In a keynote address delivered to the “Rethinking World Trade 2023” conference held at Georgetown Law School in Washington D.C. on 13 April, Deputy Director-General Anabel González highlighted the importance of a strong, revitalized and reformed WTO to bring more people, businesses and communities from the margins into the mainstream of the global economy.
“More inclusive trade means a world trading system that is more adaptable and resilient, that enjoys broad-based support and that is relevant to the real-life challenges of our time,” she said.
“Making trade more inclusive is not just morally right, it is also in everyone's economic self-interest,” DDG González said, adding that “WTO members already have a practical, pragmatic and powerful tool to make trade more diversified, markets less concentrated, and economies more resilient — it is called the Trade Facilitation Agreement.”
The Agreement, which entered into force in 2017, contains provisions for expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit. It also contains provisions for technical assistance and capacity building to assist developing and least developed countries in implementing the Agreement.
Noting that the Trade Facilitation Agreement's implementation has boosted trade by more than USD 230 billion over the past few years, DDG González said that “accelerating the adoption of trade-facilitative measures, including the digitization of border procedures, will ensure that more small and women-owned businesses in more countries can reap the benefits of trade.”
She added that “this work needs to go hand-in-hand with meaningful steps to narrow the USD 1.7 trillion annual trade financing gap, which remains a major hurdle to achieve inclusive trade.”
DDG González called on governments to work together to bring trade policies, regulations and standards up to speed with the reality of the globalized services and digital economies.
“Rapidly growing services trade, especially services delivered through digital means, is already resulting in major gains for female and young workers and entrepreneurs, as well as small businesses,” she said. “Joining services value chains has huge potential to open up opportunities for scale, innovation and export diversification, especially for poor, vulnerable and landlocked countries,” she added.
DDG González said that “there can be no inclusive trade without a fair climate transition and there can be no fair climate transition without globally integrated markets.”
