Development and building trade capacity

The multilateral trading system overseen by the WTO has contributed significantly to the unprecedented economic development that has taken place over the last decades across the world. Trade has allowed many developing countries to benefit from the opportunities created by emerging new markets by enabling them to integrate into the world market through global value chains. Moreover, the unbiased, predictable and non-discriminatory regime Read More

This section discusses a number of the WTO’s features which help underpin development and explain their economic rationale. It is divided into four subsections. The first one illustrates how the WTO has been useful in helping developing countries take advantage of and manage the challenges arising from the four trends portrayed in the previous sections. The second subsection discusses, from an economic perspective, the role that commitments a Read More

El comercio electrónico está creciendo rápidamente en la Argentina y el Brasil, y en ambos países la proporción de la población que participa en transacciones de comercio electrónico supera el promedio latinoamericano. Los dos países han establecido un marco jurídico para la protección de datos, la reglamentación de Internet, la protección de los consumidores, la fiscalidad del comercio electrónico y los contratos y las firmas electrónicas. La Read More

Depuis sa création, le système commercial international a été modelé conformément à des principes conjugués au pragmatisme. Les relations commerciales ne peuvent pas être déterminées seulement sur la base de principes simples et inviolés définis et convenus d’entrée de jeu. Des considérations pratiques, des questions politiques et les expressions particulières de l’intérêt national contribuent inévitablement à déterminer les positions prises par les go Read More

La section C a montré comment des facteurs économiques fondamentaux – démographie, investissement, technologie, ressources naturelles, transports et institutions – peuvent agir sur l’évolution du commerce. Celui-ci s’insère toutefois dans un contexte socioéconomique plus large, qui entre en ligne de compte pour le commerce et les politiques commerciales. Historiquement, les problèmes sociaux et macroéconomiques ont influencé à maintes reprises l Read More

This is a critical year in the world’s collaborative effort to end global poverty and boost the incomes of the poorest. We will endorse the Sustainable Development Goals, develop a plan for financing for development, and reach for a landmark agreement to mitigate and adapt to climate change. If we are to end extreme poverty by 2030, we must do all we can in this final push to raise the incomes of the extreme poor. The Role of Trade in Ending Po Read More

Tax rates on e-commerce in Russia should remain moderate, given the small size of its digital trade operations (so the rise in tax revenues from higher rates would be small) and substantial growth prospects (so future tax revenues from a developed sector could be quite large). The Russian Federation’s (Russia’s) taxation of e-commerce activities presents two important challenges. First, consumer goods purchased directly from foreign online sellers enjoy si Read More

Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa, with a GDP in excess of US$ 500 billion, dependent on oil and gas exports for the bulk of government revenues as well as foreign exchange. Its growth – which averaged about 7 per cent in the decade between 2005 and 2014 – has in recent years been driven by the non-oil sectors: services, agriculture and manufacturing. The principal challenge for the President Buhari administration, which took office in May 2015 Read More

There are different ways to analyze the global economy. One is to view it through the lens of growth and structural change in individual economies, developed and developing. A second is to use the lens of global value chains (GVCs), the complex network structure of flows of goods, services, capital and technology across national borders. Both are useful and they are complementary to one another.

E-commerce is growing rapidly in Argentina and Brazil, and in both countries the share of the population participating in e-commerce transactions exceeds the Latin American average. Both countries have established a legal framework for data protection, regulation of the internet, consumer protection, taxation of e-commerce, and contracts and e-signatures. Argentina and Brazil also have submitted proposals for negotiations over the treatment of e-com Read More

Indonesia has been regarded as one of the success stories of developing countries escaping the resource curse (Rosser, 2004; 2007). In many developing countries, instead of becoming a source of economic growth, abundant natural resources have been associated with stagnant growth, a condition known as the resource curse or the paradox of plenty. As argued by Sachs and Warner (1997), economies with abundant natural resources have tended to Read More

This section describes the increased synchronization and spread of macroeconomic shocks in the last few years after what appeared to be a general moderation of volatility. It examines the role of global value chains in the transmission of macroeconomic shocks and looks at how export structures influence volatility. It describes how the economic crisis spread from developed to developing countries and how a coordinated response helped to limit the Read More

Over the past decades, trade flows have become increasingly global. Today, South- South trade represents around one-half of global trade and the top ranks of major traders are not exclusively occupied by industrialized countries (OECD, 2010). Trade now spans all major world regions and continues to grow within and across those regions. Trade also takes new forms as trade in goods is increasingly accompanied by trade in tasks. Capital flows more freely ac Read More

Un objetivo fundamental de la OMC es promover el desarrollo económico mediante una participación efectiva en el comercio mundial. En lo que respecta a la cuestión de cómo pueden los países en desarrollo derivar mayores beneficios de su participación en el sistema de comercio, tienen pertinencia tres aspectos de la estructura y las normas de la OMC. En primer lugar, las normas propiamente dichas, junto con las excepciones e interpretaciones Read More

More than two-thirds of world trade occurs through global value chains (GVCs), in which production crosses at least one border, and typically many borders, before final assembly. The phenomenal growth in GVC-related trade has translated into significant economic growth in many countries across the globe over the last two decades, fueled by reductions in transportation and communication costs and declining trade barriers. But, at the same time, it has c Read More

La présente étude s’intéresse à la situation actuelle du commerce électronique à Maurice, ainsi qu’aux défis et aux possibilités qu’il présente. En 2017, la part de la population qui réalisait des achats en ligne était de 14%, le deuxième taux le plus élevé en Afrique (derrière la Libye), ce qui découlait en grande partie de l’augmentation de l’utilisation et de la pénétration d’Internet, associée à l’utilisation accrue des cartes de crédit et au développement de systè Read More

El crecimiento del comercio mundial se redujo al 2,0% en 2012 — frente al 5,2% registrado en 2011 —, y mantuvo un ritmo lento durante los primeros meses de 2013 a causa de la reducción de la demanda mundial de importaciones asociada a la desaceleración económica europea. La abrupta desaceleración del comercio en 2012 se ha atribuido principalmente al lento crecimiento de las economías desarrolladas y los repetidos episodios de incertidumbre a Read More

This section discusses the challenges and opportunities of commodity-based growth and development strategies in relatively high but volatile pricing environments. It first provides an overview of historical price developments in agriculture and natural resources. It then goes on to analyse how developing countries have been able to leverage agricultural and natural resource export potential in this high-price environment to underpin their developm Read More

African trade is heavily concentrated in agricultural and natural resourcebased commodities, sectors that are highly embedded in international value chains. There has been significant trade dynamism in recent years, driven by greater participation by African firms and communities in value chains, especially in products like fresh produce and flowers. Much of this trade and production is for end markets in Europe, but there is also increasing trade of this t Read More

The WTO is central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which set targets to be achieved by 2030 in areas such as poverty reduction, health, education and the environment. The SDGs put significant emphasis on the role that trade plays in promoting sustainable development and recognize the contribution that the WTO can make to the 2030 Agenda.

Les prévisions à long terme sont toujours difficiles. On n’aurait probablement pas pu prévoir avec certitude, il y a 20 ans, des phénomènes « révolutionnaires » comme l’explosion des systèmes de communication et de l’interactivité qui façonnent aujourd’hui notre vie quotidienne, des réseaux sociaux à l’externalisation internationale. L’on peut certes s’appuyer dans une large mesure sur des extrapolations des tendances actuelles, pour tenter de Read More