Economic research and trade policy analysis
The Benefits Of Taking Part
Part I described the system of food standards and trade rules created by members for members. With such a system in place, what is then required to keep it working and fit for purpose? And how can members take advantage of the benefits it has to offer?
Conclusion
This Report has ranged widely. The Executive Summary attached to the beginning of the Report outlines the main areas covered and observations made. A report of this nature is itself a summary of complex issues and has to rely heavily on the more detailed and analytical work of others. References have been made in the text to this work. Many of the issues addressed here are “moving targets”, particularly where governments are constantly exercising policy options that exert an influence on outcomes and where WTO Members are actively engaged in a major trade negotiation.
The role of services in global value chains
The intangibility of services makes them analytically and statistically elusive. Systematic efforts to deepen our understanding of the economic role played by services – particularly at the international level – have only occurred in the last thirty years. These efforts have intensified recently with the increased presence of global value chains, where services fulfill a vital and complex role.
Le rôle du commerce et de la politique commerciale dans le processus de développement
Depuis sa création, le système commercial international a été modelé conformément à des principes conjugués au pragmatisme. Les relations commerciales ne peuvent pas être déterminées seulement sur la base de principes simples et inviolés définis et convenus d’entrée de jeu. Des considérations pratiques, des questions politiques et les expressions particulières de l’intérêt national contribuent inévitablement à déterminer les positions prises par les gouvernements. Certains commentateurs font allusion à cette réalité lorsqu’ils évoquent, à propos d’une mesure ou d’une approche adoptée par des pouvoirs publics, «de la mauvaise économie mais de la bonne politique». Cependant, la solidité et le succès historique du système commercial multilatéral reposent, en grande partie, sur la volonté des gouvernements de s’engager a priori en faveur d’un ensemble de principes et de règles étayés par des arrangements contraignants concernant le règlement des différends commerciaux.
Globalization and within-country income inequality
Since the 1980s many developed and developing countries have experienced increases in within-country inequality. The growing income gap has coincided with the period of increasing exposure of countries to globalization through increased flows of goods, services, capital and labour across international borders. These developments have instigated a large debate in the academic and policy circles as to whether globalization is responsible for the growing inequality within countries.
Standardization initiatives
A crucial step towards end-to-end trade digitalization is creating an ecosystem that allows for seamless exchanges of data between existing platforms. This requires developing and implementing globally accepted digital standards for trade. As these initiatives play a crucial role in shaping the landscape within which each DLT-in-trade project operates, standardization initiatives have been included in more detail in this updated version. To this end, these initiatives will be separated into standalone sections with a corresponding tables and each project will be examined more deeply.
Les ressources naturelles: Définitions, structure des échanges et mondialisation
Cette section donne un aperçu général du rôle du commerce des ressources naturelles dans l’économie mondiale. Elle commence par un examen des définitions et de la terminologie, en mettant l’accent sur les principales caractéristiques qui distinguent les ressources naturelles des autres types de marchandises faisant l’objet d’échanges. Ces caractéristiques sont notamment le caractère épuisable des ressources naturelles, leur répartition géographique inégale, la présence d’externalités liées aux retombées de l’extraction et de l’utilisation des ressources naturelles, la prédominance du secteur des ressources naturelles dans de nombreuses économies nationales et la forte volatilité des prix de cette catégorie de marchandises. Diverses données statistiques concernant les ressources naturelles sont ensuite présentées pour montrer l’importance et l’orientation des flux commerciaux.
Acknowledgements and disclaimer
The World Trade Report 2021 was prepared under the general responsibility and guidance of Anabel González, WTO Deputy Director-General, and Robert Koopman, Director of the Economic Research and Statistics Division. The report was coordinated by Eddy Bekkers and José-Antonio Monteiro. The authors of the report are Marc Auboin, Marc Bacchetta, Francesco Bellelli, Cosimo Beverelli, Eddy Bekkers, Emmanuelle Ganne, John Hancock, Katharina Laengle, Kathryn Lundquist, José-Antonio Monteiro, Roberta Piermartini, Yves Renouf, Victor Stolzenburg and Ankai Xu (Economic Research and Statistics Division).
Resumen ejecutivo
En la primera sección del Informe sobre el Comercio Mundial, 2004, se examinan la evolución reciente de la estructura, el valor y el volumen del comercio internacional de bienes y servicios, y las perspectivas del comercio para 2004. Se analizan también las preferencias no recíprocas, el movimiento internacional de personas proveedoras de servicios, y las indicaciones geográficas. En la segunda sección se examina el tema de la coherencia de las políticas, subrayando la importancia de las políticas nacionales complementarias para que la liberalización del comercio pueda reportar mayores beneficios a la sociedad. Se centra en cuatro importantes esferas de la formulación de las políticas económicas: i) macroeconomía; ii) situación en materia de infraestructura y servicios de infraestructura, en particular en esferas estrechamente relacionadas con las actividades comerciales (transporte, telecomunicaciones, servicios financieros y servicios prestados a las empresas); iii) estructura de los mercados, haciendo especial hincapié en el nivel de competencia y la existencia de externalidades (factores externos); y iv) calidad de las instituciones. En la última parte de esta segunda sección del Informe se estudia la dimensión internacional de la coherencia y se determina la función de la cooperación internacional en apoyo de la formulación de políticas coherentes a nivel nacional, especialmente en la esfera de la política comercial.
Technical notes
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”. The definition of geographical and other groupings in this report does not imply an expression of opinion by the WTO Secretariat concerning the status of any country or territory, the delimitation of its frontiers, nor the rights and obligations of any WTO member in respect of WTO agreements. The colours, boundaries, denominations and classifications in the maps of the publication do not imply, on the part of the WTO, any judgement on the legal or other status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of any boundary.
Natural resources, international cooperation and trade regulation
This section discusses international regulation of trade in natural resources. It starts with an overview of the legal framework of the WTO and briefly addresses how natural resources fit within this. Rather than attempt an exhaustive treatment of every WTO rule that may have a bearing on trade in natural resources, this section sets out the rules that have particular relevance for this kind of trade, and considers whether, and to what extent, these rules respond to the salient characteristics of natural resource sectors. This section also presents a selection of international agreements that regulate trade in natural resources and discusses their relationship with WTO disciplines. It ends by focusing on a number of issues in this sector that appear to be of actual or potential relevance to international cooperation and to the multilateral trading system.
Executive summary
International trade is integral to the process of globalization. Over many years, governments in most countries have increasingly opened their economies to international trade, whether through the multilateral trading system, increased regional cooperation or as part of domestic reform programmes. Trade and globalization more generally have brought enormous benefits to many countries and citizens. Trade has allowed nations to benefit from specialization and economies to produce at a more efficient scale. It has raised productivity, supported the spread of knowledge and new technologies, and enriched the range of choices available to consumers. But deeper integration into the world economy has not always proved popular, nor have the benefits of trade and globalization necessarily reached all sections of society. Trade scepticism is on the rise in certain quarters, and the purpose of this year’s core topic of the World Trade Report, entitled “Trade in a Globalizing World”, is to remind ourselves of what we know about the gains from international trade and the challenges arising from higher levels of integration.
What role for international cooperation on services trade policy?
Trade in services continues to evolve. Technology and regulatory reforms are driving a fundamental transformation, creating new demand while simultaneously helping to reduce trade costs and opening further opportunities to trade services. Under the impetus of global value chains, demographic trends, rising per capita incomes in emerging markets and environmental concerns, demand for foreign-supplied services is on the rise. The evolving avenues, actors and composition of services trade increase its potential to contribute to inclusive economic growth and development, but also present a number of challenges that need to be addressed to fulfil this potential.
Foreword
The World Trade Report is a new annual publication produced by the WTO Secretariat. Each year, the WTR will explore trends in world trade and highlight important issues in the world trading system. In addition to monitoring and interpreting trade developments, the Report seeks to deepen public understanding of pressing policy issues. The WTR does not pretend to provide comprehensive answers to complex and many-sided questions subject to continuing debate among governments and their constituencies. Rather, by explaining the origin of issues and offering an analytical framework within which to address them, the WTR aims to contribute to more informed discussion and a better appreciation of the options available to address policy challenges.
Los aspectos económicos de las normas y el comercio
Vivimos en un mundo firmemente basado en normas de productos. Es posible enviar un fax a cualquier lugar del mundo porque los aparatos de fax obedecen a un protocolo común. Es posible compartir archivos informáticos porque los ordenadores utilizan modelos normalizados de equipo y programas informáticos. La necesidad de normas de productos no es nueva. Ya en tiempos bíblicos, la falta de un idioma común (normalizado) hizo estragos en la Torre de Babel (Shapiro, 2000). En tiempos más recientes, durante el gran incendio de Baltimore de 1904, los bomberos que acudieron de ciudades vecinas no pudieron luchar contra el fuego de manera eficaz porque sus mangueras no encajaban en las bocas de incendio de Baltimore.
Foreword
This is a critical year in the world’s collaborative effort to end global poverty and boost the incomes of the poorest. We will endorse the Sustainable Development Goals, develop a plan for financing for development, and reach for a landmark agreement to mitigate and adapt to climate change. If we are to end extreme poverty by 2030, we must do all we can in this final push to raise the incomes of the extreme poor. The Role of Trade in Ending Poverty makes the case for how trade can contribute to this ambitious goal.
Temas escogidos sobre comercio y política comercial
El comercio Sur-Sur se ha promovido desde hace mucho tiempo como medio de reducir la dependencia de los países en desarrollo respecto de los mercados de los países desarrollados y de aumentar la diversificación de las exportaciones del Sur para que éstas no se limiten a productos primarios. La mayoría de los mecanismos creados para fomentar la cooperación entre los países en desarrollo eran principalmente de alcance subregional y regional, y muchos de ellos, de carácter preferencial. En los decenios de 1950 y 1960, el fomento del comercio Sur-Sur fue, en muchos casos, parte de una serie de medidas normativas basadas en una estrategia de sustitución de las importaciones que entrañaba grandes obstáculos al comercio. El comercio Sur-Sur creció en forma intermitente a medida que las economías en desarrollo atravesaban ciclos de expansión y contracción. Pese a las medidas tomadas para promover y diversificar el comercio Sur-Sur, los productos primarios siguieron predominando en esas corrientes en la mayoría de las regiones, y para 1990 ese comercio representaba sólo el 6,5 por ciento del comercio mundial.