The persistent gap between male and female labour market participation is a trend common to all regions of the world. Across the Indo-Pacific region, research shows that women are not benefiting from job growth in new sectors as much as men.

A missing link in the conversation on improving women’s participation in the Indo-Pacific economies is the role of trade. The region, which has an outsized influence on geopolitics and accounts for nearly half of global trade, can be critical for accelerating women’s economic participation and promoting inclusive growth through trade.

The inextricable link between gender equality and trade has become well established in recent years. Trade directly improves women’s lives, by creating better jobs, increasing women’s wages and welfare, and creating opportunities for women to move into higher-skill work and entrepreneurship. Firms that are part of global value chains demonstrably employ more women in developing countries. Women make up 33% of the workforce of firms that engage in international trade, compared with 24% in firms that do not.

The impact of trade on gender equality is wide-ranging – trade enhances women’s access to education, healthcare and technology.

Despite its potential for improving outcomes for women, gender has received little attention in international trade. Globally, only 15% of firms engaged in international trade are led by women. In OECD countries, 27% of women’s jobs are dependent on exports, compared to 37% for men. International trade is not favourable for women who face a wide range of barriers that include social norms and gender biases, mobility constraints, policy and legal hurdles, and restricted access to finance, technology and information.

However, recent trends in international trade present an opportunity for increasing women’s participation. This includes the overall increase in regional and cross-border trade and the dominance of global value chains, the rise of services in trade, and the expansion of green trade and digital trade.

Together these shifts represent the need for a workforce with upgraded skills, creating space for more women to enter the trade sector.

Governments and multilateral and international organisations have more recently started acknowledging that trade is not gender-neutral and seeking ways to address the global gender gaps in trade. This year’s G20 presidency under Brazil has identified boosting women’s participation in international trade as an organisation priority for the first time.

Gender provisions are also increasingly a part of trade policy and trade agreements. According to the World Trade Organisation, as of September 2022, 101 of the Preferential Trade Agreements out of 353 included an explicit reference to gender issues. Very few of these gender-related commitments, however, are enforceable.

Interestingly, the WTO, which has been advocating for gender-inclusive trade, has its own gender gaps to fill. Only 36% of ambassadors and 30% of ministers in charge of decision-making at WTO are women.

Australia has been seeking to elevate the conversation on gender segregation in trade. It endorsed the WTO’s Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment in 2017, and in February 2024 became a member of the Global Trade and Gender Agreement. A new International Gender Equality Strategy being developed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will reflect the commitment to reduce gender gaps in trade.

The Indo-Pacific, which includes some of the world’s largest economies as well as the fastest-growing economies, and “mega-regional” free trade agreements, has the potential to propel inclusive economic growth and improve the economic security of women.

There are several ways for the region to work towards this goal. Established regional forums for economic cooperation such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum can play a critical role in engaging governments, the private sector and businesses to promote inclusive trade in the region.

Gender mainstreaming is integrated into newer initiatives, including the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), a regional initiative of 14 governments to build economic integration in the Indo-Pacific, with Australia, the United States, Japan and India as members. IPEF lists trade as one of its four core pillars, and explicitly underlines the need for inclusivity in trade, removing barriers to economic empowerment and encouraging greater participation by women.

Gender equality must be a critical part of building supply chain resilience in the region. Women are under-represented in global supply chains, work in vulnerable and precarious conditions, and are concentrated in low-skilled employment.

The Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) between Australia, India and Japan could be another initiative to promote increased employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women. IPEF, SCRI and the Quad group each list enhancing the workforce of supply chains in critical sectors as a priority, and could have targeted training and skilling programs with gender quotas.

Trade facilitation directly benefits women and enhances their participation in trade-related services. Countries such as India and Australia, leaders in trade facilitation, can work with countries in South Asia and the Pacific to promote gender-sensitive trade facilitation processes in their neighbourhoods.

The Indo-Pacific region, most often cited as a geopolitical flashpoint for trade, can be at the forefront of advancing a gender-inclusive trade agenda.

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In 2013, Connie Stacey had a business idea: to create a clean, green and quiet replacement for fossil-fuel-powered generators. Stacey, 48, bodog sportsbook review had worked in information technology previously and thought she could use battery technology as an alternative to diesel or gasoline. Her version would be bigger than the batteries in mobile phones, require no technicians or engineers to use, and could be infinitely scalable. She built a prototype, named it the Grengine, and started a company called Growing Greener Innovations to build and market it.

Then came the challenges, first in terms of scaling her product and then delivering it to global markets. She ran into a barrier so many women entrepreneurs face: securing financing. As of 2022, only 2% of venture capital worldwide went to women-owned businesses, with most of those funding decisions made by men. Stacey’s challenges securing financing also underscored the soft discrimination some women face. “I had already built the prototype and there were people who asked me, ‘But who actually invented it?’”

Then there was the issue of bringing her product to the global market. Only 15% of businesses engaged in international trade are led by women, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Stacey finally found success in 2018, when she entered a contest sponsored by the US Department of Defense, where the innovations themselves were the main focus rather than the founders or their fundraising. Stacey won in the energy-efficiency and grid technologies category, and that gave her the momentum she needed. She won awards from 14 other organizations from 2018 to 2023, as well as contracts to supply the Grengine to clients ranging from Canada’s military to a mine in Saskatchewan and a golf resort in Wales.

Today, Stacey exports to six countries, which puts her in that small minority of women-led businesses engaged in international trade identified by the WTO.

Breaking down the gender gap

The imbalance in international trade is one of many inequalities that comprise a global gender gap that will take another 135 years to close at the current pace of policy reform, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

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The year the WTO was founded also marked a watershed in the fight for gender equality. In September 1995, the world celebrated the Fourth World Conference on Women, which adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action. This is, to date, the most ambitious global agenda to advance the rights of women and girls. Tremendous progress has been achieved since then, closing key gaps in health, education, political participation, and income.

But much more needs to be done. To continue delivering on the platform’s promise of an equal world, we must renew the commitment to fight for the rights of women and girls to participate on the same footing as men in all areas of life and ensure the conditions are in place for them to release their full potential.

Trade, in particular, is an area of policy that has many challenges ahead to ensure women can participate actively, on equal grounds with men, in existing and future economic opportunities. The world has recognized the importance of women in promoting economic growth and development, but it has yet to make a transformative commitment to gender equality. This will require moving away from the idea that gender equality is a cause that interests women alone.

What efforts have been made recently to prioritize gender equality within trade policy debates? To ensure sustained impact from these talks, we need to begin looking at gender equality as a common cause. Women stand to gain the most, but the multiplier effects will benefit the global economy more broadly.

Today, there is unprecedented momentum for this agenda as women for the first time lead the three trade-related agencies in Geneva: Pamela Coke-Hamilton at the International Trade Centre, Rebeca Grynspan at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the WTO. Under their leadership, we must continue to make strides to ensure women’s rights and create pathways for them to release half of the world’s full potential.

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Gender equality is a central concern for several of the multilateral system’s key agendas—sustainable development, peace and security, and humanitarian interventions. Yet many in the trade sphere have been slow to recognize its importance.

Policy must start by addressing the barriers that prevent women from getting access to trade—and the economy more broadly.

A landmark 2020 study by the World Bank/WTO shows that businesses involved in international commerce employ more women—33% of the workforce in these firms, compared to 24% in non-exporting firms—while offering better quality employment. Countries that are more open to trade, as measured by the ratio of trade to GDP, also have higher levels of gender equality.

To take advantage of these opportunities, however, policy must start by addressing the barriers that prevent women from getting access to trade—and the economy more broadly. Around 1 billion women remain disconnected from the economy, despite the potential increase of USD 25,000 billion that including them could mean for the global economy. By another metric, women own only 20% of firms that trade overseas.

What Can We Do?

What can the world do about it? This was the guiding question for a group of pioneers who kicked off the movement that led to the adoption of the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment at the WTO’s 11th ministerial conference of 2017. Among them were Caitlin Kraft-Buchman, co-founder of the International Gender Champions, Arancha González Laya, then executive director of the International Trade Centre, and the former permanent representatives of Sierra Leone and Iceland, Ambassadors Yvette Stevens and Högni Kristjánsson, respectively.

Early results of their work included the creation of the Trade Impact Group (TIG), through which a group of around 15 permanent representatives outlined a roadmap to bring down barriers preventing women from entering trade. This strategic vision included, among other activities, the vision to adopt a ministerial statement.

To garner support, the group presented its ideas to the General Council and consulted with the 11th ministerial conference’s chair, Susana Malcorra, in the run-up to the event. It also approached most WTO members and observers, including through the regional groups. It was through this persistent labour that a critical mass of support was built among WTO members, which the TIG expected would bodog sportsbook review create a domino effect, ensuring women’s economic empowerment would become to a priority concern in trade diplomacy and policy talks.

Through efforts by active participants in this early movement, the first domino pieces fell: the number of supporters for the declaration grew rapidly, from about 40 in October 2017 to around 80 the week before the ministerial conference. In the end, it secured 118 signatories, but the ball kept moving: the number of WTO members and observers that support the Buenos Aires Declaration has risen to 127.

Where Are We Now?

Anyone in the multilateral community knows a declaration is only as good as the action it rounds up to deliver on its stated goals. That’s why, since then, a group of WTO members has continued to build on the work of the TIG. In December 2021, the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender settled on the text of a joint ministerial declaration on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment that would be adopted in the 12th ministerial conference, and would point the way forward.

What does this declaration say?

First, members must continue to review, develop, and improve data on trade and gender. A lack of gender-disaggregated data and inadequate understanding about the impact of unequal power relations on trade continue to hold back research on women and trade. This includes an analysis of the many ways that different forms of discrimination against women affect their ability to participate in the global economy. This brings us back to Beijing, where basic commitments guaranteeing women’s autonomy—physical, economic, and decision making—have yet to be fulfilled.

Second, this research must be used to inform trade policy instruments and programs to ensure that they support women’s economic empowerment. Fresh data can be the basis for gender-responsive policies that seek to transform the underlying inequalities that hold back women’s participation in an increasingly knowledge-intensive economy.

The third element is more inward looking. The ministerial declaration calls on the WTO to ensure a gender perspective becomes the backbone of its entire operations. This is important because it does not involve mere consultations with women, but an eye for the differential impacts of all its decisions, programming, and debates on women.

Last but not least is the promotion of collaboration between international and regional organizations, as well as WTO members, on the promotion of gender equality in trade—not least by incorporating these goals into Aid for Trade.

A Call to All Men in Decision-Making Spaces

Progress on these goals requires one last thing: equal commitment by everyone to the goal of gender equality. Women led the process leading to the original Buenos Aires Declaration. They secured support, built momentum, and ensured the backing of 118 delegations—most represented by men. That is commendable, but we must do more—as men—not only to support this common cause, but to take active leadership in it.

We are beginning to see progress. After Buenos Aires, a group of 19 WTO members and 4 observers—known as the “friends of gender” group—involved 13 women and 10 men in the creation of the first draft of the joint ministerial declaration. Its finalized version of the declaration was to be presented in December 2021 to the ministerial conference, which, according to estimates of the WTO Secretariat, comprised around 20% women.

Let’s remember the words of UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson at the launch of the HeForShe campaign: “How can we effect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcomed to participate in the conversation?”

Women can continue to lead the way forward, but men must do our part. Taking responsibility to educate ourselves, ending our indifference or even blindness to gender inequalities, and taking action to transform them is an ethical imperative in our day and age. Men, still overrepresented in decision-making spaces, must commit and ensure that global trade and the WTO serve all of humanity—not just half of it.

Harald Aspelund is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations in Geneva. He is also one of the co-chairs of the WTO’s Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender.

Javier A. Gutiérrez is a diplomat and trade expert who works at El Salvador’s Permanent Mission to the WTO in Geneva.

To read the full commentary from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, please click here. 

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Speaking on trade and gender, former-Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne once commented that “during a time of rising skepticism and protectionism, it is the time to evaluate whether more can be done.” There is, and the initiative needs to start at the border with Canadian tariffs. Because, unfortunately, some of Canada’s highest tariffs in an otherwise open customs tariff are against heavily gendered industries in the developing world. They represent “significant gender-related barriers, which limit or distort trade,” precisely the kind of barriers that the Government of Canada speaks against.

This is a problem both for Canada and the developing world. Canada’s main financing for a global feminist transformation is around $7 billion in annual official development assistance. This contribution is expected to introduce the world’s women to the middle class via a focus on agriculture and women as entrepreneurs.  Canada’s FIAP also calls for a great deal of reform in the social, legal and political sectors, all of which will need financing from somewhere. Unfortunately, $7 billion is a drop in the bucket in a world where over two billion women and girls live on less than $5.50 per day. By way of comparison, social-sector spending from Canada’s Department of Employment and Social Development alone totals around $70 billion per year for 38 million Canadians.

Further, Canada’s pro-feminist trade and development strategies tend to focus on discrete initiatives – financing for women’s entrepreneurship, focusing on agriculture and inserting gender chapters in Canada’s (few) free trade agreements with developing countries. These will help, but they won’t bring the growth that countries need to finance reforms. Canada needs to address wider, systemic issues, like the kind generated by its own tariff regime. It needs to focus on the kind of reforms that will help developing economies trade, grow, reform, and transform.

Finance for reform can come from borrowing, taxing, or the revenues from trade. If countries are already indebted, or already heavily taxed, the first two can be unhelpful. Trade-led growth is a more viable option because it enables countries to earn their way out of poverty and inequality. And it works best if market access in importing countries is free and fair. Many of Canada’s imports from the developing world are from heavily gendered industries. And Canada, ranked by GDP as the world’s tenth largest economy, still maintains significant protections against these industries.

The FIAP directs a strong emphasis on agriculture and rural interventions. There is no question that providing rural women with access to credit, securing title to land, and other reforms are essential to progress. But agriculture in the developing world is often a low productivity activity and likely to remain so until the WTO solves the problem of subsidies in agriculture.

Manufacturing, industrialization, and occasionally services, are historically the engines of economic growth in most countries. Industrialization usually begins with the growth of labour intensive and often gender intensive manufacturing like processed foods, apparel, textiles and footwear. If growth is successful, then countries diversify to higher value-added industries like electronics and machinery. In the process they can transform their economies and societies to provide the distributive benefits that the FIAP seeks. Canada’s early imports of manufactured goods from developing countries demonstrate precisely this trend. In the 1970s and ’80s, China, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan exported many labour- and gender- intensive products, processed food, apparel, textiles and footwear to Canada before transitioning to higher value-added exports such as electronics, machinery and eventually services.

Today, an additional 40 developing countries export to Canada. Their highest or second-highest value-added manufactured exports are foundational, labour/gender-intensive imports, particularly apparel. But unlike the Asian Tigers, few if any of these countries – Guatemala, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, South Africa, even Bangladesh and many others – attract the unprecedented levels of investment that enabled the Tigers to graduate quickly from manufacturing to industry and services. If these countries don’t trade their way to prosperity, they can stay stuck in low-level manufacturing without acquiring the resources for economic transformation, let alone reform. And Canada’s tariffs don’t help.

Canadian policy-makers may not have noticed that some of Canada’s import tariffs actually discourage the growth of developing countries’ labour- and gender-intensive exports.  Apparel, for example, is the highest or second highest value-added manufactured export of many developing countries to Canada. But Canada’s tariffs on gender-intensive imports are trade-stopping, and wage- and growth-depressing. At 15 to 18 per cent, Canada’s tariffs on key apparel items are higher than Australia’s at 5 per cent, China’s at 6 per cent, the EU’s at 12 per cent and just slightly below protectionist India’s at 20 per cent. In contrast, key apparel imports from the U.S. enter duty-free under the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), providing the U.S. with better market access than many developing countries.

Forty-seven least-developed countries (LDCs) are exempt from these tariffs and eligible for duty-free treatment. So are Canada’s handful of FTA developing country partners. Some LDC exporters grew trade with Canada after a 2003 exemption, but they may soon lose it, and return to the 18 per cent tariff.  The remainder of the LDCs (approximately 36) don’t appear to have grown duty-free trade with Canada. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many don’t know that the exemption exists, possibly a result of a deficit of Canadian programming in this area. Even Afghanistan’s apparel imports, which are eligible for duty-free treatment, attracted high tariffs throughout decades of Canadian efforts to promote economic growth.

It is at least as important to ensure that women engaged as labour in international trade are treated fairly, as it is to ensure that women entrepreneurs are able to trade successfully. About 75 per cent of the workers in the global apparel industry are female, with a hefty component of male managers. Women lose when tariffs are high because high tariffs drive down wages and working conditions. The World Bank and the World Trade Organization recently weighed in on this issue in a 2020 study, “Women and Trade: The Role of Trade in Promoting Gender Equality.” The study notes that “pink tariffs” on gender-intensive industries “keep women in the developing world from broader export opportunities and better jobs” and that “discriminatory trade policies that make women-dominated industries less competitive and productive are widespread.”

Tariffs are clearly not the only challenge. Global value chains that import cheap, mass-market apparel and footwear routinely demand low prices from developing country suppliers, driving down prices, wages and working conditions. In fact, a really feminist diplomatic option might be to open an international dialogue on the conditions and prices in the apparel and other labour- and gender-intensive industries to see what might be achieved.

But first, Canada could do more at home. Simply dropping the Canadian tariffs (they are not particularly welcome among Canadian retailers and manufacturers) is a first step. The upcoming review of Canada’s General Preferential Tariff may be a place to start, or Canada could undertake a review of the Canadian tariff from a trade and gender perspective. 

Canadian development policy also needs refocusing on both growth and gender. It is not aligned with the growth trajectory of exports to Canada or the heavily gendered nature of that trajectory.  First-tier labour-intensive industries may be important for future growth, but they can and do mistreat women, an issue as old as the British industrial revolution. Governments sometimes see female workers as a disposable human resource on which future wealth can be built, and fail to intervene. Canadian support in this area could both help turn around a longstanding gender problem and support economic growth. Focusing on the unhealthy gender dynamics of the industries that export to Canada, using the arsenal of instruments the FIAP has already developed – public-private partnerships, labour rights, green growth, support for childcare – would be a start. One of Canada’s few official development assistance forays into this area was in 2013 when poorly built Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh, which made clothes for Loblaws, collapsed, killing 1,132 workers, mostly women. There hasn’t been much since.

After COVID-19’s ravages on developing countries’ industries, particularly the apparel industry, Canada’s current trade, development and feminist policies could be better tuned to both economic growth and the needs and realities of women working as labour in developing countries. That reform would demonstrate to skeptical developing country governments that Canada’s feminism has tangible results as well as long-term potential.

Fauzya Moore is an Ottawa-based consultant and writer. She has worked as a Senior Economic Advisor at the various iterations of Global Affairs Canada, and also as a Senior Advisor on Governance at the Treasury Board of Canada. She is also a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School (2009) where she held both a Fulbright scholarship and a fellowship from the Ash Centre for Governance and Innovation. She has worked in both the developed and developing world.

To read the full commentary from the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, please click here.

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The share of total income accruing to the middle 60 percent of the U.S. population has steadily decreased from around 53 percent in 1969 to 45 percent in 2019. Middle-skills development, if done right, has the potential to increase upward economic mobility for millions of families.

We’ve been studying middle-skills workforce development in Louisiana and the Appalachian region for years, and one thing we’ve seen repeatedly is that government, educators, and private industry all have to collaborate to make programs successful. The 2014 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act put stronger emphasis on building these ties between colleges and employers, but our research has found that this is still a work in progress.

Too often, it is industry that is not involved. In a study of the oil and natural gas industry—a technical field that would benefit highly from such partnerships—our colleagues at RAND found that only 8 percent of surveyed employers forecast their future job vacancies and communicated that to local colleges. Among the colleges surveyed, about half had no partnerships with employers to guide creation of relevant curricula or instruction.

Without this information, educators may be training for the labor market’s demands of the past. They may be overemphasizing technical skills, even as industry is asking for a combination of technical and general business skills (communication, problem solving, time management) from new hires.

It is critical that industry, educators, and government are all engaged—but any of those parties can effectively lead the effort. For instance, the City of New Orleans oversaw a set of training programs for adults (funded by the U.S. Department of Labor) that included both educational providers and industry partners. It led to higher earnings for participants and positive returns on investment for the government. It also improved markedly over a few years as city and training providers learned the best approaches for recruitment, applicant screening, and industry partnerships.

The Louisiana Department of Education led an effort in high schools to develop better graduation pathways, including to middle-skills jobs. Educators worked closely with the government under the Perkins Act (which provides funding for career, technical, and vocational education) and with local employers to identify the skills needed locally and build high-quality certification programs that gave students a marketable credential upon graduation. School officials there reported that the vocational program—called Jump Start—was most effective when local employers were actively engaged.

It was Chevron, with several private foundations, that led the Appalachia Partnership Initiative. It led to STEM teacher training and workforce development programs across a tristate region—Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania—around Greater Pittsburgh.

The United States is facing economic gaps wider than have been seen in a century. To keep the nation economically strong and able to provide middle-class lifestyles to its citizens, educators, government, and private industry need to work together to shape jobs training opportunities.

Matthew Baird is an economist at the RAND Corporation, co-director of the Center for Causal Inference, and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His research focuses primarily on understanding labor markets and education policy to improve outcomes for disadvantaged populations. 

Shelly Culbertson, senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, focuses on forced displacement, disaster recovery, post-conflict stabilization, international development, and education. She has led ten studies about refugees and internally displaced persons, with particular focus on education, jobs, humanitarian assistance models, return conditions, and technology. Her refugee studies have been funded by the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, the Qatar Fund for Development, and others. She is the lead of RAND’s Mass Migration Strategy Group.

To read the full commentary from the Research and Development Corporation (RAND), please click here.

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The harder work of substantive international action still looms ahead, however, and will require the Biden team to back its welcome words with concrete actions — particularly as it seeks to advance its priorities on inclusive growth, climate change and innovation. To succeed, the administration will need to creatively utilize a wide array of existing international and regional platforms, while also building new coalitions of like-minded countries. The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum can and should be an important part of this effort.

Comprised of 21 Asia-Pacific economies, APEC has proven itself time and again to be a useful channel to foster new ideas on topics such as fair trade and investment rules, gender parity, disaster preparedness and sustainable and inclusive growth. APEC’s non-binding character is an important strength of the organization, as it allows members to be more open to exploring new ideas than in many other international fora. 

New Zealand, the APEC host country for 2021, is promoting an ambitous agenda that aligns in many respects with the priorities of the Biden administration. As Wellington shapes deliverables for the November APEC summit, the United States has an important opening to advance concrete initiatives, including in these areas: 

Economic equity and inclusion

There are several ways Washington can advance its ideas for more inclusive and equitable economic and trade policies in APEC. By doing so, it can both build regional support for its agenda, and allay the concerns expressed by some nations that Biden’s worker-centric trade policy smacks of protectionism.  

First, implementing a work program in APEC on workforce skills and training for the next generation of technology-based jobs would be enormously useful. Exchanging best practices, experiences of policy successes and failures, and ideas on how the private sector and educational institutions can contribute would be of immense interest to APEC members — many of whom are facing similar challenges of matching their workforces to the skill sets needed for the jobs of the future. 

Second, the United States can lead APEC in expanding its stakeholder outreach beyond just the business community. By including labor groups, environmental advocates, and civil society more broadly in its work, APEC will be in a better position to develop initiatives that deliver for our citizens writ large.

Third, APEC should upgrade and expand its small and medium enterprise (SME) promotion work, including by aligning it more closely with its digital policy agenda. This could help to promote inclusivity in the global trading system, particularly for SMEs that are led by women and other minorities. Finally, the United States could use the APEC platform to share initial thoughts on updating trade agreements to better reflect the concerns and priorities of the middle class. This could help build support for its new trade agenda, while alleviating emerging concerns.

Climate change

APEC is also a strong platform for forwarding the U.S. agenda on combating combat climate change. The U.S. will find a strong partner in 2021 host New Zealand, which is putting forward a series of initiatives, such as on facilitating trade in environmental goods and services, to promote sustainable trade and development. Working closely with Wellington could help to lock in an ambitious APEC climate agenda for the coming years. 

APEC, for example, can be leveraged to help developing countries identify green infrastructure projects of potential interest to private investors. This work could include the fostering of a trusted carbon offset market, through which investors from rich countries invest in green projects in developing countries in exchange for carbon credits.

An initial proof of concept is within reach in APEC. The organization can also be used to induce climate-related corporate disclosures, which will promote “green finance” markets, incentivizing global companies to not only reduce their own carbon footprints but also decarbonize their entire value chains.

The digital economy

Finally, APEC and its member economies can pursue a digital trade and economic policy agenda that emphasizes U.S. values on issues like data privacy and allowing the free flow of information and digital services across borders.

Digital technology, for example, is critical to facilitating trade and investment for SMEs. APEC can promote practical rules that help small businesses reach markets across the region, through e-invoicing, e-signature and e-payment. APEC economies are leaders in this field, as seen in the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement recently signed by New Zealand, Chile and Singapore — with others poised to join. 

New Zealand will host a pivotal APEC Leaders meeting in November, when it will announce a set of deliverables that matter greatly for the region. Washington has an important opportunity to help shape those outcomes by bringing ideas to the table now that reflect U.S. values and its agenda to advance the livelihood of the middle class through inclusion, climate change, and innovation. Washington can also lay plans for the future by reaching out now to Southeast Asian ally Thailand, the 2022 APEC chair, and by volunteering to host APEC 2023 in the United States. 

Wendy Cutler is vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. 

Kurt Tong is partner and an executive committee member at The Asia Group.

To read the original piece in The Hill, please click here.

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Thus, in the 2021 edition of our flagship report Foresight Africa, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative has chosen to highlight the transformative leadership of women—in management roles, on the front lines of the pandemic, and in everyday life—by opening each chapter with a salient quote from an eminent woman.

Now, to celebrate International Women’s Day this year, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative asked leading women to reflect on the challenges facing young women and to share their thoughts on how we can more effectively encourage and empower young women and girls to become leaders themselves. Each woman was approached for this purpose because they took action against all odds, rising to great heights in their communities, on the continent, and on the global stage. Below are the responses from these inspiring women.

Rt. Hon. Winnie Kiiza
Former Leader of Opposition, Parliament of Uganda

Even though women are vaulting to leadership spaces, our communities remain obstinately resistant to women in leadership roles. They (the patriarchy) too often perceive women as too delicate to lead. This trend, among many other deeply-seated and unconscious gender biases, force potential women leaders to withdraw into their shells. Yet, women possess inherently strong attributes that can help lead more effectively.

As women leaders, we should and can operate under the existing patriarchal system by sharing our accomplishments and ambitions, so as to change and shape our communities’ perceptions about women’s ability to lead, and create a source of inspiration for women to rise above the gender bias and fear.

Hafsat Abiola
President, Women in Africa Initiative

Africa’s girls and women stand to gain most from shaping their continent into a place that releases its enormous potential. It is to them that I look for leadership. So many are living on the margins of society, in the black and gray economies, in community associations, in peer lending groups. They are not integrated into the economy or the institutions of governance. It is high time they were. Indeed, we will go on talking about Africa’s potential until this army-in-waiting of changemakers take charge. They can and must connect their businesses to the economy and anchor the state to their vibrant communities. They can give birth to an Africa that becomes the finest expression of how to develop a continent. Africa was the cradle of civilization. Tomorrow, it can be a leader in a globalized world.

Dr. Frannie Léautier
Senior Partner and CEO, SouthBridge Investments

This year, more than any other year, we should celebrate women in leadership. The COVID-19 pandemic has fallen heavily on the shoulders of women. Many have lost sources of livelihood. Most have triple duty, caring for families, managing households, and holding down economic activities. And some have faced the brunt of the pandemic as caregivers and essential service providers. Yet others have stepped up to also solve challenges in their communities. We should engage our young women to realize that they already have superpowers they can invoke to solve problems and lead—locally, nationally, and internationally. They should trust in these superpowers, ones of observing, listening and learning; empathizing with others; experimenting and persevering when doing what’s hard; and crystallizing lessons into actions that bring systemic change. But most importantly, we should encourage them to not be afraid to dream big or to start small, as seeking solutions to the day-to-day problems facing us and our communities can lead to broader change in the world.

Arunma Oteh, OON
Former Treasurer, World Bank

Harnessing Africa’s phenomenal female leadership is critical to “building forward better” post COVID-19. Indeed, when given the opportunity, African women bring to bear important leadership qualities such as courage, compassion, character, and empathy. They are also able to succeed with managing complex situations because they are authentic, collaborative, rigorous, results-oriented, and sacrificial. These are all attributes that society needs today to rebuild after the greatest crisis of our lifetime and to end the twin challenges of poverty and inequality. I am optimistic that, if we equally leverage men and women, young and old, we can transform what has been a multi-faceted crisis into possibilities that will unleash Africa’s enormous potential.

For more on women in leadership and the unique obstacles they face, see the recent Brookings event, “Women and Leadership” with new World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard.

See the blog, “5 ways women are driving Africa’s transformation and contributing to a global reset” by Winnie Byanyima and Caroline Kende-Robb for more on the remarkable role of women in Africa’s long-term recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

For strategies on how women and girls can be put at the center of the COVID-19 response, see the blog by the World Bank’s Mamta Murthi, “Putting girls at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic response in Africa.”

Furthermore, you can learn more about the pressing challenges facing women and girls under COVID-19, in Damaris Parsitau’s Foresight Africa 2021 viewpoint, “Invisible lives, missing voices: Putting women and girls at the center of post-COVID-19 recovery and reconstruction.”

Finally, each chapter of this year’s Foresight Africa report begins with a salient quote from an eminent woman, emphasizing the transformative leadership of women—in management roles, on the front lines of the pandemic, and in everyday life. You can find all of those reflections here.

To read the original report from Brookings, please click here

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Today—Monday, March 8—marks International Women’s Day, this year aptly themed “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” As the agenda takes shape for the Group of Twenty (G20) presidency—which passed to Italy in December 2020 in the midst of the coronavirus crisis—to address the pandemic, climate change, and other transnational challenges, the bloc must take steps to ensure women are central to the more equitable and inclusive recovery that it seeks, the world’s women need, and the global economy demands.

Gender inequality is certainly not a new feature of G20 economies; only around a third or less of women are formally employed in India, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, and low rates of female labor-force participation have long mired economies worldwide. But since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, women’s employment rates have fallen precipitously in many nations, usually at a quicker pace than those of men. In the United States, women suffered 55 percent of job losses in the first few months of COVID-related economic restrictions. By late 2020, some 2.5 million women had lost their jobs or dropped out of the workforce. In Latin America, women were 50 percent more likely than men to lose their jobs as the pandemic took hold—a figure that does not include losses among the large number of women working in the informal economy or performing unpaid work. In Turkey, surveyed women experienced higher levels of job loss than men did after the spread of COVID-19. Across the Middle East and North Africa region, estimates indicate that women will suffer a third of job losses even though they represent only a fifth of the labor force.

Even when women can find formal employment, wage disparities between women and men have been a key driver of inequality for years: women in the United States make only eighty-two cents for every dollar earned by men, and the gender pay gap is 23 percent globally. The global average of men’s overall income is nearly double that of women, due in part to the fact that women are more likely to be employed in lower-paid, lower-skill work with more job insecurity and fewer benefits.

Youth employment has also been highly vulnerable to the pandemic, dealing young women a double blow. In Argentina, for example, unemployment among those aged fourteen to twenty-nine increased significantly in the first quarter of 2020, to 18 percent, but the figure rose to 24 percent for young women. In the United Kingdom, sectors that shut down due to social-distancing measures employed 25 percent of young men under twenty-five years old but 36 percent of young women in the same age cohort. These sectors employed just 13 percent of workers over age twenty-five.

Beyond employment, women’s enterprises have also been further imperiled by the virus. The latest World Bank Findex in 2017 found that the financial-inclusion gap between men and women, measured in terms of having a bank account, remained at nine percentage points in favor of men in developing economies—unchanged since 2011. In several countries, even those in the middle-income strata, this gap is much more significant. In one COVID-19 impact survey of 30,000 small and micro enterprises worldwide, the gender disparity between shuttered businesses owned by women versus by men reached as high as 10 percent in countries with strict lockdowns. Women around the world also carry out as much as triple the unpaid household and care hours as men do. From India to Japan, and across Europe and the Americas, wage inequality combined with cultural or social norms push women to forego work, especially because of care constraints.

These dynamics account in part for COVID-19’s calamitous, disproportionate effect on women’s earning opportunities across advanced, emerging, and developing countries alike, putting economic participation and prosperity further from their reach. The Women 20 (W20) engagement group has been the traditional hub for consideration of gender issues at the G20. But to address the multitude of acute challenges faced by the world’s women, G20 leaders and finance ministers must now make use of the full range of policy instruments at their disposal. These include gender-responsive budgeting, entrepreneurial and employment tax incentives, healthcare, social-protection measures, improved property rights, increased hiring of women in government, and the collection of disaggregated data to better identify deficits and measure change. The G20 should also take a more integrated and intersectional approach, ensuring women’s inclusion across all of the forum’s engagement and working groups.

The Business 20 (B20), for example, should encourage businesses to promote women to management and decision-making roles; champion employer-provided childcare, healthcare and paid-leave policies, and digital access to close the gender digital divide; and expand access to the platform economy, workplace safety, and gender-elastic lending products and services, including loan-repayment deferments. The Energy Transition and Climate Sustainability Working Group should highlight women’s successes to entice more women to enter non-traditional sectors and engage men and families to shift social norms. Targeted lending and carveouts for women-owned small- and medium-sized enterprises in green business should also be promoted.

The Labour Working Group and Labour 20 (L20) should place the specific needs of women workers—including those in the informal economy—atop their agenda. That should include addressing issues related to wage gaps, childcare, upskilling and on-the-job training, and sexual harassment. As it tackles the education and employment crises, the Education Working Group and Youth 20 (Y20) should focus on young women’s training, skills, and digital access, as well as financial inclusion for productive self-employment and entrepreneurship. These efforts should embrace the future of work and the post-pandemic economy, including ensuring downstream STEM and technical vocational training for the emerging green, orange, care, and digital economies.

The Development Working Group can have an impact in this space by steering multilateral and bilateral donor resources toward the needs of women and girls in low-income countries. Given rapid urbanization in G20 countries and cities worldwide, the Urban 20 (U20) has an important opportunity to advance gender-sensitive urban planning, job creation, and city governance.

In its handover communiqué, the 2020 Saudi W20 stated that “G20 leaders must pave the way for equitable economic recovery where women, as equal partners and key economic actors, are part of the solution.” The Italian presidency must urgently heed this call and advance an energetic, holistic, women-centered agenda that mobilizes resources, directs financing, and ushers in data-informed policies. What’s needed is a strategy that both curbs the damage that the pandemic has inflicted on women and unlocks opportunities for reimagining women’s education, employment, and entrepreneurship in the post-pandemic era. If it succeeds in implementing this two-track strategy, the Italian G20 will be a boon to inclusive growth in member states and the global economy.

To read the full report from the Atlantic Council, please click here

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“the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level”, and as

“Sustainable development” – “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Sustainability of the WTO

Applying the first of these two definitions of sustainability: the WTO must not continue as it is.  It must succeed as a forum for negotiations, where agreements evolve and be relevant; it must be a place where disputes are settled; and it must be a fount of information on every subject that a national trade policy maker requires to make informed decisions.  Continued underinvestment in the institution is not acceptable.  Maintaining the status quo can only lead to further disaffection. 

The economic history of the last seven decades has validated the wisdom of the founders in their decision to create the multilateral trading system. There is only one sensible world order and it includes a global framework for rules-based trade.  However, stasis will not suffice.  It is necessary to respond now to the challenges before us – dealing with the pandemic, supporting the needed economic recovery, taking responsibility for stewardship of the planet and its peoples, and WTO institutional reform. 

Recognizing that their relations in the field of trade and economic endeavour should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand, and expanding the production of and trade in goods and services, while allowing for the optimal use of the world’s resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable development, seeking both to protect and preserve the environment and to enhance the means for doing so in a manner consistent with their respective needs and concerns at different levels of economic development, … .

There is no better place to start a conversation on this subject than to examine the activities of the WTO in relation to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which aim to transform our world by the year 2030:

• GOAL 1: No Poverty
• GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
• GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
• GOAL 4: Quality Education
• GOAL 5: Gender Equality
• GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
• GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
• GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• GOAL 10: Reduced Inequalities
• GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
• GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
• GOAL 13: Climate Action
• GOAL 14: Life Below Water
• GOAL 15: Life on Land
• GOAL 16: Peace, Justice and  Strong Institutions
• GOAL 17: Partnerships for the Goals

The SDGs explicitly identify trade, alongside finance, technology and capacity building, as a means of implementation, that is, as a tool to achieve the SDGs. This perspective closely mirrors the WTO’s founding charter, where global co-operation in trade is a means to unleash growth, alleviate poverty, raise living standards and ensure full employment, while also protecting the environment.

In a 2018 publication, Mainstreaming trade to achieve the sustainable development goals, the WTO looked at how its work could support efforts to fulfill the SDGs. That report emphasized nine of the seventeen SDGs, in the sections which are summarized here:

How trade contributes to delivering key Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 1: No Poverty

WTO 2018: There is increasing evidence that well planned and strategically executed trade policy initiatives can impact positively on sustainable poverty reduction. Trade opening has also generated higher living standards through greater productivity, increased competition and more choice for consumers and better prices in the marketplace.

The UN cites two specific goals:

• By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.
• By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.

It should be beyond doubt that by these two agreed measures, the trading system has contributed toward this goal.  Progress has been made toward lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.  Trade contributes to higher living standards through productivity increases, made it possible by access to global markets and sources of supply.  Decades of empirical evidence indicate that the countries that have sustained high per capita growth rates long enough to transform people’s living standards and life prospects used the global economy to drive growth.

Broadly open global markets provided demand far larger than the home market, to be sure, but also served as a source of ideas, technology, and knowhow. While the years before the pandemic saw substantial progress on reducing poverty, the countries that lagged behind were generally those that had been unable to break into world markets for goods and services, or only managed to export unprocessed minerals.

Today, trade plays an important role in the economy of developing countries. To have an idea, trade now represents 34% of developing countries’ GDP on average – compared to 20% for advanced countries. Fueled by trade, real GDP per person in emerging economies more than doubled from 1995 to 2019 and facilitated rapid, broad-based economic expansion that has narrowed the income gap between countries and within them.

And, in addition to accelerating economic growth, trade also makes available the necessary resources to implement other development targets in the social and environmental spheres.

There are two groups of challenges to this claim.  There are growing voices against globalization as a creator of income inequality within and perhaps among countries.  There is also criticism that economic growth is potentially incompatible with environmental goals.

Neither set of criticisms is borne out by the facts.  Widely differing levels of income inequality in countries similarly exposed to globalization suggest trade is not the determining factor.

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

WTO 2018: Eliminating subsidies that cause distortions in agriculture markets will lead to fairer more competitive markets helping both farmers and consumers while contributing to food security. The WTO’s 2015 decision on export competition eliminated export subsidies in agriculture, thereby delivering on Target 2.B of this goal.

A well-functioning multilateral trading system is imperative for the realization of SDG 2. In remarks at the FAO in 2017, I made the following points

It is widely acknowledged that trade openness can make a positive contribution to each of the four dimensions of food security as espoused by the FAO, namely availability, access, utilization and stability. Trade openness increases the availability of food by enabling products to flow from surplus to deficit areas, connecting the “land of the plenty to the land of the few”. It enhances access as it contributes to faster economic growth, higher incomes and higher purchasing power. Indeed, in response to the transmission of unbiased price signals, it encourages an effective allocation of resources based on comparative advantages, thus limiting inefficiencies.

Trade openness also facilitates utilisation and improved nutrition by increasing the diversity of national diets and accelerating the diffusion of sound SPS regulations around the world. Lastly, it enhances food availability and reduces price volatility, as risks associated with domestic food production are greater than pooled production of countries worldwide.

In addition, the elimination of export subsidies has levelled the playing field and provided opportunities for farmers in developing countries to compete. This has increased their incomes and enhanced their living standards.  

By making more affordable goods available at home, trade enables poor households to purchase more with their income, particularly essential foodstuffs. Better and less distorted access to foreign markets for agricultural goods that the rural poor farmers produce also opens new employment opportunities for them.

One lesson from COVID-19 is that stockpiling and on-shoring with added domestic investment are not a sufficient substitute for trade flows. 

As my colleague, DDG Xiaozhun Yi recently noted, 

The trade coverage of the regular import-facilitating measures stood at USD 731.3 billion (up from USD 544.7 billion in the previous period) while that of import restrictions came in at USD 440.9 billion (down from USD 746.9 billion). This is a positive development. This drop was likely a result of the sharp decline in overall global trade flows, the diversion of governments’ attention towards fighting the pandemic – through trade policy as well as other areas, and a general commitment to keep trade flowing.

The export restrictions on food seen in the Spring have been substantially rolled back.

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

WTO 2018: One of the main objectives under SDG 3 is to ensure access to affordable medicines for all. An important amendment to the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement recently entered into force. This measure will make it easier for developing countries to have a secure legal pathway to access affordable medicines in line with Target 3.B of this goal.

The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that trade can be responsive to human health and well-being.  There was more than a doubling of trade in goods relevant to fighting the disease from 2Q 2019 to 2Q 2020. 

The next challenge will be the distribution of the vaccines. Trade is playing – and will continue to play – a key role in the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines around the world.  Leveraging supply chains for everything from pharmaceutical glass, syringes and refrigeration equipment to the vaccines themselves, where possible, would help scale up production more efficiently than trying to do everything domestically.  The trading system must help deal with any cross-border logistics challenges that exist.

WTO Agreements give Members ample space to pursue health protection objectives and promotes cooperation in the pursuit of health. In the area of food safety and animal and plant health, the SPS Agreement requires that measures be based on science and Members are strongly encouraged to follow international standards. The TBT Agreement also strongly encourages that health protection regulations for drugs, PPE or medical devices be based on relevant international standards. The TBT and SPS Agreements also promote regulatory cooperation among trade partners – such as mutual recognition of certification – which can help increase global access to essential health products.

To this should be added an immediate update of the Pharmaceutical and Information Technology Agreements to cover, among other goods, all those which will facilitate the international movement of vaccines, medicines, equipment (including production equipment), PPE, and IT equipment relevant to fighting COVID-19.  Not only should duty-free treatment be provided but also trade facilitation measures to lower the costs of trade and speed delivery of essential goods.  Medical services should be covered in a companion agreement with the same objective.

SDG 5: Gender Equality

WTO 2018: Trade can create opportunities for women’s employment and economic development. Through trade, job opportunities for women have increased significantly. Jobs in export sectors also tend to have better pay and conditions. Export sectors are an important job provider for women in developing countries.

A group of WTO Members agreed to establish an Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender on 23 September 2020, marking the next phase of an initiative started in 2017 to increase the participation of women in trade. The online meeting to launch the new WTO working group was held at the invitation of Iceland and Botswana.

Women’s empowerment through trade is an important part of the WTO’s current narrative.  There will undoubtedly be a further effort to make this more concrete for MC12, the 2021 WTO Ministerial Conference.  Given that internet access is a boon for micro, small and medium enterprises, in which tend to be disproportionately represented as workers and entrepreneurs, the flexibilities offered by e-commerce should continue to be a great equalizer in these areas, where individual initiative and ingenuity is the first key to market entry.  The e-commerce talks as well as those aimed at making the trading system more responsive to the needs of micro, small and medium enterprises should prove beneficial to the empowerment of women through trade. 

Moreover, the choice of the first woman Director- General of the WTO provides a role model for women advancing in the field of trade policy. 

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

WTO 2018: Trade-led inclusive economic growth enhances a country’s income-generating capacity, which is one of the essential prerequisites for achieving sustainable development. The WTO’s Aid for Trade initiative can make a big difference in supplementing domestic efforts in building trade capacity, and SDG 8 contains a specific target for countries to increase support under this initiative.

Trade is very important in the attainment of SDG 8 as it is generally described in the Agenda 2030 as an engine for inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction.

Opening up to trade affects growth positively through a number of channels. Trade improves resource allocation. It allows each country to specialize in the production of the good or service it can produce relatively cheaper and import the other goods and services, thus exploiting comparative advantages. By extending the size of the market in which the firm operates beyond national border, trade allows firms to exploit economies of scale and become more productive.  Trade also affects long-term growth since it gives access to more advanced technological inputs available in the global market and because it enhances the incentives to innovate.

The rise of populism in the industrialized countries indicates that providing opportunities for decent work and experiencing the fruits of economic growth are not solely a concern for developing countries.   David Riccardo’s voice now has increasing competition among economists who focus on a rising tide not necessarily lifting all boats.  

Technological progress and trade have been key engines of global prosperity. Resistance to innovation and retreat from global integration are not options that will help eliminate extreme poverty. At the same time, policymakers need to ensure that benefits are spread more widely. A reallocation of resources is often necessary to reap the substantial benefits from trade.  Governments need to be better prepared for disruptions, including those caused by the pandemic, and enable their peoples to take advantage of new opportunities.

Like other structural change – notably change triggered by technological progress – trade can create adjustment pressures for certain segments in society, both in developing and developed countries. It is therefore important to have in place appropriate complementary domestic policies to ensure that the gains from trade are more evenly shared and the trade-related adjustment costs affecting certain regions and individuals are mitigated. This can contribute to make the gains from trade truly inclusive and sustainable.  

The global rules for trade must be seen to deliver fairness.  The WTO needs to be widely known for providing a level playing field for trade.  Factory workers, farmers, designers of apps, must all feel that they can rely on the rules of the trading system to provide opportunities to serve markets abroad as well as being able to source what they need from suppliers whether at home or abroad.  Trade must be able to flow on the basis of competitive merit.  The core underlying principle of the WTO, although unstated, is that market forces are to determine competitive outcomes. 

In sports, another area of international competition with roots in antiquity, the Olympics have long strived to provide equality of opportunity to the extent possible.  To counter crimped nationalistic views but allow scope for pride and dignity that comes from excelling on a world platform, the trading rules have to be improved.  The system needs to be widely seen as rewarding those who excel in the marketplace on equal terms to the extent that this can be achieved.  The WTO must combine the heritage from Ancient Greece of the agora, the marketplace, with that of the Olympic stadium. 

SDG 8 contains a lot more to unpack. For example, it includes as a target “endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation”, as well as youth unemployment.  WTO Members are addressing the former (see environmental sections of these remarks) but not directly as far as I know, the latter.  

One of the targets of SDG 8 is to “encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services”.  There is a current WTO Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) launched at 11th Ministerial Conference at Buenos Aires in December 2017 aimed at assuring improved participation of MSMEs in the multilateral trading system.  Work has progressed very substantially over the last three years and is seen as particularly relevant to the contribution that the WTO can make to economic recovery from the current pandemic.

Trade finance is also a focus of the WTO, particularly for Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.  The WTO, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and B20 Saudi Arabia issued a joint statement on 9 July pointing to the diminishing availability of trade finance. Warning that gaps between trade finance supply and demand could seriously impede the ability of trade to support post COVID-19 economic recovery, they are urging private and public-sector actors to work together to address shortages.

Another of the targets of SDG 8 reads:

• take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms

Forced labor is not a topic on the current WTO agenda, but it has been discussed.  Although the  WTO has not taken a multilateral decision to address this issue, this does not prevent individual governments from adopting and taking measures that they deem necessary. GATT Article XX General Exceptions permits measures dealing with products relating to prison labour and measures necessary to protect human life. On core labor standards, WTO Members have sought coherence and recognized the role of the ILO in its Singapore Ministerial Declaration.  The WTO General Council in 2003 agreed on a waiver that gives legal certainty to domestic measures taken under the Kimberley Process aimed at curbing trade in conflict diamonds, the mining of which often involves forced labor.

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

WTO 2018: Trade produces dynamic gains in the economy by increasing competition and the transfer of technology, knowledge and innovation. Open markets have been identified as a key determinant of trade and investment between developing and developed countries allowing for the transfer of technologies which result in industrialization and development, helping to achieve SDG 9.

The WTO deserves good grades on fulfilling this SDG even were the benefits of the system were limited to the movement of goods across borders.  The products covered by the information technology agreement foster the global availability the tools that connect budding inventors, innovative individuals, making possible the world wide web.  The WTO provides more than that, however, as noted in the WTO’s “World Trade Report 2020 government policies to promote innovation in the digital age”

Open and transparent trade policies contribute to innovation through improved access to foreign markets and increased competition, which provide firms with incentives to invest more in R&D. This is true for both developed and developing economies: a study of 27 emerging economies shows that both competition from foreign firms and linkages with foreign firms, through importing, exporting or supplying multinationals, increase product innovation, the adoption of new technologies and quality upgrading….

The basic set of GATT and WTO agreements provide a framework that foster “the development of an ICT-enabled economy in countries across all levels of development”.  The framework provides for non-discrimination, transparency, reciprocity and the prohibition of unnecessarily trade restrictive measures.  This framework includes the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement, the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Innovation will be key to advancing sustainability.  Just as we needed to innovate our way out of the COVID-19 crisis – with adaptable supply chains, digitalized economies, and turbocharged vaccine development – we will also need to innovate our way out of the current environmental crisis.  A striking example of this –is the way renewable energy, especially solar power, is fast becoming cheaper and more cost effective than fossil fuels. This could be the gamechanger in climate battle. And it is at least partly thanks to trade/globalization’s role in spreading renewable technologies, fuelling innovation and driving down production costs. It turns out that the very things many people thought needed ‘fixing’ or ‘resetting’ at the beginning of the pandemic – globalization, free markets, supply chains, corporate innovation – are actually what got us through the crisis, delivered a vaccine, and could provide us with the tools to fight climate change or plastics pollution.

The links between development, technology and trade have been widely recognized. For most developing economies, accessing and deploying new technologies is the primary source of economic growth. Imported capital goods and technical intermediate inputs can directly improve productivity by being placed into production processes. There is significant evidence that global value chains are a powerful channel of technology dissemination. 

Supply chain linkages intensify contacts between foreign firms and domestic suppliers and therefore open up channels for flows of knowledge and know-how. When a foreign firm and a local supplier are part of the same production chain, they need to interact and coordinate to guarantee a smooth functioning of the chain. Face-to-face communication with key foreign personnel will facilitate the transfer of non-codified knowledge and increase domestic innovative capacity. Also, foreign outsourcing firms are more willing to transfer the know-how and technology required for an efficient production of the outsourced input, because they will eventually be the consumer of that input. Offshoring of tradable services has also been key in the development of these industries in the developing world. 

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

WTO 2018: At the global level, changes in development patterns have been transforming prospects of the world’s poorest people, decreasing inequality between countries. WTO rules try to reduce the impact of existing inequalities through the principle of Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries. This allows the use of flexibilities by developing and least-developed countries to take into account their capacity constraints.

A rising tide lifts most if not all boats, but some boats ride higher in the water than others.  Within industrialized countries, there are wide variations of participation in income and sharing of the benefits of trade.  This is mainly due to domestic policies, not international trade agreements.  But trade agreements can be made more responsive to this set of problems.   Political support for open international trade depends substantially on finding answers to questions of income inequality.  One obvious area of response is the availability of trade remedies under the WTO agreements.  These were conceptually important to the structure of the GATT and the WTO.  Trade remedies were designed to offset unfair and injurious practices and to smooth adjustment to international competition.  That basic concept was lost sight of during the last several decades, and costs are now being incurred.  When trade remedies become unavailable and job losses occur, domestic support for the “rules-based” trading system is undermined. (See also the discussion of level playing field issues under SDG 8). 

Productivity gains from new technologies are reducing the demand for labor in more traditional sectors, such as agriculture or manufacturing. This so-called “fourth industrial revolution” is not going to make all jobs disappear, but it is bringing about enormous changes. While these processes have brought progress overall, it is important to recognize that not everybody has been able to benefit and participate.

This is a challenge facing governments and societies everywhere – in both developed and developing economies. Sustainable and balanced economic progress will hinge on the ability of economies to adjust to changes and promote greater inclusiveness. There is not a ‘one size fits all’ recipe, approaches need to be tailored to a country’s specific situation and mainstreamed into development policy objectives to ensure that trade is inclusive, that it benefits the largest possible sections of the population and that those who may be losing out are provided assistance to adjust.

A challenge that the WTO faces is how to balance the rights and obligations across its diverse membership. In the past this has mostly been done by the adoption of special and differential treatment provisions in the WTO Agreements that in many cases give developing countries flexibilities in undertaking commitments. Views have varied among Members over the potential benefits of these provisions.  Many believe that special and differential treatment, particularly for the least developed, needs additional elements to be effective.  Being freer of obligations for those with limited capacity to participate beneficially in world trade does not convey an advantage.  Moreover, if there are no new agreements, there is only a stock of S&DT that may not deliver much more that is of use.  The entire approach to development needs fresh thinking. 

SDG 14: Life Below Water

WTO 2018: The WTO plays an important role in supporting global, regional and local efforts to tackle environmental degradation of our oceans under SDG 14. The Decision on Fisheries Subsidies taken by WTO members in December 2017 is a step forward in multilateral efforts to comply with SDG Target 14.6, committing members to prohibit subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, and eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, with special and differential treatment for developing and least-developed countries. Members committed to fulfilling this commitment by the 12th Ministerial Conference.

There is currently active engagement of WTO Members in negotiations to reach this goal.  While the trade aspect of the negotiations is certainly an important element, it is worth highlighting that the principal objective in the negotiating mandate is an environmental one. This is a first for the WTO.  A successful conclusion of these negotiations will demonstrate the importance and flexibility of the multilateral trading system in pursuing global aims that go beyond the purely economic.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

WTO 2018: SDG 17 recognizes trade as a means of implementation for the 2030 Agenda. The targets under this goal call for: countries to promote a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system; the increase of developing countries’ exports and doubling the share of exports of least-developed countries (LDCs); and the implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access for LDCs with transparent and simple rules of origin for exported goods. The WTO is the key channel for delivering these goals.

The UN states the following with respect to trade and SDG 17:

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development defines international trade as “an engine for inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction, [that] contributes to the promotion of sustainable development”. The adoption of Agenda 2030 commits UN member states to continue to promote “meaningful” trade liberalization over the next 15 years to help maximize the contribution of trade to the success of the sustainable development agenda. In this context, international trade is expected to play its role as a means of implementation for the achievement of the SDGs.

As major institutional stakeholders on trade and the SDGs issues, UNCTAD, WTO, and International Trade Center monitor trends, analyze policy and build analytical capacity for making international trade an engine for sustainable development.

The WTO works closely with FAO with respect to achieving SDG 2.  With respect to accessions, the WTO works closely with the World Bank, the IMF and regional development banks and UN agencies.  With respect to the environment, the WTO works with UNEP.  These are a small fraction of the collaborative efforts that support the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. 

In order to further support efforts at the national level to achieve the SDGs and to ensure that the benefits of trade are spread more widely, the WTO together with our partners in the Geneva Trade hub, UNCTAD and ITC, also recently launched the SDG Trade Monitor, at SDGTRADE.ORG. This website is an online repository of trade-specific development indicators including MFN and preferential tariff rates, amongst others. This database will allow policymakers, trade professionals and researchers to explore the relationship between trade and sustainable development, and to support data driven trade policies.

By implementing responsive, data-driven polices trade can serve as a driver of development, there are impressive figures to confirm that this is the case. For instance, developing countries’ share of global trade has jumped from 25% in 1995 to 43% in 2017. This has happened not just because of growth in the large emerging markets of China, India and Brazil but also because of increased participation by small, former LDCs such as Samoa, Cabo Verde and the Maldives. All of these countries have graduated from LDC to developing country status and Vanuatu is expected to do so very soon. These countries mainstreamed their trade policies to tackle capacity constraints, using trade and attracting FDI, to advance their economic growth and development which, in turn, helped them to achieve the required social benchmarks they needed to graduate from the ranks of the world’s “least developed countries”.

Recent WTO negotiating outcomes also prove that the system does deliver for development. Successes include the Trade Facilitation Agreement, the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement, the amendment of the TRIPS Agreement easing access to medicines and the agreement to abolish agricultural export subsidies.

The different approaches represented in each of these agreements show that the system can rise to the level of being adaptable and dynamic in its response to emerging challenges. Members must now show sufficient flexibility in their negotiations on fisheries subsidies, WTO reform, and e-commerce, if these subjects with important implications for SDG attainment are to move to a successful conclusion.

This adaptability will also be crucial to an effective response to COVID-19, which is likely to have a severe negative impact on the achievement of the 2030 SDG Agenda.

The Environmental Dimension

The WTO is at the dawn of a new era of addressing deepened and broadened environmental concerns of its Members.  The remaining 8 SDGs, those not highlighted in the 2018 WTO publication cited throughout the preceding sections of this narrative are front and center in the emerging WTO focus.  

Trade policies, pursued through WTO agreements, have a huge potential to support environmental sustainability. For example, reviving and quickly concluding an Environmental Goods and Services Agreement (EGSA) would serve SDG goals 6 and 7, Clean Water and Sanitation, and Affordable and Clean Energy; SDG Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities; Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production and Goal 13 Climate Action.

A study by the World Bank found that eliminating import barriers in the top 18 developing countries ranked by emissions of greenhouse gases would increase imports by 63% for energy-efficient lighting, 23% for wind power generation, 14% for solar power generation and close to 5% for clean coal technology. At the same time, more open trade in environmental goods and services can help domestic companies to tap into a rapidly growing global market estimated at US$ 2 trillion per year by 2020.

An EGSA and expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), together with an increase in the coverage of GATS, would address  in several respects these goals, making more available the goods, for example, to enable cleaner transportation and cleaner air and water, and better handling of waste.  Using trade to assist in creating the circular economy; dealing with plastic waste, all would make cities more livable.  Climate would be addressed directly as Members consider initiatives for curb fossil fuel subsidies. 

Just last month, during WTO Trade and Environment Week, several Members took an important step forward for expanding the contribution of trade to the SDGs by launching two initiatives. The first consists of “structured discussions” on trade and environmental sustainability launched by 50 WTO Members.  The second is the informal dialogue on plastic pollution and sustainable plastics trade launched by 8 WTO Members.  

The structured discussions seek to identify areas of common interest and work towards concrete deliverables on trade and sustainability. The group plans to have its first meeting in early 2021. The initiative seeks to build on past efforts by WTO Members to address issues such as circular economy, natural disasters, climate change, fossil fuel subsidies reform, the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the Blue economy, among other issues that are at the core of the SDGs 7 on clean energy, 12 on sustainable production and consumption, 13 on climate change and 15 on life on land.

Trade and Environment Week also saw the inaugural meeting of the WTO informal dialogue on plastics pollution and sustainable plastics trade. The dialogue seeks to identify areas where the WTO can complement global efforts to fight plastic pollution, for example by improving transparency and coherence of plastic-related trade measures, promoting best practices and tracking trade in plastics, exploring areas for collective action and cooperating with other international processes. These efforts could make a tangible contribution to achieve not only SDG12 on sustainable production and consumption, but also SDG 14 on ocean health, SDG 15 on life on land, SDG 11 on sustainable cities and SDG 8 on decent work, among other SDGs.

One area of great potential for constructive bilateral and multilateral discussions is trade and climate change. The WTO, and in particular its Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) has a standing mandate to discuss trade and environmental measures with potential significant trade effects and to arrive at coherent, most fit-for-purpose solutions.  Several countries have recently started to look at the adoption of border carbon adjustment measures (BCAs) to support their ambitious climate mitigation plans.  The European Union expects to have a concrete proposal by next June and a measure in place by January 2023, at the latest, Canada, in its recently announced 2020 Fall Economic Statement, and Mexico, in its nationally determined contribution, has also shown interest in such measures. It is my understanding that the next Administration in the United States also envisages a BCA as part of its climate ambition.

It would be an understatement to say that these discussions will not be easy and the potential for trade conflict and retaliation is ever present. To avoid a counterproductive clash over climate-related trade measures, we need to have serious and constructive discussions at the WTO on how to ensure that trade-related measures adopted – and trade more broadly – contribute effectively to transatlantic ambitions on climate change but are also fair and well calibrated in terms of their trade impact. It is worth noting that discussions on the EU plan to adopt a BCA have already started at the WTO, including inquiries in the form of specific trade concerns in three different Committees.  The new US Administration could ensure that discussions move forward in a proactive and constructive way, adding the US unique perspective and expertise to the table.

In the same vein, other trade and climate topics, such as fossil fuel subsidy reform or facilitating trade in low carbon technologies also seem to offer constructive avenues for transatlantic cooperation. If the recent trend of ambitious carbon neutrality pledges continues, the multilateral trading system will certainly have to play its role in addressing the intersection between climate action and the cross-border flow of goods and services. Transatlantic co-operation on these topics could become an important driver of concrete action on these important issues, all of which have big implications for achieving SDG 13

Goal 4 Quality Education

This goal is addressed in a myriad of ways by the WTO.  ITA makes more available computers, smart phones and tablets.  E-commerce talks and the moratorium on imposing customs duties on electronic transmission facilitate international transfer of the tools to educate.  The Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) helps to increase capacity of the least developed through the spread of technology and information.  The Cotton Consultative Forum for Development is currently working on identifying projects to assist cotton farmers in least developed countries to gain the knowledge as well as the means necessary to increase the value that they can get from cotton by-products.  The WTO is active in providing technical assistance to acceding countries, and more generally to developing and least-developed countries with respect to the full range of WTO agreements. 

Trade in education services can help to increase the supply of education and investment in the sector, particularly in higher education, thereby, contributing to enhancing access and quality in education. In this context, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which aims at progressively liberalizing trade in services, including trade in education services, is a means of promoting economic growth and development. Leading universities can more easily establish campuses in countries making commitments to openness in this sector.   The GATS provides enough flexibility to craft commitments reflecting countries’ needs and priorities in a way that allows them to reap the benefits of opening trade in education with the aim of achieving the SDGs.

Goal 15, Life on Land

Promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.  Being able to have efficient use of land depends very much on trade.  Standards must be known, transparency is needed, they must not be protectionist, developing countries must be helped to meet international standards.  The WTO and other partner international organizations have set up the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF).  The STDF promotes improved food safety and animal and plant health capacity in developing countries by convening and connecting diverse stakeholders from across its projects, and by piloting and learning from innovative, collaborative and cross-cutting approaches.  Technical assistance can help lessen the use of pesticides and herbicides, including through the fund-raising efforts of the Director-General’s Consultative Framework for Cotton Development Assistance.  Curbing subsidies yields more environmentally friendly use of land for crops.

Goal 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

It should not be surprising that the multilateral trading system, conceived during a 30-year war that took place in two great catastrophic phases separately mainly by a deep economic depression, was intended to be an antidote to conflict.  It was designed to maintain peace.

These roots were over time forgotten – something that historians might come across –  until these last few years, when conflict-affected countries, Afghanistan, Liberia, countries of the Middle East and of the Horn of Africa sought entry into the WTO.  For them, the contribution of integration into the global economy, of thereby increasing the likelihood of stability, the precondition for economic development, the link of trade to peace, the cause of trade for peace, is real, immediate and profound.  These fragile countries appreciate the relevance of the multilateral rules-based trading system as a mechanism for peacebuilding through promoting good governance and the rule of law, reducing poverty and achieving economic growth.

Conclusion

The bottom line:  A new edition of a book on the WTO and the SDGs should spell out how all 17 goals either are or can be served by the WTO and its agreements. But more than a book, we need WTO Members to engage and conclude negotiations that have a direct impact on achieving the SDGs.  I have already spoken about the negotiations to discipline fisheries subsidies, the specific goal of SDG 14.6 on a result on that subject would speak volumes, and you can all push for its successful conclusion.

Trade is one of the best anti-poverty tools in history. By boosting economic growth, trade was a catalyst for reaching the Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty in half – well ahead of the 2015 deadline.

Trade must play its full part in achieving the 2030 sustainable development goals.  To help deliver on these goals and maximize the power of trade in tackling poverty and hunger, making our economies more sustainable and inclusive, WTO Members must put sustainable development at the core of WTO reform efforts. A reform process that results in tangible progress in fully aligning trade and sustainability would be a major contribution the WTO could make to advancing the issues we are discussing here today.

To read the original blog post, please click here.

Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff is Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

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