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ITC Executive Director addresses WTO Ministerial Conference

4 December 2013
ITC News

(BALI, INDONESIA) — An agreement on easing customs procedures would benefit small and medium size exporters in developing countries, and would foster economic, as well as social development, said Arancha González, Executive Director of the International Trade Centre in her address to the WTO’s Ninth Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia today.

She urged ministers to reach an agreement, quoting an old Indonesian proverb: “If you are sufficiently determined to achieve something, then you will find a way of doing so.”

Ms. González illustrated the importance of trade facilitation through the example of the jacket she was wearing, the outcome of an ITC project, the Ethical Fashion Initiative, which links 7,000 micro-entrepreneurs from marginalized communities in Africa with fashion houses in Europe. “This jacket and its inputs have travelled thousands of miles across borders. It is an example of value chains, of importing inputs to export and of trade facilitation in action,” she said pointing to the jacket she was wearing. “Imagine if at every border the pieces of this jacket were subject to burdensome procedures and numerous duties. Imagine how cost inefficient that would be? Effective rules on trade facilitation will help to ensure this does not happen that instead this jacket and it's inputs will cross borders across continents with minimum restrictions.”

She also summarized for delegates the services ITC offers to its clients countries including facilitating market linkages for women entrepreneurs, and programmes to exploit opportunities in the green economy.

Click here to read the full statement.
Click here for more on ITC’s involvement at the WTO Ministerial Conference.