Development and building trade capacity

Entrepreneurs operate within a broad ecosystem, which enables them to access different types of support when needed – from financial and logistical to emotional. The ability to tap into available resources in an entrepreneurial ecosystem is particularly important for those embarking on an internationalization strategy, such as exporting, given its many complexities. However, many women entrepreneurs, both aspiring and active exporters, feel discrimin Read More

The increasing trend of the inclusion of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment concerns in the negotiation of trade agreements creates a need to strengthen informed dialogue between the public and private sectors. Trade negotiators are often not aware of the specific barriers faced by women in their various economic roles, and as a result, face a challenge in promoting provisions that will successfully address these barriers. At the same Read More

The COVID-19 pandemic caused challenges to public health systems and disruptions in international trade and society. This chapter will highlight the role of regional governance in complementing international governance in responding to global crises and addressing gender issues. The discussion concentrates on the Asia-Pacific region, including responses by individual economies and the regional organizations the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Read More

La presente publicación es fruto del esfuerzo conjunto del Banco Mundial y de la OMC. Fue escrita y coordinada por Martin Roy de la OMC y Pierre Sauvé del Banco Mundial, bajo la supervisión de la Directora General Adjunta Anabel González y Xiaolin Chai, Directora de la División de Comercio de Servicios e Inversión, en la OMC, y Mona Haddad, Directora Mundial de Comercio, Inversión y Competitividad, y Sebastien Dessus, Gerente de Prácticas, Com Read More

La composición del comercio mundial de servicios ha cambiado notablemente en los últimos años, y se ha observado que en ese período las economías en desarrollo registraron un importante aumento de las exportaciones en el sector de los servicios, a pesar de los graves efectos de la pandemia de COVID-19. Ese aumento abarca un conjunto de servicios no tradicionales de alto valor añadido, que pueden prestarse hoy en día más fácilmente a través de Read More

Esta publicación conjunta del Banco Mundial y la OMC está motivada por la opinión compartida de que es necesario prestar mayor atención a las políticas y renovar la cooperación internacional en vista de los cambios estructurales relacionados con una economía mundial más centrada en los servicios, y la contribución fundamental que el aumento del comercio y la inversión en el sector de los servicios puede hacer al crecimiento económico y el des Read More

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 conv Read More

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.

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 n Read More

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”.

Green hydrogen has a number of uses. It can be used directly as an energy carrier and chemical input in multiple end-use applications. It can also be combined with a sustainable carbon source or with nitrogen, to produce derivative compounds such as methanol or ammonia, which can be used as feedstock for chemical production (e.g., plastics and fertilizers) or as sustainable fuels.

The WTO’s 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13), which took place earlier this year in Abu Dhabi, reaffirmed the international community’s shared commitment to promote inclusive and sustainable development through trade. Aid for Trade remains a critical element of our collective commitment to ensuring that the benefits of trade are shared more widely, particularly with developing economies and least-developed countries (LDCs).

This publication was prepared by Visvanathan Subramaniam (Economic Affairs Officer, WTO) and Michael Roberts (Head of the Aid for Trade Unit of the Development Division, WTO), under the supervision of Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang and Taufiqur Rahman, Director of the Development Division. The publication was edited and reviewed by Anthony Martin and Helen Swain of the Information and External Relations Division.

The Aid for Trade initiative, led by the WTO, grew out of the 2005 WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Conference. Its aim is to help developing economies integrate into world trade by mobilizing additional development support to address supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure constraints in these economies. In 2006, the Task Force on Aid for Trade was constituted by the WTO Director-General to report to the General Council with recommen Read More

Energy generation infrastructure has long been identified by Aid for Trade stakeholders as requiring additional, predictable and sustainable financing to enable developing economies and LDCs to participate more fully in international trade. The energy sector is one of the largest recipients of Aid for Trade support, accounting for nearly 25 per cent of all disbursements (US$ 116 billion) over the 2010-21 period.

Aid for Trade seeks to enable developing economies, and in particular least-developed countries (LDCs), to use trade as a means of fostering economic growth, sustainable development and poverty reduction. It promotes the integration of developing economies, especially LDCs, into the multilateral trading system and aims to galvanize support to build supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure in these economies to improve trade performance.

WTO members are frequently referred to as “countries”, although some members are not countries in the usual sense of the word but are officially “customs territories”.

Over the past 30 years, the world has witnessed a period of unprecedented income convergence, accompanied by a steep reduction in poverty, but inequality remains high.

The World Trade Report 2024 was prepared under the general responsibility and guidance of Johanna Hill, WTO Deputy Director-General, and Ralph Ossa, Director of the Economic Research and Statistics Division. Director-General Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Chief of Staff Bright Okogu and Trineesh Biswas from the Office of the Director-General provided valuable advice and guidance.

Trade has raised aggregate welfare and reduced poverty without necessarily raising inequality in many economies, but the impact of trade is more complex for individuals. People may benefit from cheaper prices, larger variety and export opportunities, but they may also face increased competition and may, therefore, either gain or lose from trade. This chapter reviews why, although most people gain from trade, some suffer losses. These losses can b Read More

The World Trade Report 2024 was prepared under the general responsibility and guidance of Johanna Hill, WTO Deputy Director-General, and Ralph Ossa, Director of the Economic Research and Statistics Division. Director-General Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Chief of Staff Bright Okogu and Trineesh Biswas from the Office of the Director-General provided valuable advice and guidance.

The mission of the World Trade Organization, as set out in the preamble to its founding Marrakesh Agreement, is to use trade as a means to raise living standards, create jobs and promote sustainable development. As we mark the WTO’s 30th anniversary, it is clear that members have used the open and predictable global economy anchored in WTO rules and norms to accelerate growth and development, with enormous positive impacts for human Read More

Global trade is often accused of creating a more unequal world, but in fact the opposite is happening. Billions of people in developing economies are catching up to the more advanced economies, as millions of people in the advanced economies continue to move ahead. This global economic convergence is only possible because the world has become more open and integrated – expanding access to new markets, new technologies and new models for ach Read More

The past quarter of a century has witnessed an unprecedented level of income convergence, accompanied by the integration of many developing economies into global markets. Despite this, some economies have been left behind. This chapter discusses how the participation of developing economies in global trade and investment flows can accelerate structural transformation and enhance productivity growth, thereby helping lowand middle-income eco Read More

Over the past 30 years, the world has witnessed a period of unprecedented income convergence, accompanied by a steep reduction in poverty, but inequality remains high.

Le 31 mai 2000, l’Organe d’appel a publié son rapport sur l’affaire “Canada - Certaines mesures affectant l’industrie automobile”.

On 3 July 1998, Japan requested consultations with Canada in respect of measures being taken by Canada in the automotive industry. Japan contended that under Canadian legislation implementing an automotive products agreement (Auto Pact) between the US and Canada, only a limited number of motor vehicle manufacturers are eligible to import vehicles into Canada duty free and to distribute the motor vehicles in Canada at the wholesale and retail distr Read More

This paper examines empirically whether Aid for Trade (AfT) programmes and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows affect export upgrading and, if so, whether their effects are complementary or substitutable. Export upgrading entails export diversification (including overall export diversification, as well as diversification at the intensive and at the extensive margins) and export quality improvement. The empirical analysis shows that total AfT flows ha Read More

Bangladesh's international image is not as a popular tourism destination, and many people might be surprised to learn it has three World Heritage sites, including the Sundarbans tiger reserves. Moreover, it is part of important travel circuits for cultural and religious tourism, and has demonstrated potential for sports tourism. The objective of this working paper is to critically test the assertion that pro-poor "green" tourism is one of the best development o Read More

In September 2015, Heads of State and Government will gather in New York to agree the post-2015 development agenda. The role that trade will play in this agenda is neither clear, nor agreed. Yet an open, non-discriminatory, rules-based multilateral trading system underpins sustainable development - a concept that lies at the core of much of the post-2015 debate to date. Indeed, sustainable development is recognized as an objective in the Marrakesh Agr Read More

The aim of this paper is to analyse developing countries’ participation so far in the current round of services negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda. The paper analyses developing countries’ negotiating positions, as evidenced by their multilateral negotiating proposals; their initial offers; and, to the extent allowed by the incomplete and sketchy information available, their participation in bilateral market access negotiations. A number of ba Read More