Trade and Sustainability Hub 2021 Opening Plenary (Recorded December 1, 2021) The Doha Round foundered on competing visions for trade liberalization, as WTO members were unable to agree on their level of ambition, who should liberalize what, and their respective concessions. Today’s challenges to the trade regime are of an entirely different order. The liberalization narrative is increasingly challenged by rival accounts of the effects of globalization that foreground the impact of import competition on workers, rising inequality, the security implications of international economic interdependence, and the risks posed by pandemics and the climate crisis. The panel discusses how globalization narratives have evolved, the impact of this evolution on international trade policy governance, and to what extent trade policy strategies have played a role in driving or mitigating national or global inequalities over time. As we move into an increasingly multi-polar world that requires countries to urgently cooperate to tackle pressing sustainability challenges, how will countries reconcile competing globalization narratives? How will they confront the issue of inequality and achieve global sustainability objectives? A central aspect the panellists consider is, in light of competing globalization narratives, what potential is there for multilateralism in the future? Speakers: • Nathalie Bernasconi, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) • Nicolas Lamp, Queen's University, Faculty of Law • Anthea Roberts, School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), Australian National University • Petina Gappah, Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area • Abhijit Das, Centre for WTO Studies • Joost Pauwelyn, Geneva Graduate Institute Session organizers: International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Queen’s University, and Australian National University More information: https://www.iisd.org/events/trade-and-sustainability-hub