Development and building trade capacity

This volume has been produced under the WTO Chairs Programme (WCP), a WTO capacity-building programme launched upon the initiative of Hakim Ben Hammouda and Patrick Low in 2010. The WCP is jointly managed by the WTO’s Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation and Economic Research and Statistics Division under the direction of Bridget Chilala and Robert Teh, respectively. The editors thank Fatima Chaudhri and Gerardo Thielen for th Read More

La globalización está transformando el desarrollo. Como se examina en la presente sección, por su alcance y rapidez, la expansión reciente del mundo en desarrollo carece de precedentes, deja en segundo plano el ascenso de los países que iniciaron su industrialización tras la segunda guerra mundial y hace parecer raquítico el anterior crecimiento de Europa y América del Norte a finales del siglo XIX. Son muchas las razones por las que el mundo en d Read More

Taking advantage of a new accounting method to decompose GDP production into pure domestic production, traditional trade, simple and complex GVC activities, this chapter examines recent trends in global value chain (GVC) activities across the world. Our main findings show that the pace of GVC activities picked up in 2017 after a period of slow down since 2012; intra-North American and intra-European GVC activities declined relative to inter-region Read More

The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) is a global partnership that facilitates safe, inclusive trade and development outcomes in support of the UN’s 2030 agenda. Established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the World Bank Group (WBG), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the WTO, the STDF promotes improved food safety and animal and plant heal Read More

The role of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards in agri-business has changed over the past decade, from being a technical instrument to avoid the use of food safety, animal and plant health measures for protectionist purposes to being a competitive instrument in differentiated product markets (Reardon et al., 2001). The change from mass markets to differentiated and niche markets for consumers with higher purchasing power triggered this shift to Read More

Lesotho is a landlocked, least-developed economy and a member of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the oldest customs union (CU) in the global economy. Forty per cent of the population lives under the poverty line. The economic base is narrow, reliant on the textiles and apparel industry (for 59 per cent of total exports), subsistence agriculture, remittances, regional customs revenue and a degree of manufacturing. The apparel industry and a Read More

Cette année, le Rapport sur le commerce mondial examine comment le commerce et les autres facteurs de changement façonnent notre monde. Il associe l’analyse des faits contemporains à une réflexion sur l’avenir. L’approche adoptée est éclectique reflétant la multiplicité des forces en jeu. L’interaction de ces forces est multidirectionnelle et complexe, et le changement est rapide

Different aspects of the development process have been emphasized by the many scholars and observers who have ventured into this field. The seminal work of Sen (1999) identifies freedom as both the primary end and principal means of development. The Brundtland Commission stressed that development must involve the care and nurturing of the environment for future generations. Others have focused particularly on poverty reduction and the em Read More

The distinction between formal and informal employment is somewhat fuzzy. Instead of a single, universally accepted concept there are many different and often competing views which are refl ected in a multiplicity of defi nitions. These, in turn, are linked to the plurality of methodologies that are used to quantify informal activities. This chapter presents existing views and defi nitions, as well as an integrated approach which is currently emerging based on t Read More

The relationship between economic growth, poverty reduction, and trade is not a simple one. Although great progress has been made in reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty, due in large part to the rapidly growing participation of developing countries in the global economy, nearly one billion people still live on less than $1.25 per day.

The creative sector is an important source of growth in the global economy, and digital creative trade has increased sharply in recent years and particularly in the context of COVID-19. Digital content is replacing physical goods in the sector, for example, in music, books and gaming. Digital aggregators like Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Spotify, TikTok and YouTube have fuelled rapid growth and diversified earnings towards streaming, ad-supported income a Read More

While Africa’s share of global value-added trade has increased significantly during the past 20 years, connecting African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to value chains and turning the support for greater intra-African trade into a reality remains challenging. Ensuring that the trade discourse is fully integrated into this development story is critical and countries, especially those that have recently acceded, have to be supported to recognise an Read More

Trade can be a powerful engine for development. But harnessing trade for development in Africa requires investment to foster lasting economic transformation. Investment, therefore, is key to unlocking the potential of trade-led growth. While flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Africa paint a familiar picture of the dominance of extractive industries, the reality is more nuanced and promising. The fact that FDI stocks in Africa are geared Read More

Trade plays a critical role in addressing hunger, food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture, contributing to healthy lives and wellbeing, employment and growth.

Digital innovations are transforming the global economy. The decline in search and information costs, rapid growth of new products and markets, and emergence of new players ushered in by digital technologies have the promise of boosting global trade flows, including exports from developing countries. At the same time, digital technologies are also threatening privacy and security worldwide, while developing countries that lack the tools to compete Read More

La tecnología de la cadena de bloques parece sumamente prometedora para impulsar la participación de las mujeres en el comercio internacional. El anonimato y la eficiencia de las cadenas de bloques podrían ayudar a que muchas mujeres, que de lo contrario se verían frenadas por la ley, los hábitos o los elevados costos, puedan participar en transacciones financieras y comerciales. Las cadenas de bloques se pueden utilizar para permitir a las muj Read More

En la sección C se ha puesto de manifiesto cómo pueden influir en el futuro del comercio factores económicos fundamentales como la demografía, la inversión, la tecnología, los recursos naturales, el transporte y las instituciones. De todos modos, el comercio se desarrolla en un contexto socioeconómico más amplio, un contexto que tiene importancia para el comercio y la política comercial. Históricamente, las preocupaciones sociales y macroecon Read More

En el presente estudio se analizan la situación, los desafíos y las oportunidades del comercio electrónico en Mauricio. La proporción de la población que realiza compras en línea era del 14% en 2017, el segundo nivel más alto (después de Libia) en África, debido en gran parte al aumento de la utilización y de la tasa de penetración de Internet, unido al incremento del uso de las tarjetas de crédito y al desarrollo de sistemas seguros de pago en línea. Ma Read More

Bien que les progrès technologiques récents aient été favorables à l’essor du commerce numérique, cette croissance s’est produite en l’absence de règles claires et précises. Cette lacune est devenue problématique pour les pays d’Amérique latine. Des accords régionaux et bilatéraux plus complexes ont fait leur apparition face à l’impasse dans laquelle se trouve le régime commercial multilatéral. L’élaboration d’une réglementation du commerce numériq Read More

A partir del Modelo de Comercio Mundial de la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC), un modelo de equilibrio general computable, recursivo y dinámico, examinamos las posibles repercusiones futuras de las innovaciones tecnológicas, en forma de robotización y uso de la inteligencia artificial, la terciarización del proceso de producción y la disminución de los costos del comercio debido al aumento de los mercados y plataformas en línea en el comercio Read More

Ce troisième ouvrage, «S’adapter à l’ère du commerce numérique : défis et possibilités», préparé sous les auspices du Programme de chaires de l’OMC (PCO), contient des contributions de titulaires de chaires de l’OMC pendant les phases I et II du programme, de membres du Conseil consultatif, de l’équipe du Secrétariat de l’OMC chargée du PCO et de fonctionnaires de l’Organisation, qui ont assuré la relecture de certains chapitres et fait part de leu Read More