Economic research and trade policy analysis

Global value chains (GVCs) have become ubiquitous. The literature that attempts to understand and explain GVCs is vast, multidisciplinary and no less complex than the phenomenon itself. This volume is an ambitious attempt at a fairly comprehensive review of literature on the subject.

The annual World Trade Report focuses on trade policy issues - the core topic addressed in 2006 is subsidies. The Report also takes a look at recent trade developments and examines a range of trade topics, including trade in textiles and clothing, flows of international receipts and payments of royalties and license fees, trends in the trade of least-developed countries, and the impact of natural disasters and terrorist acts on international trade flows. Th Read More

The World Trade Report 2010 focuses on trade in natural resources, such as fuels, forestry, mining and fisheries. The Report examines the characteristics of trade in natural resources, the policy choices available to governments and the role of international cooperation, particularly of the WTO, in the proper management of trade in this sector. A key question is to what extent countries gain from open trade in natural resources. Some of the issues exa Read More

Trade multilateralism in the twenty-first-century century faces a serious test as weakness in the global economy and fast-paced technological changes create a challenging environment for world trade. This book examines how an updated and robust, rules-based multilateral framework, anchored in the WTO, remains indispensable to maximizing the benefits of global economic integration and to reviving world trade. By examining recent accessions to th Read More

Trade has always been shaped by technology but the rapid development of digital technologies in recent times has the potential to transform international trade profoundly in the years to come. The World Trade Report 2018 examines how digital technologies – and in particular the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, 3D printing and Blockchain – affect trade costs, the nature of what is traded and the composition of trade. It estimates how global tra Read More

On the basis of an overview of the existing academic economic literature, the study provides an impartial view of what can be said, and with what degree of confidence, on the relationship between trade and employment, an often contentious issue of public debate. Its focus is on the connections between trade policies, and labour and social policies and it will be useful to all those who are interested in this debate: academics and policy-makers, workers an Read More

The theme of this year’s Report is “Trade in a Globalizing World”. The Report provides a reminder of what we know about the gains from international trade and highlights the challenges arising from higher levels of integration. It addresses a range of interlinking questions, starting with a consideration of what constitutes globalization, what drives it, what benefits does it bring, what challenges does it pose and what role does trade play in this world of eve Read More

Regional trade agreements (RTAs) have proliferated around the world in the past two decades, and now nearly all members of the WTO are party to at least one. Besides tariffs and rules of origin regulating trade in goods, many RTAs now include provisions on services, investments, technical barriers to trade and competition rules, as well as a host of issues not directly related to trade. The geographic reach of RTAs is expanding, with transcontinental agree Read More

A collection of papers by some of the world’s leading specialists on global value chains (GVCs). It examines how GVCs have evolved and the challenges they face in a rapidly changing world. The approach is multidisciplinary, with contributions from economists, political scientists, supply chain management specialists, practitioners and policymakers.

En la era digital, son cada vez más los gobiernos que han adoptado políticas encaminadas a impulsar el crecimiento por medio de la innovación y la modernización tecnológica. En el Informe sobre el comercio mundial 2020 se examinan esas tendencias y el papel que desempeñan el comercio y la OMC en este contexto. Un rasgo definitorio de las políticas gubernamentales adoptadas en los últimos años ha sido su apoyo a la transición a la economía Read More

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalization in all sectors, including international trade, which remains hindered by inefficient paper-intensive processes. Of particular interest for trade digitalization are projects leveraging distributed ledger technology (DLT) – commonly referred to as Blockchain. The tamper-proof and decentralized nature of DLT makes it useful for breaking the silos that constrain international trade. Many projects that were at Read More

En el Informe sobre el comercio mundial 2017 se examina cómo afectan la tecnología y el comercio al empleo y los salarios. Se analizan las dificultades a que se enfrentan los trabajadores y las empresas para ajustarse a los cambios en los mercados de trabajo y la manera en que los Gobiernos pueden facilitar ese ajuste para que el comercio y la tecnología sean inclusivos.

For many micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) around the world today, access to financing can mean the difference between prosperity and bankruptcy. Working to identify, understand, and ultimately overcome the challenges that MSMEs face in their quest for acquiring financing will help to ensure that the next great technological idea does not cease to exist before it has a chance to change the world. This publication seeks to identify some o Read More

The COVID-19 pandemic and the prospect of increasingly frequent and more intense natural and man-made disasters raise important questions about the resilience of the global economy to such shocks. The World Trade Report 2021 explores the basic, binary assumption driving much of the current debate about economic resilience, namely the inherent trade-off between global trade interdependence and national economic security, and suggests th Read More

Este diccionario es una guía accesible al vocabulario empleado en las negociaciones comerciales. En él se explican unos 3.000 términos y conceptos en un lenguaje sencillo. Se dedica especial atención al sistema multilateral de comercio, representado por los acuerdos de la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC). El diccionario abarca, además, muchas de las actividades, resultados y términos relacionados con el comercio utilizados en otras organiza Read More

So-called disruptive technologies, such as blockchain, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and machine learning, have the potential to transform border management and the conduct of international trade. This publication explores how these advanced technologies can be used to improve the efficiency of Customs processes and to ease the flow of goods across borders.

Technological change has transformed the ways knowledge is developed and shared internationally. Accordingly, in the quarter-century since the WTO was established, and since its Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights came into force, both the knowledge dimension of trade and the functioning of the IP system have been radically transformed. The need to understand and respond to this change has placed knowledge at th Read More

A joint publication on “Trade Finance in West Africa” was launched by Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and International Finance Corporation (IFC) Managing Director Makhtar Diop on 12 October in Washington DC. Using the results of a survey of banks in the four largest economies of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) — Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal — the publication assesses the shortfall in trade finance Read More

Las denominadas tecnologías disruptivas, como la cadena de bloques, la Internet de las cosas, la inteligencia artificial y el aprendizaje automático, pueden transformar la gestión de las fronteras y el desarrollo del comercio internacional. En esta publicación se examina cómo pueden utilizarse esas tecnologías avanzadas para mejorar la eficiencia de los trámites aduaneros y facilitar la circulación de mercancías a través de las fronteras.

This note examines how the war in Ukraine has affected global trade. It looks at how exports from Russia and Ukraine have evolved over the past year. It then analyses how countries highly dependent on Russian or Ukrainian exports of agricultural and primary goods have responded to the crisis, and how prices and trade in goods greatly affected by the war have developed. These impacts reveal the repercussions of the war for developing economies and Read More

«L’Examen statistique du commerce mondial» étudie les évolutions récentes du commerce mondial et examine en profondeur les échanges et qui sont les acteurs importants. Les chapitres analytiques sont complétés par plus de 65 tableaux qui détaillent les marchandises et services échangés et les principaux exportateurs et importateurs.

The WTO’s “Global Trade Outlook and Statistics” analyses recent global trade developments up to the fourth quarter of 2022 and presents the organization’s forecasts for world trade in 2023 and 2024. Breakdowns of merchandise and commercial services trade by sector and region are provided, together with details on leading traders. The report is timed to coincide with the release of the WTO’s latest quarterly and annual trade statistics, which can be d Read More

Les "Perspectives du commerce mondial et statistiques" de l'OMC analyse l'évolution récente du commerce mondial jusqu'au quatrième trimestre de 2022 et présente les prévisions de l'OMC concernant le commerce mondial pour 2023 et 2024. Il contient des ventilations du commerce des marchandises et du commerce des services commerciaux par secteur et par région, ainsi que des renseignements détaillés concernant les principaux pays commerç Read More

La pandemia de COVID-19 ha expuesto las ventajas e inconvenientes que supone el comercio internacional de bienes y servicios médicos. El comercio abierto puede aumentar el acceso a los servicios y bienes médicos –y los insumos esenciales necesarios para fabricarlos– mejorar la calidad y la variedad y reducir los costos. Sin embargo, una concentración excesiva de la producción, la adopción de políticas comerciales restrictivas, las perturbaciones Read More

Il est essentiel de traiter de manière constructive les subventions dans le commerce mondial pour atteindre l'objectif des dirigeants du G-20 qui consiste à réformer et à renforcer le système commercial multilatéral. Le recours croissant à des subventions ayant un effet de distorsion modifie les courants d'échanges et d'investissements, affaiblit la valeur des consolidations tarifaires et des autres engagements en matière d'accès aux marchés, et éb Read More