Beyond Tariffs: Reconnecting Economic Policy with Social Development is a CSocD64 side event taking place on Thursday, 5 February 2026 (13:15–14:45, New York time), hosted by the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations in New York, and co-sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations and the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations. Co-organised by the TASC Platform, the Geneva Graduate Institute, and the Global Labor Institute (GLI), Cornell University, the event will convene policymakers, researchers, and practitioners for a focused discussion on aligning evolving economic policy frameworks with social development objectives.
Thirty years after the Copenhagen Declaration (1995), the multilateral commitment to foster an international economic environment supportive to social development has been renewed in the Doha Political Declaration (2025). Over the same period, economic policymaking has evolved significantly—shaped not only by new strategic, regulatory, and industrial policy instruments, but also by the imperative to respond to green and digital transitions driving economy-wide transformation.
This side event offers a focused space for policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders to explore how policy and industry solutions can be mobilised so that evolving economic policy frameworks actively support social development—rather than reproduce inequality or social exclusion—in the context of ongoing green and digital transitions.
A light lunch will be provided.
Key discussion themes
Trade and tariff dynamics and social impacts: early evidence on how tariffs, trade fragmentation, and industrial policy are reshaping value chains and social outcomes
Beyond tariffs — the policy toolkit: policy and industry instruments to embed social objectives into economic policy, including labour provisions, due-diligence regimes, standards, and hybrid regulation
Green and digital transitions as structural shifts: implications for work organisation, skills demand, employment relations, and social protection
Policy and industry solutions, and opportunities for alignment: practical options for coherence across economic, social, climate, and digital domains
Intended outcomes
Clearer articulation of how economic policy choices shape social development outcomes
Practical tools and approaches to strengthen labour and social considerations in global supply chains
Policy-relevant insights to inform debates on just green and digital transitions
Agenda
13:15 — Welcome and event framing
Jason Judd, Executive Director, ILR Global Labor Institute, Cornell University (Event Moderator)
13:20 — Opening remarks
Olivier Hoehne, Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations
13:25 — Grounding research: Reconnecting policy at the trade–labour nexus
Maria Mexi, Senior Policy Advisor, TASC Platform, Geneva Graduate Institute; Visiting Fellow, ILR Global Labor Institute, Cornell University
13:35 — Panel discussion
Trade and tariff dynamics and social impacts
Policy tools for labour and social outcomes in supply chains
Green and digital transitions through a social development lens
14:15 — Interactive discussion with participants
Registration
Please register by Monday, 2 February (COB) to allow for catering arrangements, to register, you may use the registration link.
Alternatively, you may register by email at newyork.un.teameast@eda.admin.ch, including your first and last name, title, and organisation. Kindly note that registration is required for access.