Development and building trade capacity
Avant-propos
Les services sont devenus la force motrice qui détermine le paysage économique des pays de tout niveau de développement. Ils constituent la majeure partie de l'activité économique mondiale avec plus des deux tiers du PIB emploient la plupart des travailleurs et sont la source de la plupart des créations d'emplois notamment chez les femmes et les jeunes. Parallèlement le commerce des services est devenu un élément essentiel des stratégies de croissance apparaissant comme la composante la plus dynamique du commerce mondial au cours de la période récente et créant des emplois à plus forte valeur ajoutée.
Prólogo
Los servicios se han convertido en la fuerza impulsora que está configurando el panorama económico de los países en todos los niveles de desarrollo. Representan la mayor proporción de la actividad económica mundial al generar más de dos tercios del PIB emplean a la mayoría de los trabajadores y son la fuente más grande de creación de empleo especialmente para las mujeres y los jóvenes. Al mismo tiempo el comercio de servicios se ha convertido en un elemento clave de las estrategias de crecimiento al transformarse en el componente más dinámico del comercio mundial en los últimos tiempos y al crear puestos de trabajo de mayor valor añadido.
Acknowledgments / Disclaimer
This publication received guidance from Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang and from Yuvan Beedjadhur of the Office of the Director-General. Preparation of the publication was a joint effort across several divisions of the WTO.
Gender equality, trade and the World Trade Organization
Scientific research reaffirms the importance of making trade gender inclusive and demonstrates that accelerating the gender responsiveness of trade policies improves gender equality in trade supports poverty reduction and fosters sustainable growth.
Entrepreneurial responses to COVID-19: gender, digitalization and adaptive capacity
Women entrepreneurs were hit disproportionately hard by the COVID-19 pandemic as their firms are generally younger smaller and concentrated in industry sectors affected the most by economic shutdowns. However very little research has addressed the ways in which women-led firms navigated these challenges. In this study we investigate the ways in which women entrepreneurs adapted to the business repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular we focus on the implementation of digital tools as a viable instrument for building adaptive capacity.
Assessing the potential of trade policy reform for closing gender wage gaps
On average female workers receive a lower wage than male workers. In this chapter we analyse the potential contribution of trade policy reform to a reduction in this gender wage gap. We first establish four stylized facts: (i) tariffs are on average higher in more female labour-intensive sectors; (ii) trade costs are on average larger in female labour-intensive services than in goods; (iii) services trade restrictiveness is higher in more female labour-intensive services; (iv) trade costs associated with the need for face-to-face interaction are larger in female labour-intensive sectors.
Gender mainstreaming in trade agreements: “A Potemkin Façade”?
The distributional outcomes of trade agreements have historically been uneven creating both “losers” and “winners” and benefiting certain stakeholders while leaving others without benefits or even with negative repercussions. In particular distributional outcomes can vary between women and men since they play different roles in society markets and economies and they enjoy different opportunities as well. At times and sometimes by their very nature trade agreements can restrict opportunities for women and further increase the gender divide. But in recent years there has been a drastic upsurge in the number of countries that are incorporating commitments on gender equality in their trade agreements.
Annex
This annex provides a comprehensive but non-exhaustive list of quality infrastructure elements for green hydrogen (GH2) that should be implemented according to an Expert Survey for IRENA’s ongoing project “Quality Infrastructure for Green Hydrogen: technical standards and quality control for the production and trade of renewable hydrogen”.
Acknowledgements/Abbreviations
This publication has been prepared under the overall guidance of Aik Hoe Lim of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Roland Roesch of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).