Trade Policy Day 2025

Lexpressed × ELSA

A global youth-driven collaboration exploring what a fair, competitive, and secure EU trade policy means for the next generation.

About the Collaboration

For Trade Policy Day 2025, Lexpressed and ELSA have partnered to launch a global youth-driven publication series exploring what a fair, competitive, and secure EU trade policy means for the next generation. This collaboration brings together voices from five continents, uniting emerging experts in international economic law, global governance, and trade justice.

Guiding Question

“What does a fair, competitive, and secure EU trade policy mean for the next generation?”

Youth Perspectives & Commentary

Cover image for An Indian Perspective on EU Trade Policy
Opinion

An Indian Perspective on EU Trade Policy

India and the EU continue to revisit long-standing points of friction in their trade talks. While the EU prioritises market efficiency and high regulatory standards in labour, environment, data, and sustainability, India places greater emphasis on developmental fairness, policy space, and gradual liberalisation. These structural differences — and the disproportionate compliance burdens created by the EU’s high-standard model — help explain why the 2023 deadline for the India–EU FTA was missed

Pragya Mittal
1 min read •
Cover image for A Chinese Perspective on the WTO
Opinion

A Chinese Perspective on the WTO

Both the EU and China, as WTO Members, share a long-standing commitment to maintaining a rules-based multilateral trading system. Strengthening mutual trust and fairness in their bilateral trade requires keeping the multilateral framework of the WTO firmly in view.

Tianzi Chang
1 min read •
Cover image for Poisoning International Trade
Opinion

Poisoning International Trade

As calls for fair and equitable trade grow louder, a very different reality is taking shape beneath the surface of global commerce. Powerful states are increasingly using coercive “poison pill” clauses to lock smaller economies into their geopolitical orbit, undermining the most fundamental principles of the WTO. This piece exposes how these hidden mechanisms quietly erode non-discrimination, restrict countries’ autonomy and accelerate the fragmentation of the rules-based trading system. It invites readers to confront a crucial question: can fair trade survive if loyalty tests replace legal commitments at the heart of international agreements?

Nikola Grochowska
1 min read •
Cover image for From Fragmentation to Unity: l’union fait la force
Opinion

From Fragmentation to Unity: l’union fait la force

In a world where protectionism is rising and geopolitical tensions reshape global trade, Europe faces a fundamental question: can it remain both strategically autonomous and a fair, principled actor in the global economy? This piece explores how the European Union can navigate these pressures by strengthening its internal unity, defending its interests with credible tools, and maintaining its commitment to openness and cooperation. It invites readers to consider the crucial role that the next generation of European lawyers and citizens must play in shaping a more united, resilient and values driven Europe.

Nick Schamp
1 min read •
Cover image for Environmental Prioritization beyond Sustainable Development
Opinion

Environmental Prioritization beyond Sustainable Development

Can international trade law ever be truly fair, competitive and just if it continues to sideline the environmental crisis unfolding around us? This piece argues that trade rules must place environmental protection at the very top of their priorities, rather than treating it as an optional add-on to economic growth. As the world approaches irreversible climate thresholds, it invites readers to consider how the WTO and the broader trade system must evolve so that global commerce protects, rather than endangers, the planet that makes trade possible at all.

Joshua Tan
1 min read •
Cover image for How can International Trade Law be Shaped to be Fair, Competitive, and Just? The role of the WTO.
Opinion

How can International Trade Law be Shaped to be Fair, Competitive, and Just? The role of the WTO.

Can international trade law ever be genuinely fair, competitive and just, or is the system too entangled in geopolitics, power asymmetries and outdated rules to be reformed? This piece argues that despite deep fractures in the global trading system and growing political intrusion into trade, the WTO remains one of the few institutions capable of restoring balance, reciprocity and legitimacy to world trade. By revisiting the organisation’s original strengths and exploring paths for meaningful reform, it invites readers to consider how multilateral cooperation, rather than power politics, can still shape a more equitable global order.

Iveta Ivanova
1 min read •
Cover image for From Structural Adjustment Programs to Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: Same Poison, Different Bottle
Opinion

From Structural Adjustment Programs to Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: Same Poison, Different Bottle

For decades, global financial institutions have insisted they abandoned the harsh conditionality of Structural Adjustment Programs. But what if the shift from SAPs to Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers was less a transformation than a clever rebranding—the same poison in a different bottle? This piece uncovers how PRSPs quietly preserved the core neoliberal prescriptions that once destabilised entire regions, and asks whether today’s “poverty-reduction” agenda truly supports development or continues to reproduce the very inequalities it claims to solve.

Benancio Rosas
1 min read •
Cover image for Kenya’s Perspective on Fair and Equitable EU Trade Policy
Opinion

Kenya’s Perspective on Fair and Equitable EU Trade Policy

What does a fair EU trade policy look like from Kenya’s perspective? True fairness means equity, not equality: recognising different starting points, allowing asymmetrical liberalisation, and investing in real capacity building rather than imposing uniform obligations. Kenya’s experience with the EPA and the EU’s CBAM shows how well-intentioned policies can still burden countries that contributed least to global problems. As Europe and Africa reshape their trade relationship, young legal minds have a unique opportunity to push for a system where trade supports sustainable development instead of reinforcing old imbalances.

Anthony Mburu
4 min read •

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