WTO NEWS: SPEECHES — DG ROBERTO AZEVÊDO


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> Roberto Azevêdo’s speeches

> Book launch: “The Role of Trade in Ending Poverty”

> Lower trade barriers, stronger global trading system can help end extreme poverty

 

World Bank Group President Dr Jim Kim,

Ministers,

Excellencies,

Guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome everybody to the WTO.

I want to thank Dr Kim for being here this morning, on his lightning trip to Geneva!

It’s a real pleasure to officially launch the first joint publication between the World Bank and the WTO.

I want to thank all those who worked on this report in both organizations – not only because I think that this issue is important and timely, but also because the report itself is an excellent piece of work.

The video that you've just seen gives a good sense of what this is all about – so I'll just add a few words from the WTO perspective and from my own perspective as well.

When I started here as Director General, I told my staff that I don't want simplistic explanations about trade solving every problem. I want to see evidence of what is happening on the ground; of exactly how trade is helping the poor, and how it can help development.  

That's what we were seeking to do with this project. And for me there are two major takeaways from this report.

The first is that by boosting economic growth, trade has played a major role in the fight against poverty.

We all want to end poverty, but in practical terms, how does this happen? That is the big question.

Over the past 25 years, 1 billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty – reducing the share of those living in such terrible conditions by more than 50%.

Around two-thirds of that poverty reduction has come from economic growth in developing countries.

And trade is of course a major engine helping to drive that growth.

It does this through a number of channels:

  • it provides access to new markets, for example
  • it increases the efficiency of how resources are used
  • it lowers prices for the poorer consumers
  • it provides access to the advanced technologies that are available in the global market.

And of course the effects are multiplied when practical support is provided to help people build their trading capacity. That's what Aid for Trade is all about – and I'll come back to this in a moment.

China and India are often cited for their impressive GDP and trade growth over recent years, and the impact that this has had on people's lives.

But these experiences have been replicated in other countries as well.

Take a look at Viet Nam.

Between the early 1990s and 2012, the share of trade in Viet Nam's GDP doubled.

During the same period, the proportion of the population that was in extreme poverty declined from over 60% to under 3%. 

That is trade changing people's lives for the better.

It is vital that this strong linkage between trade and development be sustained.

And this brings me to my second takeaway from this report, which is that we must ensure that trade continues to play this crucial role in the years ahead.

2015 is an important year in the fight to end poverty.

The global community is focused on the post-2015 development agenda – and in a couple of months we will come together in New York to agree on the new sustainable development goals.

This is important because, despite the progress made to date, there are still nearly 1 billion people living on less than 1 dollar and 25 cents each day.

That is around 15% of the world's population.

We know we can make a difference to those people.

So we need to make a sustained effort to deepen economic integration and further lower trade costs, particularly in poorer countries.

In the countries where the poor live, trade costs continue to be high. More than that, just providing trade opportunities is not enough to help the poorest. Likewise, economic growth, by itself, will not reduce asymmetries and help the poor. A broader and more systemic approach is needed.

I think that the report hits this point very well and as the video showed, it identifies four common characteristics among the extreme poor which can increase their disconnection from markets.

More needs to be done to ensure that these people can benefit from trade.

And in this report we put forward a blueprint for doing just that.

For example, to lower trade costs we must implement the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement – which will improve efficiency and governance at borders. This will reduce prices for the poorest consumers and create job opportunities in the developing world.  It is estimated that it can create up to 21 million jobs – 18 million of which would be in developing countries.  

In Africa, only 5% of imported food staples are bought from other African countries. This is due, in part, to intra-regional trade barriers. Facilitating intra-African trade would lift incomes for poor farmers and at the same time improve food security. 

In addition, governments and multilateral institutions like ours must help finance local programmes that connect entrepreneurs to markets. Supporting the activities of poor and small traders, particularly women, can significantly widen the benefits of trade, particularly for those in rural areas.

These are just a couple of the steps that we outline in this blueprint.

The report isn't the end of our work here – rather it is the beginning.

We are committed to continuing this joint effort to address these issues.

We are going to join forces to improve the data that we have on trade and poverty, so that we can better track our progress.

And we will continue and enhance our work in other areas too – such as the Aid for Trade initiative.

Aid for Trade is one example of where our two organisations work together to deliver practical help which supports people in developing countries to trade. And of course we will be opening the 5th Global Review of this initiative later this morning.

But now, I know that Dr Kim is going to address these issues, so let me stop there.

 

Galerie de photos

 

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