On 21 October 2025, the FGV Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on EU–South America Global Governance, co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme, in partnership with the FGV Centre for Global Law (CPDG), hosted a CPDG Research Seminar entitled “Towards Sustainable Trade Governance: Examining Dispute Settlement in the EU’s FTAs with Sustainability Provisions.”

The seminar opened with remarks by Professor Paula Wojcikiewicz Almeida, Director of the CPDG and CEJM, who introduced the Centre’s ongoing research on trade, sustainability, and international economic governance. Researcher Pedro Henrique Ortman then presented a preliminary version of the article “Towards Sustainable Trade Governance: Examining Dispute Settlement in the EU’s FTAs with Sustainability Provisions,” currently under development by CPDG researchers. The presentation examined the interaction between international trade and sustainability through the Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapters of European Union Free Trade Agreements, focusing on the effectiveness of dispute settlement mechanisms in promoting and enforcing sustainability commitments.

Professor Daniel Damasio (University of São Paulo) served as discussant, providing detailed comments on the draft article. His remarks emphasized the importance of distinguishing labour commitments from environmental commitments within TSD chapters and explored the differences between soft and hard approaches to dispute settlement in trade and sustainable development agreements, offering valuable suggestions for strengthening the research.

The seminar concluded with a moderated discussion led by Professor Paula Wojcikiewicz Almeida, followed by an engaging Q&A session with CPDG and CEJM researchers and members of the audience, fostering further debate on the future of sustainable trade governance and the implementation of sustainability obligations in international trade agreements.