RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

Discussion forum: World Trade Report 2014
Trade and development: recent trends and the role of the WTO

This forum aims to promote an open debate on trade and development, the topic of the 2014 World Trade Report. In particular, it is intended to encourage discussion of what could be contained within a new generation of trade reforms for facilitating development. We invite WTO delegates, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic experts, WTO staff members and all those with an active interest in trade and development to submit short contributions (of no more than 1,000 words).

Disclaimer

This Forum seeks to promote an informed debate on trade in natural resources — the topic of the World Trade Report 2010. Documents posted on the Forum are the sole responsibility of their authors. They have no legal effect on the rights and obligations of WTO members, nor do they imply any judgement on the part of the WTO Secretariat regarding the consistency of any policy with the provisions of the WTO agreements. 
  

See also:
> Launch of the Report
> World Trade Report 2014
> Press release

The World Trade Report 2014 was launched on 20 October 2014. Entitled “Trade and development: recent trends and the role of the WTO”, the Report looks at how four recent major economic trends have changed how developing countries can use trade to facilitate their development. These trends are the economic rise of developing economies, the growing integration of global production through supply chains, the higher prices for agricultural goods and natural resources, and the increasing interdependence of the world economy.

Trade has made a huge difference in the lives of countless people in developing countries in recent years and it has the capacity to deliver more developmental benefits in the future. The Report makes it clear that an open, non-discriminatory, rules-based multilateral trading system is a necessary tool to make trade work more effectively for development. But it also shows that the potential for trade to support development has not yet been fully realized.

Submission of articles

Please send your articles (of no more than 1,000 words) to [email protected]

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Recently submitted articles 

 
17/11/2014 Trade, Income inequality, and online markets
by Marcello Olarreaga (University of Geneva), Andreas Lendle (Sidley-Austin), Simon Schropp (Sidley-Austin) and Pierre-Louis Vézina (University of Birmingham)
 
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“We are living off the liberalization and reforms of the past. We need to update the rules and implement a new generation of trade reforms which would be so essential for development.”

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo at the launch of the 2014 World Trade Report