From Connectivity to Capability: A Country Perspective from Panama
During the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labor (October 2025), hosted by the TASC Platform and the World Economic Forum Trade and Investment Team, Ms. Sally Bardayan Rivera, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Panama Mission to the WTO highlighted how deeply trade and labour are intertwined in Panama’s national story. From the transformative power of the Panama Canal to the role of skills, services, and logistics in sustaining global trade today, she underscored the need to design trade systems that invest in people and not just in markets.
The Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour forms part of the broader Trade and Labour Programme, a joint initiative of the TASC Platform and the World Economic Foundation, supported by the Laudes Foundation.
The Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour dialogue clearly demonstrates how trade and jobs are not separate conversations, they are one and the same. Every shift in global value chains is experienced first by workers. If we want resilient economies, we need resilient labour markets. The digital transition, artificial intelligence and the green shift are transforming how work is done, so our policy responses must evolve together.
This insight is not new. Over 30 years ago, the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization recognised in its Preamble that trade and economic relations should raise living standards and ensure full employment.
“The link between trade and people was built into the foundation of the multilateral trading system. Our challenge is to make that promise real in today’s economy.”
As underlined in the perspectives shared by fellow country representatives of Switzerland, Kenya, and Bangladesh, and reinforced with examples from Kenya’s digital economy to Indonesia’s green value chains, the trade–labour nexus is evolving rapidly. These experiences remind us that competitiveness and social progress can and should advance together.
Trade Built on Human Capability
Panama’s own experience illustrates how deeply trade and labour are connected. The Panama Canal, an entirely human-made waterway and one of the great engineering wonders of the world, did more than connect two oceans. It transformed our role in the global economy and, in turn, shaped generations of skilled professionals whose work sustains that connectivity. The story of the Canal is also the story of people whose expertise and commitment make global trade possible.
Across our free zones, logistics corridors, ports, digital services and finance sector, it is the capabilities of our workforce that define our competitiveness.
“Strengthening those capabilities, through training, stability and dialogue, is essential to ensuring that trade remains a driver of inclusion and development.”
We have also heard how the trade landscape itself is evolving. While the WTO does not contain comprehensive labour provisions, labour-related commitments are increasingly embedded in bilateral and regional agreements. The ILO is uniquely positioned to support their effective implementation and to ensure that they deliver better outcomes for workers on the ground.
Advancing Trade and Labour Together
Around the world, governments are testing new approaches to integrate labour concerns into trade instruments, through due-diligence requirements or product-related measures that address labour conditions in supply chains. These initiatives reflect growing recognition of the social dimension of trade, but also underline the importance of cooperation and evidence. The ILO’s role in helping identify what truly works. through data, dialogue and experience, will be critical to guiding future efforts.
As Ambassador Sobhan from Bangladesh reminded us, developing countries often face the dual challenge of maintaining competitiveness while meeting rising labour expectations. From Panama’s perspective, it is important to approach this discussion with both openness and balance.
“Developing economies increasingly compete through the quality and efficiency of their workforce. But when new labour commitments are introduced without parallel investment in skills, infrastructure and institutional capacity, they can unintentionally constrain the very development they seek to promote. ”
The objective should be to design labour provisions that empower progress, by supporting productivity, inclusion and sustainable growth, rather than limit opportunity.
Looking ahead, our collective task is to ensure that trade and labour agendas move in tandem, so that economic transformation and human development advance together. Panama remains committed to that goal, and proud to contribute the perspective of a country where trade and people have always been inseparably linked.
The Trade and Labour Programme convenes stakeholders across trade and labour research, policy and practice to examine how economic transitions can deliver more just and inclusive outcomes. Through fieldwork, multistakeholder dialogue, and policy engagement, the programme is building momentum for a global trade system that is socially responsive, economically resilient, and fit for the future of work, and the future of working together.
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