TRADE Hub Discussion Papers -

NEW - TRADE AND NATURE DISCUSSION PAPERS

Taking responsibility for supply chain impacts: who, why and how?

DISCUSSION PAPER 2022

This paper discusses what the role of supply chain actors, such as retailers, financiers and traders, should be in addressing production-level sustainability impacts.

International Trade for Good or Bad

DISCUSSION PAPER 2021

Whether trade is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for our societies and the environment has been a topic of ongoing debate. This brief is a simple overview of some of the costs and benefits associated with trade, and why it is an important subject.

Better data is necessary, but not sufficient, to enable sustainable trade

DISCUSSION PAPER 2021

Global economies increasingly depend upon international trade to deliver their goods and services. In recent years, there has been an explosion of information and data that should – in theory – help to unpack the complexity of global supply chains. This brief shows how supply chain actors and policy makers have a large role to play as ‘info-mediaries’ who enable information disclosure, supporting the development of monitoring and assessment frameworks into which these data solutions can feed.

What do we need to make trade more socially sustainable within exporting countries?

DISCUSSION PAPER 2021

The development of global agricultural value chains has been widely promoted as an economic development strategy in recent years. However useful for GDP growth, the intensification of production and global trade has imposed a heavy burden on the planet and people, with negative impacts such as deforestation and associated increase in carbon emissions, violation of human rights and impoverishment of rural livelihoods. This article highlights one framework to understand the social impacts of trade, underlines how mainstream value-chain approaches have a limited effectiveness, and calls for a better coordination on the delivery of global sustainable development goals.