A new report launched by the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund and World Bank is calling for a greater trade integration in the hope it can convince WTO members of the relevance of trade relationships when it comes to lifting global living standards and cutting poverty.
There have been a number of calls in recent weeks for a reform of the WTO in the hope it creates a more efficient system that allows fairer trade to take place – the most recent of which being from the US, EU and Japan, following China’s failure to adhere to the rules of reporting to the WTO members when it extended subsidies to domestic industry.
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While China and the US are currently engaged in a tariff war. The WTO last week warned of the impact of escalating trade tensions and advised a lower global trade forecast for the remainder of 2018 and 2019 on the back of this.
The Reinvigorating Trade and Inclusive Growth report, published on 30 September, urges the importance of maintaining global trade, adding it is a “powerful force” for more inclusive growth, which includes lowering poverty and opening up opportunities for smaller firms, farmers, fisherman and women.
The report suggests the status of women in Bangladesh has significantly improved as trade opportunities with global partners have opened up. This is particularly true of the apparel sector.
“The garment industry has created the rise of financially independent and successful women in Bangladesh and is responsible for a dramatic shift in paradigm for Bangladeshi society,” research in the report reads.
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By GlobalData“The growth of global and regional supply chain trade, such as in apparel and assembled goods, has been a strong source of employment for women in developing countries,” it adds.
The report acknowledges current trade tensions may have stemmed from “issues that have been left unresolved on the negotiating table for too long” and that WTO members “recognise that improvements are necessary for many areas of trade policy to keep up with the evolving needs of their economies and their people”.
The tripartite report urges “greater openness” in areas such as digital technologies and foreign direct investment, adding that market access for goods and regulatory cooperation would “promote competition, lift productivity and raise living standards.
It calls for revamped rules to address the growth of e-commerce along with investment and services trade in the 21st century, and the need for plurilateral talks to help unblock trade negotiations that have failed to advance at the multilateral level.
“The urgent challenge is to harness the unique strength of the WTO to tackle the key trade issues of today, using the most effective approaches available,” the bodies said in the report. “The slow pace of reforms since the early 2000s, fundamental changes in a more interconnected modern economy, and the risk of trade policy reversals call for urgency to reinvigorate trade policy reforms.”
