The World Trade Review (WTR) invites submissions for a special issue on “Disruptions and the Reorientation of the Trade Regime: Towards a Trade and Sustainability 2.0? ”

Trade is no longer simply about efficiencies and comparative advantage. Trade patterns and relationships, and the trading system more generally, are undergoing systemic changes due to disruptions brought about by climate change, trade frictions and the return of economic nationalism and power politics, and the COVID-19 pandemic. These disruptions have forced industry and 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 ends, resilience, diversification, national security, inclusiveness and sustainability have become possible end goals of trade policy.

This special issue will explore whether recent disruptions (including COVID, War, Nationalism, Climate) have prompted a reorientation of trade policy towards sustainable development as dominant paradigm. On the one hand, the WTO is reorienting its priorities by focusing more on how trade can be used to achieve broader goals of economic development and sustainability. The recently concluded Fisheries Subsidies Agreement and Informal Dialogue on Plastics Pollution are examples of the WTO’s pivot to a new trade and sustainability narrative. On the other hand, the extent to which sustainability may compete with or be subordinated to other policy objectives such as national security, fair competition, efficiency or diversification concerns remain to be further explored. While trade policy is changing, the jury is still out what objectives will come to dominate trade policy. Will recent disruptions simply give rise to a more strategic trade policy with shifting policy objectives or will the trade regime encode sustainability more profoundly in its DNA?

The WTR invites academic analysis from legal, political, and economic perspectives on how disruptions have changed trade, trade narratives and trade institution in relation to sustainable development using climate change, labour and health, the energy transition or sustainability in the global value chains as possible case studies. We are interested in receiving submissions that assess the extent to which sustainable development has emerged from recent disruptions as dominant goal of trade policy, how it relates to other competing objectives and how possible trade-offs are resolved. Submissions should clearly identify the disruption at issue, how it is changing the way governments, industry or the trading system behave, manage or view trade as a result and what role sustainable development does or does not play in the newly emerging trade architecture.

The special editors for this issue, Professor Bryan Mercurio (Chinese University of Hong Kong) and Associate Professor Weihuan Zhou (University of New South Wales) invite submissions that are limited to a maximum of 14,000 words, including notes and references.

Prospective authors should submit their work by 15 August directly to b.mercurio@cuhk.edu.hk (and not through the WTR submission portal) with the subject heading “Submission: WTR Special Issue”. Submissions will be peer-reviewed like all other submissions to the journal but the editors will also consider theme, fit and coherence in selecting articles for the issue. The editors are happy to respond to questions from prospective authors but unfortunately cannot review or comment on draft articles prior to submission.