This session summary of the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, held during Geneva Trade Week 2026 as part of the WTO Public Forum, compiles key insights, questions and proposals emerging from the discussion. The Dialogue explored how trade and labour can be brought into closer alignment in practice, from labour adjustment and policy coherence to implementation and institutional cooperation.

Matthew Wilson, Ambassador to Austria, Italy & Switzerland; Permanent Representative of Barbados to the UN, WTO & other International Organisations in Geneva, examines the urgent relationship between trade and labour, and tensions around competitiveness, labour standards and protectionism, at the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, during Geneva Trade Week 2026 as part of the WTO Public Forum.

Marva Corley-Coulibaly, Senior Economist at the International Labour Organization (ILO), examines the growing role of labour provisions in trade agreements, needed to translate trade opportunities into better jobs and decent work, during her intervention to the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, held during Geneva Trade Week 2026 as part of the WTO Public Forum.

Desirée LeClercq, Associate Professor and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Centre at the University of Georgia School of Law, challenges the conventional history of trade “and” labour policy, during the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, held during Geneva Trade Week 2026 as part of the WTO Public Forum and traces how labour became separated from mainstream trade policy,

Charlotte Sieber-Gasser PD Dr. iur., Senior Researcher in International Law, Geneva Graduate Institute, examines how can trade agreements anticipate and manage labour adjustment, during the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, held during Geneva Trade Week 2026 as part of the WTO Public Forum and shares seven key findings on how to bring labour adjustment more directly into trade agreements.

Andreas Oeshger, Policy Advisor at Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) International Labour Affairs, shares the key takeaways from the “Beyond Tariffs: Reconnecting Economic Policy with Social Development” event held alongside the 64th Commission for Social Development, highlighting how green and digital transitions are reshaping economic policy and why stronger alignment is needed.

Maria Mexi, Senior Advisor on Labour and Social Policy , TASC Platform, explores how trade and economic policies intersect with labour outcomes in an era of digital and green transitions, during the “Beyond Tariffs: Reconnecting Economic Policy with Social Developement” event, held alongside the 64th Commission for Social Development sharing the challenge of aligning economic transformation with governance.

Oliver Hoehne, Deputy Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations in New York, reflects, on the “Beyond Tariffs: Reconnecting Economic Policy with Social Development” event, held alongside the 64th Commission for Social Development on how economic policy and social development have become increasingly intertwined in today’s global economy.

Jason Judd, Executive Director of the ILR Global Labor Institute at Cornell University, sets the scene for the “Beyond Tariffs: Reconnecting Economic Policy with Social Development” event, held alongside the 64th Comission for Social Development, by tracing how trade policy has evolved over three decades and asks these new tools truly delivering better outcomes for workers and social development?

The Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour event, hosted by the TASC Platform and the World Economic Forum Trade and Investment Team at the World Economic Forum headquarters on 27 October 2025, brought together country missions, policy experts, and institutional partners to reflect on how trade and labour policies can evolve together in times of green, digital and geopolitical transition.

Ambassador Valérie Berset Bircher, Deputy Head of International Labour Affairs at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), calls for renewed multilateral cooperation during the “Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour” event, and the importance of institutional coordination and policy coherence to better connect trade and labour in a context of climate transition and automation.

H.E. Ambassador James Ndirangu Waweru, Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kenya to the UN Office in Geneva, underscores the urgency of aligning trade and labour agendas in the context of Africa’s fast-evolving economic transitions, during the “Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour” event, while reinforcing the need for rapid structural transformation.

H.E. Ambassador Ms. Nahida Sobhan, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN and other International Organizations in Geneva, shared, during the “Geneva DIalogue on Trade and Labour” event, how Bangladesh’s own experience makes the case for formalising the trade and labour nexus through forward-looking policy reforms in which economic integration goes hand in hand with social inclusion.

Ms. Sally Bardayan Rivera, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Panama Mission to the WTO highlights, during the “Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour” event how trade and labour are intertwined in Panama. From the transformative power of the Panama Canal to the role of skills, services, and logistics, she underscores the need to design trade systems that invest in people.

Alongside the 113th International Labour Conference, Miriam Caterina Roquel Chavez, Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Guatemala and Lutfey Siddiqi, Special Envoy for International Affairs, Bangladesh share their keynotes during the “W(h)ither trade and labour? What’s next in the world of transnational labour governance” event exploring transnational labour governance.