particular with regards to developing countries development opportunities?
   
• What evidence do we have on the economic, social and environmental impacts of VSS on the ground?
   
• What are the barriers to VSS uptake specifically in the context of developing countries, and how to overcome these barriers?
   
• What are the roles of policymakers and other stakeholders (NGOs, donors, etc) in overcoming these barriers and assist in maximizing the favourable impacts of VSS?
   

Programme

Opening and Chair

•    Ms. Isabelle Durant, Deputy Secretary-General, UNCTAD

Presentation of the report Better Trade for Sustainable Development: The Role of Voluntary Sustainability Standards

•    Mr. Axel Marx, Deputy Director, Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, University of Leuven
•    Mr. Santiago Fernandez De Cordoba, Senior Economist, Trade Analysis Branch, DITC, UNCTAD

Discussants

•    Ms. Mercedes Aráoz Fernández, Professor of Economics, Universidad del Pacifico
•    Ms. Monica Rubiolo, Head Trade Promotion, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Swtizerland
•    Mr. Chad Blackman, Ambassador, Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Barbados to the United Nations Office at Geneva