Desarrollo y creación de capacidad comercial

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 time, the private sector is often not equipped to communicate its needs to a policy audience and identify the ways in which it can inform the negotiation processes with its information and experience. This gap can be bridged with the help of an institutionalized and structured dialogue between public and private, and international organizations can provide the required institutional and structural support. The public–private coordination and exchange can also help countries – particularly developing countries – overcome the capacity gap in trade negotiations as they can benefit from the inputs coming from the private sector and experts.

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) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The findings show that policy measures responding to the pandemic are progressing dynamically. While policies are primarily concerned with the strength of public health systems and the stability of economic and social situations initially, they will focus on answering specific groups’ needs, including women’s challenges, at a later stage. Besides, comparing the actions between ASEAN and APEC indicates the difference in the governance approach to the trade and gender nexus; that is, the human rights-based versus the economic and technical cooperation (ECOTECH)-oriented approaches. Accordingly, this chapter argues that policy priority and institutional structure are crucial elements behind the diversity of regional governance on gender issues in the Asia Pacific. Finally, it suggests that the experiences of Asia-Pacific regional governance facilitate the understanding of dimensional and cross-cutting gender issues and provide insights into international governance of the trade and gender nexus.

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, Comercio e Integración Regional, en el Banco Mundial. La publicación fue editada por Ross McRae y Anthony Martin, de la OMC.

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 medios digitales.

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 desarrollo. Un objetivo importante de la publicación, y una razón fundamental de su naturaleza conjunta, es recordar los beneficios de hacer avanzar el programa de negociación sobre el comercio de servicios, y los costos de oportunidad de no hacerlo. En consecuencia, la publicación tiene por objeto fomentar la reflexión sobre la mejor manera de movilizar ayuda adicional —y mejor asistencia— para que las economías en desarrollo y las menos adelantadas apliquen las reformas del sector de los servicios y obtengan los beneficios para el desarrollo derivados de la expansión del comercio y la inversión en servicios.

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 convertido en un elemento clave de las estrategias de crecimiento al transformarse en el componente más dinámico del comercio mundial en los últimos tiempos y al crear puestos de trabajo de mayor valor añadido.

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 recommendations on how to operationalize Aid for Trade.

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.

Never before have the living conditions and prospects of so many people changed so dramatically in the space of a few decades.

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 well-being. At the same time, many people and places have not shared adequately in these gains.

The World Trade Report has been prepared under the responsibility of the WTO Secretariat. It does not necessarily reflect the positions or opinions of WTO members and it is without prejudice to their rights and obligations under the WTO agreements.

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 nature, trade agreements can restrict opportunities for women and further increase the gender divide. But in recent years, there has been a drastic upsurge in the number of countries that are incorporating commitments on gender equality in their trade agreements.

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 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 Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA Agreement), which has been signed by 54 out of the 55 African countries, seeks to create a single continental market for goods and services and facilitate the free movement of people on the continent thereby enhancing the competitiveness of intra-African trade and boosting intra-African trade. This will generate employment and improve the welfare of mostly young men and women on the continent. However, whilst the AfCFTA Agreement, under Article 3(e), emphasizes that one of the general objectives of the AfCFTA is to promote gender equality, experiences in other African regional economic communities have proven that gender and gender equality have not been adequately mainstreamed in implementing free trade areas, which has resulted in gender inequalities in international trade and commerce. As a result of this, the majority of women have been left marginalized in trade and faced with serious challenges in accessing opportunities created by regional trade agreements.

Recently, the understanding that enhanced intra-regional trade among African countries could be a powerful tool in accelerating economic growth, development and poverty reduction on the continent has led African leaders to place considerable importance on regional integration (Brenton et al., 2013). However, tapping into the benefits of intra-African trade requires careful attention to inclusivity issues in ensuring both men and women benefit and participate equally in regional economic integration (Bussolo and and De Hoyos, 2009). The decision by African heads of state to negotiate a separate Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade under the newly implemented African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement reaffirms the belief that improving women’s access to opportunities and removing barriers to their participation in international economies contributes to economic development.

This chapter discusses how the multilateral trading system has helped some economies to take advantage of trade to further their development, but has not succeeded in helping others to harness trade for growth and considers what could be done to ensure that the WTO leaves no economy behind. It also examines the effect of the WTO on how the benefits of trade are shared out within economies, and discusses how the WTO and trade can be made more inclusive for people and firms. Finally, the chapter outlines the areas in which work at the WTO could be coordinated with work at other international organizations to help make trade more inclusive, such as by enhancing infrastructure and digital connectivity to bridge the digital gap or by ensuring coherence between trade and environmental policies.

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 be aggravated by distortions and barriers, such as mobility costs or monopolies, that tend to impact more vulnerable groups disproportionately, and may prevent them from adjusting to import competition and accessing export opportunities. The chapter also examines why using restrictive trade policy to redistribute gains from trade is often unsuccessful and can have unintended consequences, such as retaliation by trade partners. In contrast, domestic policies, such as education and social protection, are more effective in addressing inequality. Their importance is likely to grow as the digital revolution, climate change and geopolitics continue to shape the distributional impacts of trade.

Never before have the living conditions and prospects of so many people changed so dramatically in the space of a few decades.

The publication Best Practices in WTO Accession for Arab Countries was prepared by Hamid Mamdouh and Dr. Linda Kassem, lead experts under the general responsibility and guidance of Maika Oshikawa, Director of the Accessions Division, World Trade Organization (WTO); May Ali Babiker, Director of the Cooperation and Capacity Development Department, Islamic Development Bank (IsDB); Mamoudou Sall, Assistant Director General of the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT); Dr. Jaleleddine Rejeb, Director of the Economics Department, Arab Monetary Fund (AMF).

The importance of international trade as an engine for economic growth and development across the developing world continues to increase.

El 31 de mayo de 2000, el Órgano de Apelación hizo público el informe sobre el caso “Canadá - Determinadas medidas que afectan a la industria del automóvil”.