Lecture Abstract

A healthy environment is critical for the wellbeing of people everywhere, while trade generates prosperity and resilience. How do we ensure that these goals support each other? What opportunities exist to align trade and economic prosperity with environmental sustainability? How can partnerships help countries seize the trade opportunities from more sustainable production and consumption? This seminar will discuss the newly launched WTO-UN Environment publication “Making Trade Work for the Environment, Prosperity and Resilience”, and consider trade approaches to accelerate the transition to a greener future as well as the scaling up of sustainable business solutions. It will discuss how the removal of trade barriers can help disseminate environmental technologies, contribute to resource efficiency, generate economies of scale for green goods and improve coherence between trade and environment policies.

About the Speaker

Lim Aik Hoe is Director of the Trade and Environment Division at the World Trade Organization in charge of its work on trade and environment at the WTO, as well as on the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. Prior to that, he was Counsellor in the Trade in Services Division and Secretary to the Working Group on Domestic Regulation. He has served as Counsellor to two consecutive WTO Director-Generals (2001-2005) and was also Adviser to the Director General’s Consultative Group on “The Future of the WTO”. He has also been Secretary to various WTO committees and negotiating bodies. Before joining the WTO in 1999, he was a Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the G-15 Summit Level Group of Developing Countries. He has also been a consultant on development and labour policies to the International Labour Organization and has worked in the field of urban environmental regeneration. His recent publications include contributions to the “Research Handbook on Climate Change and Trade Law” (2017); and “Win-Win: How International Trade Can Help Meet the Sustainable Development Goals” (2017).