the trade and labour programme
The Trade and Labour Programme is an initiative with the mission of redefining the landscape of trade, making it more inclusive, and bringing together leaders from across domains: business, workers, civil society, and policymaking.
The Programme aims to shape a future where trade and labour market policies work hand in hand, paving the way for economic growth, sustainable development, and improved worker well-being. This alignment is seen as the cornerstone of achieving broader social justice objectives especially during times of ‘polycrisis’, marked by increasing poverty and decent work deficits .
Structured in three phases, the Programme is informed by interviews, workshops, insight-gathering, and regional case studies. It builds momentum for coordinated, evidence-based policy change that strengthens labour outcomes through trade tools.
This Programme is a joint initiative of the TASC Platform and the World Economic Forum's Trade and Investment team, with support from the Laudes Foundation.
publicationS & Blogs
Preparing Governance for Just Transitions:
A Policy Guide and Readiness Framework
THE TRADE AND LABOUR: RETHINKING POLICY TOOLS FOR BETTER LABOUR OUTCOMES
This White Paper, grounded in over 50 stakeholder interviews, explores how shifting supply chains are reshaping the trade-labour nexus. It highlights policy lever such as trade agreements and due diligence tools, to improve labour standards and calls for stronger collaboration to ensure fair, inclusive outcomes in a changing global economy. The paper concludes the first phase of the Programme, laying the foundation for coordinated, evidence-based policy action.
Drawing on insights from the Trade and Labour Programme, this Policy Guide introduces a Governance Readiness Framework to help governments, international organisations, businesses, and social partners assess whether institutions are equipped to manage the labour consequences of economic transitions. Moving beyond compensation and reskilling alone, it argues that just transitions depend on the capacity to anticipate risks, coordinate across policy domains, adapt regulation, and enforce protections. The guide offers a practical diagnostic tool to identify governance gaps and strengthen readiness across green, digital, industrial, and geopolitical transitions.
THE TRADE AND LABOUR: Pathways for decent Work in kenya’s Digital Economy
The 2nd White Paper, based on close to 40 stakeholder interviews and a multistakeholder workshop in Nairobi, examines how Kenya’s fast-growing digital economy can deliver both innovation and dignity at work. It identifies pathways for modernizing labour laws, promoting responsible business practices, and aligning regional trade frameworks with decent work standards. The paper highlights Kenya’s potential to serve as a model for fair and inclusive digital transformation across Africa.
THE TRADE AND LABOUR: BUILDING THE TRADE-LABOUR NEXUS IN INDONESIA’S NICKEL VALUE CHAIN
The 3rd White Paper explores how Indonesia’s rise as a global nickel powerhouse can translate industrial growth into decent work and just transitions. Drawing on 40+ interviews and a workshop in Jakarta, it analyses how trade, investment, and labour policies intersect across the country’s critical minerals sector. The paper highlights pathways to embed stronger labour standards, corporate accountability, and regional cooperation—ensuring the green transition delivers shared prosperity, not unequal gains.
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Digital Dividends or Dependency? Industrial policy in the age of digital economies
As platforms and data redefine industrial policy, who benefits and who risks being left behind?
This shift is not just technological, but structural, reshaping who captures value. -
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EU Omnibus-isation: Simplification or Structural Drift?
What does “Omnibus-isation” reveal about Europe’s shifting regulatory logic? As the distinction between simplification and structural change narrows, it tests commitments to labour, data, and social accountability.
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Protecting workers in digital supply chains
How can digital trade advance inclusion while protecting workers? Kenya’s experience offers lessons for shaping fair, future-ready supply chains and decent work in the digital transition.
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Rethinking labour standards for inclusive global trade
This White Paper Explainer outlines why labour standards matter must be central to inclusive trade and highlights policy tools for improving labour outcomes.
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Policy tools for better labour outcomes
How can trade policy drive better labour outcomes while supporting inclusive growth and sustainable supply chains? This blog explores key approaches under the Trade and Labour Programme.
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International trade is booming. But will it benefit workers?
Discover how international trade policy can be reimagined to better support labour rights, decent work, and inclusive growth, ensuring a just transition across global supply chains and fairer global trade.
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Introducing the Trade and Labour Programme
Explore the Trade and Labour Programme, uncovering policies for inclusive and equitable growth by connecting policy, business, and civil society to address green and digital transitions.
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TAKING stock: Trade Tools and Labour Outcomes
This blog highlights how evolving trade tools can be better aligned to deliver decent work and lift labour standards between trade and labour across transitional economies and supply chains.
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Trade and Labour: friends, foes or frenemies?
This blog revisits common understandings of trade and labour relations, exploring longstanding tensions and overlooked intersections, to forge positive, lasting linkages.
Events & highlights
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The Beyond Tariffs: Reconnecting Economic Policy with Social Developmet was convened on 5 February 2026 in New York, alongside the 64th Commission for Social Development (CSocD64). The event was co-organised by the TASC Platform and the Geneva Graduate Institute, together with Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute (GLI), and co-sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations and the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations in New York.
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Held on 10 September 2024, during Geneva Trade Week, this Geneva-based high-level breakfast roundtable brought together leaders from diplomacy, civil society, and global institutions to examine how green and digital transitions are reshaping trade, labour markets, and supply chains—featuring insights from the TASC–WEF white paper and ongoing country research. Watch key takeaways from the event with Soledad Leal Campos, Policy Lead, International Trade and Investment, World Economic Forum, or read the event summary below.
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Held on 02 May 2023 during the World Economic Forum Growth Summit, this Geneva-based closed-door session convened the Trade and Labour Programme community and key stakeholders to assess how trade policy, domestic legislation, and private initiatives affect workers. The event identified practical gaps and solutions, co-hosted by the TASC Platform, World Economic Forum, and Laudes Foundation.
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Held on 6 June 2025 in Geneva, on the margins of the 113th International Labour Conference, the TASC Platform and Cornell University’s Global Labour Institute co-hosted an evening reception and dialogue exploring the future of transnational labour governance. The event brought together policymakers, envoys, labour advocates, and institutional partners for a grounded, forward-looking exchange on how trade and labour systems are evolving.
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The Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, 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 and institutional partners to reflect on how trade and labour policies can evolve together in times of transition.
The Dialogue forms part of the broader Trade and Labour Programme.
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Held on 23 November 2023, this Geneva-based breakfast workshop convened trade, labour, and human rights experts alongside the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights to discuss tools for better labour outcomes. Hosted by the TASC Platform and the World Economic Forum, the event advanced multistakeholder insights under the first phase of the Trade and Labour Programme.
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Held on 21 November 2024, this Jakarta-based workshop explored how Indonesia’s critical minerals sector—especially nickel—can generate decent jobs and inclusive trade amid the green transition. Discussions addressed labour market challenges and policy, business, and civil society responses. The session contributed to country-level case research under the first phase of the Trade and Labour Programme, co-hosted by the TASC Platform, World Economic Forum, Universitas Pelita Harapan, and Indonesia for Global Justice.
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Held on 25 January 2024, this Geneva-based roundtable brought together trade and labour stakeholders to explore living wages in international trade. Participants shared practices, challenges, and recommendations in light of emerging policy and regulatory developments. The session was co-hosted by IDH, the TASC Platform, and the World Economic Forum, as part of the Trade and Labour Programme
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Held on 26 March 2025, this Nairobi-based workshop examined how Kenya’s fast-growing digital economy can deliver fair, inclusive, and sustainable jobs. Discussions focused on policy reform, trade and investment levers, and tools to improve conditions for BPO and platform workers. The session contributed to country-level case research under the first phase of the Trade and Labour Programme, co-hosted by the TASC Platform, World Economic Forum, GIZ Kenya, and Africa Practice.ext goes here
Funders & Partners
This research project and its resulting workshops were made possible by the generous support of Laudes Foundation, and carried out in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.
ABOUT THE LAUDES Foundation
Laudes Foundation supports brave and bold action that inspires and challenges industry to transition to advance a green, fair, and inclusive economy.
Leveraging six generations of entrepreneurship and philanthropy, our team works through partners to address climate change, biodiversity and nature loss, and social inequality.
Laudes Foundation operates as an independent organisation within a wider network of philanthropic entities, uniquely positioned to learn from each other.
the world economic forum trade & investment team
The World Economic Forum Trade and Investment project works with business, governments and civil society on critical trade and investment issues.
To be truly inclusive, trade must actively work for all sections of society. This involves ensuring access to trade benefits and the mitigation of harms to workers and underserved groups, including Indigenous Peoples. The Inclusive Trade project brings together multi-stakeholder communities to realize this vision. It furthers research and dialogue and informs trade policymaking and supply chain practices.