WTO system needs reforms to tackle challenges stemming from global economic dynamics and confrontational issues, including market-distorting policies and the status of development. WTO must also be better aligned with the goal of supporting sustainable development, including ending harmful fisheries subsidies, overcoming poverty, and contributing to carbon neutrality. Trade delivers not only growth, but also sustainable development, and WTO is central to achieving 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

G20 Declarations have called for substantial action to address rising inequality, sustainability of global value chains, transition to low-carbon economy, and tackling the implications of COVID-19 on global trade patterns.

Panel aims to discuss how sustainable development policies become more reconcilable with free and open trade and the objectives of the WTO, how could sustainable development goals be better embedded in WTO reform process, and what role the G20 should play to reinvigorate the centricity of the WTO, in line with the SDGs.