Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we live, work, produce and trade. As it further develops, AI is expected to unlock unprecedented economic and societal opportunities. However, it is also a source of significant risks and challenges. This report examines the intersection of AI and international trade. It discusses how AI may shape the future of international trade by reducing trade costs, improving productivity and expanding economies' comparative advantages. The report reviews some key trade policy considerations, in particular the urgent need to address the growing AI divide between economies and between large and small firms, as well as data governance and intellectual property issues. It examines how to guarantee the trustworthiness of AI without hindering trade. The report also provides an overview of domestic, regional and international government initiatives to promote and regulate AI, and highlights the resulting risk of regulatory fragmentation. Finally, the report discusses the critical role of the WTO in facilitating AI-related trade, ensuring trustworthy AI and addressing emerging trade tensions, noting that the rapid evolution of AI is prompting questions about the implications of AI for international trade rules.

Over the past seven decades, since the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was established in 1947, there has been a phenomenal increase in international trade in goods, largely due to sustained efforts by the world’s main trading nations to reduce and eliminate tariff barriers in a multilaterally orchestrated manner. This publication reviews how the procedures and practices relating to tariff negotiations and renegotiations have evolved over this time. In particular, this new edition recounts how negotiations to expand the duty-free coverage of the Information Technology Agreement were concluded and provides an account of tariff renegotiations regarding successive enlargements of the European Union. It also covers tariff negotiations for the accession of a number of new members to the WTO, such as China and Russia. This book will be of particular interest to negotiators, members of government, trade ministries, economists and academics specialized in trade policy.

WTO members have notified over 25,000 draft regulatory measures to the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee over the past 20 years, covering imports ranging from food to medical devices. Over 470 of these measures have undergone detailed scrutiny by WTO members in the TBT Committee. But only a handful of these issues have resulted in formal disputes, proving the effectiveness of the committee process. This brochure, produced to mark the WTO’s 20th anniversary, looks into the TBT Agreement and the work of the TBT committee.

Asia’s economic success over the past four decades has been built on a strategy of export promotion coupled with trade opening. Poverty rates throughout the region have fallen dramatically, especially in countries that have succeeded in integrating into regional or global value chains. However, this economic success has been accompanied by structural changes, such as the need for workers to change roles, sectors, and sometimes regions. Faced with increased foreign competition, firms have been forced to reorganize and quickly adopt new technologies. Despite the importance of this adjustment process, relatively little empirical evidence exists. This volume aims to close this gap by providing new insights into how Asia’s labor markets and firms have adjusted to trade opening. Written by leading trade economists with expertise in the region, the publication shows that trade opening has led to a more efficient allocation of capital and labor, but this has been accompanied by significant adjustment costs. The book sheds light on the effects of trade on workers and firms, with the aim of improving understanding of the adjustment process and contributing to the debate on how to make globalization work for all.

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 and employers, trade and labour specialists.

Developed to assist public understanding of the trade and environment debate in the WTO, this document briefly presents its history and focuses on trade and environment related issues within the Doha mandate, the effects of trade liberalization on the environment, the relationship between multilateral environmental agreements and the WTO, and a review of trade disputes involving environmental issues.

Global trade has contributed strongly to reducing poverty but important challenges remain in making trade work for the poorest. This publication presents eight case studies to reveal how trade can help to reduce poverty in developing countries. It focuses on four constraints faced by the extremely poor – namely that they tend to live in rural areas, work in the informal sector, live in fragile and conflict-affected regions and face gender inequality. The case studies identify ways to overcome these constraints, including through the adoption of policies that maximize the contribution of trade to poverty reduction. The studies also highlight the ongoing gaps in data and research that constrain policy-making. The publication is a follow-up to The Role of Trade in Ending Poverty, co-published by the WTO and the World Bank in 2015, which examined the challenges the poor face in benefiting from trade opportunities. The country-specific approach of this new publication complements the global perspective of the previous report.

Over the past 20 years, global trade in goods has nearly quadrupled, reaching US$ 19 trillion in 2013 compared with US$ 5 trillion in 1996. This represents an annual growth rate of 7.6 per cent on average. Over the same period, there has been a 15 per cent reduction in average tariffs applied by WTO members. This brochure, produced to mark the WTO’s 20th anniversary, looks at the evolution of trade and tariffs over the past 20 years.

The Trade Facilitation Agreement is the first multilateral trade agreement to be concluded since the WTO was established 20 years ago. Once it enters into force, the Agreement is expected to reduce total trade costs by more than 14 per cent for low-income countries and more than 13 per cent for upper middle-income countries by streamlining the flow of trade across borders. This brochure, produced to mark the WTO’s 20th anniversary, looks into the provisions of the Agreement and its potential benefits.

The availability of trade finance has become an increasingly important issue in the past few years. As international banks have become less willing to provide trade finance guarantees, particularly in developing countries, this has reduced the capacity of local banks to provide credit to businesses wishing to trade, leading to a significant gap between the demand and supply of trade finance. Small and medium-sized enterprises have been especially hard-hit by this trade finance gap. This publication delves into the global trade finance gap and the reasons for the growing reluctance of the global financial sector to engage in this form of financing. It examines the challenges of regulatory compliance and describes the efforts of international organizations, such as the World Trade Organization and the International Finance Corporation, to respond to this issue. It also presents case studies of the capacity-building programmes organized by multilateral development banks which aim to improve the availability of trade finance.