[Event Information]
GSDM 76th Platform Seminar
International Symposium on “Private Standards and Global Governance: Prospects and Challenges”
12th Dec, 2016 13:00 – 17:00
(Ishibashi Memorial Hall, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo)
1 OUTLINE
| DATE | : | 12 December 2016 (Mon), 13:00 – 17:00 |
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| VENUE | : | Ishibashi Memorial Hall, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 Japan Please refer to access map at [https://sites.google.com/site/utacsorg2015/access] |
| LANGUAGE | : | English |
| ADMISSION | : | Pre-registration is required. Please register from here |
| HOSTED BY | : | Global Leaders Program for Social Design and Management (GSDM), University of Tokyo |
| ASSENTED BY | : | Institute for International Studies and Training (IIST) |
2 BACKGROUND AND ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED
In the global marketplace of today, private firms, business associations and NGOs set standards addressing social issues such as environment protection and resource conservation, labor conditions, human rights protection and food safety, and they implement them by making the accreditation with such standards as conditions for the purchase and procurement of goods and services. These standards, coined as “private standards”, are playing an important role of global governance, as they promote tackling with social issues throughout the whole global supply chains and complementing domestic regulations of countries comprising the global supply chains. On the other hand, with the rapid increase of private standards, which results in occasional fragmentation of standards, compliance cost of private standards are soaring, to the detriment of, in particular, small-scale producers in developing countries. Accordingly, private standards present us challenges of global governance under which we should aim at addressing global social issues while enhancing fair and inclusive global supply chains.
The symposium will focus on the challenges of global governance arising from the rapid increase of private standards. Experts of international relations, international economics and international economic law will discuss the prospects and challenges of private standards for the governance of global economy and social issues.
3 PANELISTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
| 1) | Yuka FUKUNAGA (Professor, School of Social Sciences, Waseda University) |
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| 2) | Masahiro KAWAI (Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo) |
| 3) | Kazumochi KOMETANI (Counsel, Nishimura & Asahi; Professor, School of Law, Hosei University, Japan) |
| 4) | Akihiko Tamura (Consulting Fellow, Research Institute on Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI); Deputy Director-General for Trade Policy, Trade Policy Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan) |
| 5) | Colette van der Ven (Associate, Sidley Austin, LL.P) |
| 6) | Vera Thorstensen (Professor, School of Economics, Head of the Center on Global Trade and Investments, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Sao Paulo, Brazil) |
4 PROGRAM
| 13:00 | Introduction to the symposium and the panelists Junji Nakagawa (Professor, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo) |
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| 13:15 | Session 1: Regulating private standards: Challenges and possibilities Panelists: Vera Thorstensen, “Coherence and convergence in the regulation of TBT, SPS and VSS: Challenges ahead”; Yuka Fukunaga, “Limits of Code of Good Practice under TBT Agreement Annex 3”; Kazumochi Kometani, “Private standards and competition law”; Download Moderator: Junji Nakagawa |
| 15:00 | Break |
| 15:20 | Session 2: Private standards and global governance: prospects and challenges Panelists: Masahiro Kawai, “Private standards and public policy”; Download Colette van der Ven, “Private Standards in the Context of SMEs Looking to Export to High Value Agricultural Markets”; Commentator: Akihiko Tamura Moderator: Junji Nakagawa |
| 16:45 |
Wrapping up and acknowledgments Junji Nakagawa |