Geneva Knowledge Week
Knowledge for Development Partnership
Opening Session, 12 September 2018, 09:00-10:30, Room S2

WTO Deputy Director-General Yonov Frederick Agah
Keynote address: Outlines of a knowledge agenda for global trade

Keynote address: Outlines of a knowledge agenda for global trade

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning. I welcome you all to the World Trade Organization.

It is, indeed, a real pleasure to mark this event with you during the Geneva Knowledge Week 2018. As we all know, knowledge is the new currency in the information age. We are seeing incredible growth in the knowledge economy, which is fundamentally reshaping the world we now live in. And this also includes trade.

Let me start by highlighting the essential role that knowledge plays in making trade an engine for sustainable development. The 2030 Development Agenda highlights that trade is as an engine for inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction. Trade is a key means for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals also because it leads to the sharing and proliferation of knowledge. Knowledge is embodied in goods and services that are traded across borders. International trade makes knowledge accessible to firms and consumers globally and acts as an important channel for knowledge and technology transfer.

We all know that improvements in knowledge, in the form of human capital, technological progress or innovation, are drivers  

of economic growth and development. By spreading knowledge across the world, trade plays a key role in bringing the benefits of knowledge to developing countries.

While trade helps spread knowledge across the globe, knowledge is also an important enabler of trade. Lack of knowledge and costs related to obtaining information on access to foreign markets are key trade barriers, especially for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. It is not surprising that access to information is a key issue in discussions on MSMEs by a number of Members at the WTO. The new digital world, with its communication technologies and knowledge and e-commerce platforms, has vastly facilitated the access of firms and consumers to knowledge that underpins trade.

Given the importance of trade in achieving the SDGs, the WTO has recently issued a publication titled "Mainstreaming trade to attain the SDGs". This publication has the objective to disseminate knowledge on how trade can contribute to deliver positive outcomes on the three dimensions of the sustainable development, -economic, social and environmental.

The key message of this report is the importance of mainstreaming trade into national and sectoral development strategies. Trade is an enabler which has cross-cutting effects in the economy and has significant linkages to other sectors. So, for countries to fully reap the benefits of trade, it is necessary to adopt approaches which aim to mainstream trade into their national sustainable development strategies. We hope that this publication will be a helpful knowledge resource for countries to mainstream trade into their national development strategies.

So, trade and knowledge are closely linked: Trade is an instrument to spread knowledge across borders, and knowledge is an enabler of trade. Let me now address the relationship between knowledge and trade in the context of the WTO.

Liberalization of trade under the multilateral trading system has led to a significant reduction of trade barriers. The resulting expansion of international trade in goods and services implies that also the movement of knowledge across borders has increased.

Besides lowering trade barriers, the WTO contributes to knowledge transfer through its transparency and rules. Transparency is a fundamental principle of the multilateral trading system and is reflected in transparency provisions in WTO Agreements, notification requirements of trade measures as well as periodic reviews of Members’ trade policies. And also in the operations of the WTO, knowledge is made transparent in an appropriate manner to Members and the general public. Similarly, the rulebook of the WTO provides governments and the private sector with "knowledge" of the rules of trade. Both transparency and rules therefore facilitate access to knowledge and promote the inclusiveness of the multilateral trading system.

The WTO also has the TRIPS Agreement that directly deals with knowledge in the form of intellectual property. The TRIPS Agreement sets out global minimum standards for the various instruments used to protect intellectual property. These standards contribute to the promotion of domestic innovation and foreign direct investment inflows, which are key channels for enhancing domestic knowledge.

Another example is the plurilateral Information Technology Agreement (ITA), whose objective is to eliminate tariffs on a range of information technology products. This Agreement has not only made high-tech products more affordable, but it has also helped to promote innovation in developing economies.

Let me also mention the important role of the WTO Secretariat in knowledge creation and sharing. Through technical assistance activities, we build the capacity of Members to engage in trade policy and take advantage of the opportunities provided by the multilateral trading system. The Secretariat also facilitates the flow of knowledge through its support to the discussions of Members in various WTO Bodies. We also create knowledge through economic and statistical analysis, which is then disseminated through various publication formats and databases – available all for free online. And finally, we have built both internal and external learning networks to promote information sharing, coaching and sharing best practices among colleagues and subject matter experts from both international and national agencies, and more recently with the private sector.

All of us at the WTO are committed to incorporating Knowledge Management within the daily operations of our Secretariat. It is only through increasing the flow of knowledge, and properly leveraging it, that we can be agile in best addressing the needs of WTO Members and the people they represent.

However, the WTO does not do it alone. What is really at the heart of knowledge creation and sharing of the WTO, are the partnerships, dialogues and collaborations that we have had over the years with fellow international organizations, governments, and more recently, with businesses, academia and the civil society. We count on our partners to brainstorm together, leverage our resources and share best practices to find sustainable solutions for our joint development objectives.

Let me give you a few examples of collaborations that contribute to knowledge creation and sharing on trade and development.

WTO is working closely with UNCTAD and ITC, in what has been called the Geneva Trade Hub, to provide support to the various UN agencies that have been tasked with the implementation of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. Together with our partners, we are developing a website that will allow for easy tracking of progress towards the different trade-related targets of the SDGs and spread knowledge on the contribution of trade to the SDGs.

We also collaborate with ITC, UNCTAD and other international agencies on the Global Trade Helpdesk. The objective of this online Helpdesk is to act as a gateway for MSMEs to trade. The Helpdesk will make an important contribution to making knowledge easily accessible to MSMES by acting as a one-stop shop for trade-related information such as tariffs, standards, trade procedures, export potential and business contacts.

In the area of product requirements, we have successfully partnered with ITC and the UN in creating ePing. ePing is a notification alert system that provides governments and businesses timely access to new notifications of SPS and TBT measures at the WTO. It also facilitates the dialogue between the public and private sector.

WTO is also regularly collaborating with other agencies on publications on trade and development. For example, recently we have worked together with the World Bank and the IMF to produce publications on the “role of trade in ending poverty” as well as on “making trade an engine of growth for all”. And last year, we launched a publication with the International Labour Organization (ILO) on investing in skills for inclusive trade.

In addition to partnerships and publications, the WTO engages in knowledge sharing with stakeholders through several discussion Fora a hosted at the WTO.

The WTO Public Forum is the main channel of how the WTO engages in knowledge sharing with civil society. This year's Public Forum will take place from 2-4 October under the theme "Trade 2030", where discussions will focus on sustainable trade, technology-enabled trade, and a more inclusive trading system.

The biennial Global Review of Aid for Trade brings together beneficiaries, donors, development agencies and other stakeholders to discuss how aid for trade can best help developing countries overcome supply-side and infrastructure constraints. The next Global review will be held in summer 2019.

Moreover, the WTO has recently started hosting “Trade Dialogues” with different stakeholder groups. The objective of these dialogues is to learn about the priorities and views of stakeholders such as businesses and academia for the multilateral trading system.

Let me now make a few concluding remarks.

As our Director-General said in his foreword for this year’s Geneva Knowledge Week publication, “Sharing knowledge is critical to the global trading system, just as it is in many other important aspects of global cooperation in our increasingly interdependent world.”

The WTO will continue its efforts to use knowledge and trade as a force for development. We will continue to strengthen knowledge sharing through various initiatives, networks, partnerships and dialogues. Only through the sharing of knowledge we will be able to increase our understanding of the complex changes unfolding around us and find more effective ways to improve life for all people, in particular the most vulnerable.

In order to make knowledge a force for development, the right conversations have to take place across diverse disciplines here in Geneva and in other places around the world. Openness, transparency and collaboration are vital elements if we want to find solutions to economic, social and environmental challenges.

Let me conclude with a line from a film I commend to you all, called “A Plastic Ocean”. The film highlights the scale of environmental harm we are causing today, and offers a hopeful message of how we can work together to turn things around and ensure a sustainable planet for future generations. The line says:

"From KNOWING comes CARING, and from caring comes CHANGE".

I thank you all for your commitment to share your knowledge and work with your colleagues here and around the world to make knowledge a force for sustainable development. I wish you a fruitful exchange during this year’s Geneva Knowledge Week.