Economic research and trade policy analysis
Aid for Trade at a Glance 2024
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. This publication draws on the responses provided by participants to the questionnaire of the 2024 joint OECD–WTO Aid for Trade monitoring and evaluation (M&E) exercise which underpins the 2024 Global Review of Aid for Trade. It presents an analysis of the M&E questionnaire responses and provides information on Aid for Trade financing flows up to the year 2022. Drawing on the responses to the survey it describes priority areas for the Aid for Trade Initiative for 2024 and the coming years.
Foreword
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).
Introduction
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.
Acknowledgements
This publication is the result of a joint effort of the OECD and the WTO and was prepared under the overall guidance of Michael Roberts (Head Aid for Trade Unit Development Division WTO) and Olivier Cattaneo (Head of Unit Architecture and Analysis Development Co-operation Directorate OECD). WTO Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang Taufiqur Rahman (Director of the Development Division WTO) and María del Pilar Garrido Gonzalo (Director for Development Co-operation OECD) supervised the work. The publication was edited and reviewed by Ross McRae and Anthony Martin of the Information and External Relations Division of the WTO and by Henri-Bernard Solignac Lecomte Head of Communications of the OECD Development Cluster. Additional contributions were provided by Masato Hayashikawa (Development Co-operation Directorate OECD).
Global Trade Outlook and Statistics
The WTO’s “Global Trade Outlook and Statistics” analyses recent global trade developments up to the fourth quarter of 2023 and presents the organization’s forecasts for world trade in 2024 and 2025. Breakdowns of merchandise and commercial services trade by sector and region are provided together with details on leading traders. The report is timed to coincide with the release of the WTO’s latest quarterly and annual trade statistics which can be downloaded from the WTO’s online database at stats.wto.org.
A Global Framework for Climate Mitigation Policies
The Trade Effects of a New Agreement on Services Domestic Regulation
Tariff spillovers and new rules for multilateral tariff negotiations
World Trade Report 2023
The establishment of the multilateral trading system over seven decades ago was based on the understanding that interdependence and cooperation contribute to peace and shared prosperity. More recently however new challenges such as geopolitical tensions rising inequalities and climate change have led to fears that globalization exposes countries to excessive risks. Such fears have increased pressures to unwind trading relationships and turn to unilateral policies through a process of fragmentation. This year’s World Trade Report examines the benefits of integration into world trade as well as the risks of fragmentation. It shows that trade has proved to be a source of security and peace a driver of poverty reduction and a critical tool for addressing climate change. The Report argues that to make our economies more secure inclusive and sustainable re-globalization – or integrating more people economies and pressing issues into global trade and strengthening multilateral cooperation – is a much more effective solution to global challenges than fragmentation. Global problems need global solutions meaning that today’s world needs more cooperation not less. A reinvigorated multilateral trading system overseen by the WTO has an important role to play in this process.
The reshaping of global trade
This chapter shows that despite difficulties in the global trade policy landscape global trade flows have been resilient and continue to evolve in a direction that is more sustainable and inclusive. Narratives surrounding the benefits of globalization have turned more sceptical in the past decade. These narratives have started to reflect in global trade as the first policy-driven fractures appear in the system. Yet the digital revolution continues to promote economic integration by facilitating trade in goods and even more so in services. There is still significant potential for trade to contribute further to the growth of the world economy and to bring further benefits to developing economies via the expansion of global value chains. However if the untapped potential of new trade flows is to be accessed policies must remain outward-looking.
Executive summary
The multilateral trading system overseen by the World Trade Organization was created just over 75 years ago based on the vision that fostering interdependence among economies would play a crucial role in achieving peace and prosperity. This vision had emerged as a central lesson from three disastrous decades of deglobalization marked by two world wars the Great Depression and political extremism. For three-quarters of a century it has guided policymakers as they laid the foundations for the integrated world we inhabit today.