In all, the pandemic has highlighted a range of challenges and gaps in our trade regime rules. It made clear that times of crisis are not the right times for trying to manage complex issues. Instead, it makes more sense to try to agree on likely steps that can be taken and on coordination mechanisms in advance of the next disaster. Fortunately, the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) has already put together a great set of materials to help close the gaps. There is a handbook, online course materials, and a group of resource documents. But perhaps most important for trade officials, there is also a model chapter on trade in times of crisis that deserves to be widely inserted into ongoing regional trade agreements. This short chapter, about a dozen pages, would help during the next disruption by providing a consistent framework for working together with members. It does not address all avenues of trade disruption shown through the Covid-19 pandemic, including subsidies, but it does consider carefully key weaknesses of existing processes and attempt to provide greater clarity around allowable steps to resolve and manage crisis situations. It provides useful precision about what situations might trigger the use of the chapter provisions, helps define essential goods and services, addresses realistic challenges to trade facilitation, and provides the outline of an institutional structure to be utilized in times of crisis. Although the chapter, prepared by Runqiu Du and originally drafted by Tracey Epps, Danae Wheeler and Georgia Whelan, could be easily inserted into FTAs across the region without change, it might also be modified to better suit the specific needs and interests of members.
