INTRODUCTION

Secretary-General Kituyi,
Minister Tofail Ahmed,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

I am pleased to be with you today to discuss the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda — and what I see as its symbiotic links to the global trade agenda as we build on the success of the Bali Package.

I hope I speak for us all in saying that I see trade as one of the key enablers of inclusive and sustainable development — and that it must, therefore, play a central role in the context of the Post-2015 Agenda.

While this conversation is not new, there is a new sense of urgency.

The work in New York is picking up. The different streams are coming together, and Member countries will soon begin the final negotiations to decide what the Post-2015 Development Agenda will look like. 

I had a chance to relay some concerns and priorities directly to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon when I met with him in New York last month. I assured him of our full engagement and support in this effort.

At the heart of the post-2015 agenda will be a set of Sustainable Development Goals. And as you know an inter-governmental process, steered by an Open Working Group, has been launched to define these goals.

Just this week there have been a full set of Open Working Group meetings in New York — and instead of 19 focus areas for the SDGs we now have eight proposed clusters.

Participants have also been asked to see how these could be further consolidated.

Simultaneously, the Committee on Sustainable Development Financing has been discussing resource mobilization and the related institutional arrangements.

The outcome of these two streams of work will eventually converge into the post-2015 Development Agenda, making it essential for the trade community to actively follow and contribute to them.

But until now, a specific focus on trade and development has been missing.

The New York process has not identified any specific role for trade per se. Mentions of it are included in conjunction with other focus areas such as implementation, economic growth or infrastructure. But the new clusters do not contain any direct mentions of trade.

If we believe, as I think we do in the WTO and UNCTAD, that trade is one of the key enablers of inclusive and sustainable development, then it must play a greater role here.

So we have some important work ahead of us.

And let's remember why trade is so important in this context.

It is easy when discussing frameworks and issues of process to forget what we are really talking about — and that is improving people's lives. I believe trade does this. I believe trade has played a central role in lifting millions of people out of poverty in recent years.

What's at stake now is ensuring that trade can continue to do so in the future in the most effective way possible.

TRADE & GROWTH — LESSONS FROM THE MDGS

We can learn a great deal from looking back at the Millennium Development Goals

Through the MDGs we have seen the role that trade can play in alleviating poverty and advancing development overall.

Just look at the goal to halve the rate of extreme poverty by 2015, which was met well ahead of time. I think this achievement is illustrative of the enabling role that trade and an open, rules-based multilateral trading system can play for both economic growth and poverty alleviation. 

Those countries that have opened their economies and made efforts to join international markets have performed well.

Recent research has shown that opening up to trade, such as through GATT and WTO membership, boosts economic growth. In the 1970s and 80s open economies saw 4.5% growth a year, against 0.7% in closed economies.

China is a case in point. A period of radical reform — supported by the process of WTO accession — saw China's simple average tariff falling from about 40 per cent in 1985 to under 10 per cent today.  Its trade-weighted average tariff is now just over 4 per cent, the lowest among the big emerging economies.

The pursuit of an export-led growth model has led China to become the world's second largest economy and now the world's biggest trading nation.

And the developmental impact has been huge. China reduced poverty levels from 60 per cent to 12 per cent between 1990 and 2010.

Other economies have followed a similar trajectory, using the trading system to rapidly expand economic growth and slash rates of extreme poverty. 

Look at Vietnam or the recent graduates from LDCs status — Samoa, Cape Verde and the Maldives. They show the difference that trade and increased investment can make in achieving more inclusive socio-economic development.

Of course one of the key differences that trade makes is through job creation.

The WTO conducted a major study on this issue with the OECD and others in 2012.

While the picture is complex, the evidence shows that trade can play a powerful role. But to be effective, trade reforms have to be embedded in supportive policies. Countries where trade openness has failed to stimulate economic growth commonly have unstable macroeconomic policies, inadequate property rights, a shortfall of public investment in overcoming supply-side constraints, or other socio-political constraints.

So, as ever, for the positive effects of trade to be realised, we need to recognise the inter-linkages to other areas of policy.

With the right approach, trade doesn't just create more jobs, it can also be a tool to create better jobs — to match more job creation with improved job quality.

Export-orientated jobs typically pay higher wages to their workers. In western Europe those working in export-focused companies collect a 10-20 per cent wage premium over the average wage. While in sub-Saharan Africa the figure is 34 per cent.

Of course there are challenges here too in ensuring that low-skilled workers are not left behind.

But the potential of trade in supporting socio-economic development is clear.

The post-2015 development agenda is an opportunity to recognize the catalytic role that it can provide — and to update the MDG targets and indicators to reflect new realities and challenges.

There is no doubt that the trade community here in Geneva has a crucial role to play in championing this cause and delivering this message.

There are many voices talking about trade and socio-economic development issues in Geneva — from international organizations, to other agencies and think tanks, to the government representatives without whom our work would have little meaning.

We all have much to contribute to the conception, implementation and monitoring of the emerging post-2015 framework.

And if we speak with one voice, then surely our contribution will be all the more significant.

THE WAY FORWARD — FOCUS AREAS IN THE SDGs

So let's look at where things stand today.

While trade is not one of the standalone focus areas identified by the Open Working Group, it is mentioned as a possible contributor.

Under economic growth, “promoting an open, rules based, non-discriminatory and equitable trading system” is suggested for consideration, together with “promoting trade facilitation and preferential market access for LDCs”.

Under infrastructure, cross-border requirements for trade and the related challenges facing developing countries are cited. And of course this work is already well under way at the WTO as we implement the Trade Facilitation Agreement struck in Bali.

Under implementation, trade appears in two ways:

• First, concerning trade as a means of financing sustainable development, capacity building and transfer of environmentally sound technologies.
• And second, concerning further progress on what is described as “the development-supportive trade reforms within an open, rules-based multilateral trading system.”

The presence of trade in these areas is encouraging and should be sustained in the new clusters. But in my opinion this does not go far enough to reflect the full role that trade can play, and has played, in inclusive and sustainable development.

If we are to realize the developmental power of trade in the years to come we will have to do better than this.

Trade may not be a sector by itself, but as a cross-cutting issue it has real links to many of the other key areas — to poverty eradication, employment, infrastructure, investment, food security, the environment — and even education and health.

So trade must be an integral factor in the post-2015 development agenda.

TRADE IN THE POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

The work we are now engaged in at the WTO to implement the Bali Package and prepare a work programme to conclude the Doha Development Agenda will bolster efforts to deliver the SDGs.

Our challenge is to highlight the contribution of trade to economic growth and sustainable development, and its role in addressing the sustainable development challenges of a post-2015 world.

So, drawing these thoughts together, I would like to outline four broad principles which I think should inform our approach at this stage.

• First, the role of trade in the post-2015 agenda process should not be reduced simply to trade liberalization. Rather, trade should be recognised more broadly as a development policy instrument.
• The second principle, building on the first, is that trade and the multilateral trading system should be recognised as an enabler of socio-economic development.

The WTO and its rules governing global trade has proven its worth in the context of the MDGs, both as a building block for economic growth and as a buttress to trade protectionism, especially at the height of the crisis.

In this regard, the WTO and its rules should be seen as a way of providing a similar enabling environment and necessary buffer for the post-2015 development agenda through to 2030.

• Third, I think we should recognise that the Bali Package and the DDA work programme can support the delivery of the SDGs. Financing is a clear example of this. Our work with donors on Trade Facilitation and in support of the Enhanced Integrated Framework for LDCs and Aid for Trade will feed into other areas of work on the post-2015 agenda — and, in turn, work on the post-2015 agenda will support our activities.
• The fourth principle is that the SDGs should promote policy coherence at the global level. Sustainable development is a core objective of the WTO, enshrined in its founding Agreement — and, equally, the multilateral trading system should be referenced in the emerging framework of the post-2015 development agenda. Failure to place more emphasis on the role of trade as an enabler for achieving these broader goals would be a real set-back for policy coherence.

So I think these are four principles which must inform our approach — and this is not an exhaustive list, of course there may be others.

And building on these principles, I think we are immediately led to a series of questions:

• How should these principles be realised? — How should they be brought to life in the Sustainable Development Goals and the post-2015 agenda?
• Clearly trade is an enabler to support the delivery of other goals — but should trade be a target itself? Or targets, plural?
• And if so, what are the most effective measures that we could deploy?
• How can we support national policies which harness the catalytic power of trade for development?

What is the best way to place trade at the centre of the post-2015 agenda, where it belongs?

CONCLUSION

I think that answering these questions should be at the core of our discussion today. And I want to hear your views on all of these points — because I think it is essential that the trade community speaks with one voice.

The post-2015 agenda provides an aspirational way forward for inclusive and sustainable development — something which all of us here in Geneva work every day to support. So let us work together to define the most effective approach and make our message heard.

I would like to thank UNCTAD — and Secretary-General Kituyi — for organizing this second Geneva Dialogue. It is an excellent and very timely initiative.

I look forward to continuing this discussion with you today and in the weeks ahead.

Thank you.