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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2025
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, global trade and the rules-based multilateral trading system have experienced unprecedented disruptions and mounting challenges. While COVID-19 is a well-known cause, many other problems are arguably more fundamental and hence likely to have a systemic and enduring impact. One prominent problem concerns the nexus between trade and sustainability. The early 2000s were dominated by ‘trade and … ’ debates that explored the intersection of trade and environmental and social values. Since the mid-2010s, however, that nexus has been increasingly warped through the rise of economic nationalism and (green) industrial policy, the escalation of geopolitics, and strategic competition among major powers, amongst other factors. Cumulatively, these disruptions and challenges have pushed governments to shift their thinking, strategies, priorities, and even their definition of the ‘end goal’ of trade policy. With trade increasingly being viewed as a means rather than the end, resilience, diversification, national security, inclusiveness, and sustainability have become possible end goals of trade policy.
This Introduction is written for the Special Issue “Disruptions and the Reorientation of the Trade Regime: Towards a Trade and Sustainability 2.0?” which Professor Bryan Mercurio and I co-edited. Some text of this Introduction is based on the Call for Papers accessible here: www.cambridge.org/core/journals/world-trade-review/announcements/call-for-papers/wtr-cfp-disruptions-and-the-reorientation-of-the-trade-regime-towards-a-trade-and-sustainability-2-0.
1 For a more detailed discussion of some major challenges facing the global trading system, as intensified by COVID-19, see Zhou, W., Bahri, A., and Boklan, D. (2021) ‘Introduction’, in Bahri, A., Zhou, W., and Boklan, D. (eds.), Rethinking, Repackaging, and Rescuing World Trade Law in the Post-Pandemic Era. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 1–16Google Scholar.
2 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs – Sustainable Development, ‘The 17 Goals’, https://sdgs.un.org/goals.
3 World Trade Organization, ‘The WTO and the Sustainable Development Goals’, www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/coher_e/sdgs_e/sdgs_e.htm.
4 World Trade Organization (2023) ‘World Trade Report 2023: Re-globalization for a Secure, Inclusive and Sustainable Future’, Geneva: WTO, at 7, www.wto.org/english/res_e/publications_e/wtr23_e.htm.
5 Ibid., at 21–22.
6 See e.g., Crochet, V. and Zhou, W. (2024) ‘Critical Insecurities? The European Union's Strategy for a Stable Supply of Minerals’, Journal of International Economic Law 27(1), 147CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 See further H. Gao, W. Zhou, and V. Crochet, ‘Critical Minerals Initiatives for Green Supply Chains: How Multilateralism Can Help?’, Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (15 March 2024), https://tessforum.org/latest/critical-minerals-initiatives-for-green-supply-chains-how-multilateralism-can-help.
8 See further S. Feingold (2025) ‘A Plurilateral Approach: 3 Experts Detail How to Revive Global Cooperation’, World Economic Forum (7 January 2025), www.weforum.org/stories/2025/01/global-cooperation-stalled-experts-deepen-collaboration/.