Development and building trade capacity

Low- and middle-income countries face supply-side constraints such as technical capacities, adequate hard infrastructure capacities, human capital (above all knowhow), access to adequate credit, and access to environmental goods and services that affect their capacity to address climate change and other environmental issues. This chapter discusses how the existing framework of international economic law may constrain the ability of low- or middle Read More

Le présent chapitre analyse le potentiel que représentent les activités de commerce électronique en Afrique. La croissance rapide de la pénétration d’Internet et de l’utilisation de la téléphonie mobile, ainsi que l’adoption d’innovations mobiles qui ont fortement stimulé l’inclusion financière et encouragé le recours au paiement électronique, ont établi une base solide pour le développement du commerce électronique sur le continent. En revanche, les Read More

Using the World Trade Organization (WTO) Global Trade Model (GTM), a recursive, dynamic computable general equilibrium model, we examine the potential future impact of technological innovations, in the form of robotization and use of artificial intelligence (AI), servicification of the production process, and falling trade costs due to the rise of online markets and platforms on the trade of developing countries. The simulations show that technological ch Read More

«Les données sont le nouveau pétrole». Tout comme le pétrole, qui a fait tourner l’économie au cours du siècle dernier, les données sont le moteur du monde d’aujourd’hui. Cela est d’autant plus vrai pour le commerce international. Le rôle crucial que jouent les données est perceptible à toutes les étapes du processus, de la conception d’un nouveau produit à l’approvisionnement en matières premières et en pièces, en passant par le processus de fabri Read More

Many developing and least-developed countries (LDCs) remain on the margins of global trade, attract limited foreign or domestic investment, and have achieved only very limited success in the diversification of their supply of goods and services. Within the framework of Aid for Trade (AFT), attempts are being made to explore strategies to connect firms in developing countries and LDCs to international value chains. The World Trade Organization (WTO) h Read More

At the Fourth World Trade Organization Ministerial Meeting held in Doha in November 2001, Ministers launched a comprehensive set of multilateral trade negotiations and a work programme. This mandate is sometimes referred to as the Doha Development Agenda, reflecting a shared desire to ensure that the trading system is relevant and responsive to the needs of developing countries. Among the areas covered by the negotiations or the work progra Read More

Le commerce électronique a connu une croissance rapide au Kenya, grâce aux lois régissant les services liés aux technologies de l’information et des communications (TIC), les transactions électroniques, la protection des données et l’accès à l’information. Les pouvoirs publics ont mis en place des guichets uniques pour la fourniture de services publics aux citoyens et pour la logistique commerciale. Le pays a les moyens de développer son commerce Read More

Industrialization is one of the cardinal priorities for economies in dynamic transformation from a commodity base to a diversified value-added development stage. In major African economies, as in other economies worldwide, industrial policy is resurgent and back at the centre of economic policy. The sectors in focus revolve around manufacturing, textiles and clothing, footwear, automobiles, infrastructure, information technology products, petrochemical Read More

En la primera sección del Informe sobre el Comercio Mundial, 2004, se examinan la evolución reciente de la estructura, el valor y el volumen del comercio internacional de bienes y servicios, y las perspectivas del comercio para 2004. Se analizan también las preferencias no recíprocas, el movimiento internacional de personas proveedoras de servicios, y las indicaciones geográficas. En la segunda sección se examina el tema de la coherencia de Read More

El sector creativo es una fuente importante de crecimiento en la economía mundial, y el comercio creativo digital ha aumentado considerablemente en los últimos años, en particular en el contexto de la COVID-19. Los contenidos digitales están sustituyendo a los bienes físicos en el sector, por ejemplo, en el terreno de la música, los libros y los juegos. Los agregadores digitales como Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Spotify, TikTok y YouTube han impulsado un rá Read More

En este informe se ha pasado revista a una amplia gama de cuestiones. En el Resumen Ejecutivo que figura al comienzo del Informe se describen a grandes rasgos los principales temas tratados y las conclusiones formuladas. Un Informe de esta índole debe limitarse a bosquejar cuestiones complejas y basarse en gran medida en la labor analítica más detallada de muchos investigadores. En el texto se hace referencia a esa labor. Muchas de las cuestiones e Read More

Over the past 20 years, international trade has undergone major changes. One main factor leading to these changes has been the unprecedented pace of technological innovation, which is transforming the traditional way of conducting trade. Supported by increasingly fast and efficient technology, e-commerce has been growing at significant rates. While global trade growth continues to be slow, e-commerce was valued at US$ 22.1 trillion in 2015, a 38% i Read More

At the request of the Group of Least-Developed Countries (LDC Group), the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization, with the support of the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), undertook a project to assess the trade-related implications of graduation from LDC status, in particular the impacts it may have on market access currently enjoyed by the LDCs, as well as their participation in the WTO. This study summarizes those impacts and looks at optio Read More

As detailed in this report, open global trade has had positive effects for African industrialization and development. Efforts must continue to help developing countries and Africa build capacity and to take fuller advantage of the benefits that trade brings. Recently, faced with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of these efforts have been challenged and the developmental gains of recent years put in question.

This chapter analyses the potential for e-commerce activities in Africa. The rapid growth of internet penetration and the use of mobile telephony, along with the adoption of mobile innovations that have greatly boosted financial inclusion and encouraged reliance on electronic payment, have established a strong basis for e-commerce development on the continent. On the other hand, still-low banking rates, fragile laws and regulations governing the sector, Read More

Le commerce international s’est repris en 2002, après le recul enregistré l’année précédente, augmentant d’environ 2,5 pour cent en volume, soit plus vite que la production mondiale. Ce redressement s’est opéré malgré la faiblesse de la reprise économique mondiale, la forte compression des flux de capitaux, les amples fluctuations des taux de change, les restrictions plus sévères imposées sur les transactions commerciales internationales pour limiter l Read More

La mondialisation est en train de transformer le développement. Par son ampleur et sa rapidité, l’essor récent du monde en développement est sans précédent, éclipsant celui des nouveaux pays industrialisés après la Seconde Guerre mondiale et celui de l’Europe et de l’Amérique du Nord à la fin du XIXe siècle. De nombreux facteurs expliquent le décollage économique du monde en développement. L’un des plus importants est son intégration dans Read More

Dans cette section, il sera question de la synchronisation et de la propagation accrues des chocs macroéconomiques au cours des dernières années, après ce qui semblait être une modération générale de la volatilité. Elle examine le rôle des chaînes de valeur mondiales dans la transmission des chocs macroéconomiques et la façon dont les structures d’exportation influent sur la volatilité. Elle décrit comment la crise économique s’est propagée Read More

This report on the “trade impacts of LDC graduation” responds to a specific request from the LDC Group in the WTO for an analysis of how graduating from LDC status will impact countries’ trade relations. LDCs are accorded special treatment in the WTO, in particular with regard to enhanced market access opportunities and policy flexibilities. Therefore, it is important to ascertain how the loss of such treatment will impact graduating LDCs. The issue h Read More

Morocco’s membership of the GATT and WTO has been part of an overall strategy of the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco, at the instigation of the late King Hassan II, to introduce a package of institutional and socio-economic reforms, which sought mainly to modify and diversify the structure of the national economy, optimize the allocation of its resources and ensure its integration into the world economy. Being a Member of the Multilateral Tr Read More

The emergence of global value chains – whereby goods that used to be produced within one country are now fragmented and distributed across global networks of production – has offered developing countries new opportunities to integrate into the global economy. This has also had fundamental impacts for workers in developing countries. The chapter shows that higher earnings and employment within sectors and firms is associated with GVC integrat Read More

An underlying objective of the WTO is to promote economic development through effective participation in world trade. Three aspects of the WTO’s structure and rules are relevant to the question of how developing countries can derive greater benefits from participation in the trading system. First, the rules themselves, together with permitted exceptions and interpretations, are the foundation of the system and play a key part in determining the condi Read More

Trade liberalization has been a key component of economic development and transformation in the global economy since the middle of the last century and is a leading force in fostering globalization and connectivity in the twenty-first century. Trade reform has been on the agenda of African economies, first under the IMF-supported structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s and the early 1990s, and subsequently pursued within the multilateral le Read More