Work plan 2022-2024: The Inclusive Trade Action Group

The objective for the years 2022-2024 was to deepen the work in the important areas that have been already worked upon and to explore new ones. Objectives two and three from the 2020-2022 work plan (below) were expanded upon, specifically:

1. Sharing experiences and best practices to develop inclusive trade provisions on trade and gender, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), labour, environment, trade and Indigenous Peoples and to promote their use in bilateral, regional, and multilateral negotiations:
   • Webinar for sharing experiences and best practices on trade and SMEs provisions.
2. Resume the meetings of ITAG caucus at the World Trade Organization (WTO):
   • Committed to working together to hold an annual ITAG event at the WTO public forum.
   • Holding activities on the margins of or through the Informal Working Groups on Trade and Gender or trade and SMEs.
3. SMEs and Responsible Business Conduct: Challenges and opportunities:
   • Webinar sharing experiences and best practices on standards, guidelines and principles of Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) that have been endorsed, supported, or observed by the ITAG members. SMEs face specific challenges and opportunities in implementing RBC standards.
4. Other points of engagement of 2020-2022 that were continued in Workplan 2022-2024:
   • ITAG expansion: Engaging with other potential ITAG members amongst the CPTPP and APEC membership, as well as engaging with other potentially like-minded WTO Members outside CPTPP and APEC.
   • Global Trade and Gender Arrangement (GTAGA) promotion: Promoting the Arrangement and increase the number of signatories.
   • Three Year Review: Examining the effectiveness of the CPTPP Agreement with respect to sustainable development, gender, Indigenous Peoples, domestic regional economic development, SMEs, labour rights, the environment and climate change as it pertained to theThree Year Review.