Publications

The World Trade Organization (WTO)’s Eighth Ministerial Conference is highlighting Russia's accession anda ground-breaking deal that opens up government-procurement contracts worth as much as $100 billion to more foreign competition, as two significant and positive steps in the multilateral trading system. International Trade Centre (ITC) Executive Director Patricia R. Francis noted in her opening speech at the Ministerial that the multilateral system has kept intact its powers of attraction. 

The three-day meeting in Geneva, which began on 15 December, began with leaders saying the only way forward on the Doha Development Agenda is a change in the way negotiations are conducted. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy urged major governments to show leadership, muster the political courage to act together to open trade and to make the interests and needs of poor countries their top priority. 

"I don't think we can any longer bury our head in the sand," Mr. Lamy told ministers at the opening session. "We need to understand the root causes" for not getting a deal. "How do we move forward? This should be done step by step, gradually moving forward parts of the DDA that have been agreed and finding solutions to the parts where differences remain." 

The decade-old Doha talks have snagged as industrialized countries demand more access to markets in developing nations and amid disagreements about protection for farmers in wealthy economies. While no Doha negotiations will take place at the meeting, ministers have discussed the trade round, which will be put off until 2013, after the U.S. presidential election. 

The chairman of the WTO's General Council plans to issue a document asking ministers to provide "political guidance" on the Doha round, the multilateral trading system and the WTO, and trade and development.           

"By popular opinion, there is a lack of political will to move the multilateral trading system forward," ITC Executive Director Patricia Francis said at the opening session. "Yet as the world is changing at an ever-increasing speed, the dynamics necessitate a new way of responding to alleviate mistrust and to build consensus on trade policy initiatives which deliver results for our development objectives." 

The Doha round has provided significant contributions to the trade and development agenda, said ITC Executive Director Patricia R. Francis in her opening speech at the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s Eighth Ministerial Conference. Ms. Francis noted that Aid for Trade now accounts for about a third of global aid commitments that include the WTO initiative of the Enhanced Integrated Framework for least-developed countries. 

"While the International Trade Centre certainly does not cover the full spectrum of the aid for trade agenda, we have been the force pushing for the inclusion of the voice of the private sector and women in the debate," she said.
             

Anabel Gonzalez, Costa Rica's Minister of Foreign Trade, said during the plenary session on 16 December that a pragmatic approach is needed. The WTO should move ahead in areas that benefit all members, such as trade facilitation, and examine other ways to make progress, including a plurilateral approach.  

Ministers also warned that as economies stumble amid Europe's sovereign-debt crisis, the global outlook is leading to a rise in protectionism. A group of 20 developing nations issued a statement expressing "serious concern over the increase of protectionism in agricultural trade." Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said he expects "trends towards protectionism were expected to grow in 2012." 

The bright points of the conference, ministers said, is that the WTO will welcome three new members -- Russia, Samoa and Montenegro -- and the successful conclusion of a revised Government Procurement Agreement on 15 December.  ITC has provided assistance to Samoa during its accession process, and Ms. Francis will speak during the accession ceremony. 

 “Even in a very difficult and deteriorating macro-economic environment, with a bit of will, plus goodwill and hard work, things can get done,” Mr. Lamy told a news conference. 

The event highlighted the need for concerted policy action to allow women to contribute to and benefit from their countries’ development.  Panellists included Honourable Anabel Gonzalez, Minister of Trade of Costa Rica; Honourable Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Member of the German Parliament and former Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany; Honourable François Kanimba, Minister of Trade and Industry of Rwanda; and Ms. Francis.
Ms. Francis told the participants that increased gender equality promotes trade competitiveness, citing as an example the increased competitiveness of Uganda’s cotton sector following technical services to women.  As a result, the large productivity gap between male and female farmers was reduced.
She also emphasized that laws concerning women’s rights to ownership need to be taken into consideration. ‘Gender equality is not just about equal opportunity in terms of jobs. The equal opportunity to control assets is also critical to women’s economic empowerment,’ said Ms. Francis.
The focus on Women in Development continued throughout the day, with the UNCTAD Women in Business Awards dinner in the evening.

The event highlighted the need for concerted policy action to allow women to contribute to and benefit from their countries’ development.  Panellists included Honourable Anabel Gonzalez, Minister of Trade of Costa Rica; Honourable Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Member of the German Parliament and former Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany; Honourable François Kanimba, Minister of Trade and Industry of Rwanda; and Ms. Francis.
Ms. Francis told the participants that increased gender equality promotes trade competitiveness, citing as an example the increased competitiveness of Uganda’s cotton sector following technical services to women.  As a result, the large productivity gap between male and female farmers was reduced.
She also emphasized that laws concerning women’s rights to ownership need to be taken into consideration. ‘Gender equality is not just about equal opportunity in terms of jobs. The equal opportunity to control assets is also critical to women’s economic empowerment,’ said Ms. Francis.
The focus on Women in Development continued throughout the day, with the UNCTAD Women in Business Awards dinner in the evening.

Women’s economic empowerment featured strongly in the International Trade Centre’s participation on the third and last day (2 July) of the World Trade Organization’s Fifth Global Review of Aid for Trade.

ITC Executive Director Arancha González moderated a plenary session entitled ‘Trade and Gender: Empowering Women through Inclusive Value Chains’, which heard stories on women’s economic empowerment from Africa, India, Latin America, as well as Europe and the United States, and from the public and private sector.

Setting the bar high for the discussion, Päivi Kairamo, Finland’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO, said that Finland would not have been where it is today in economic terms had it not included women in its workforce. ‘Empowering women is good for business, it is good for sustainable development, but above all it is good for men,’ she said.

That view chimed well with the other speakers in the session. Shinto Nugroho, head of public policy at Google Indonesia, pointed out that the lack of internet access is proving a major barrier for women entrepreneurs in her country. ‘Indonesia has an internet penetration rate of only 24%,’ she said, ‘but the higher the penetration rate, the higher the number of women-owned businesses [WOBs]’.

Meanwhile Pamela Hamamoto, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the US to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, pointed out that the majority of WOBs are in fact small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), accounting for one-third of SMEs. Yet only 2% of those WOBs actually export goods and services. ‘This is not just a women’s issue,’ she said, ‘men and women must work together to achieve real progress.’

Procurement policies by governments and multinationals also a have a huge role to play in including WOBs in value chains. The only man on the panel, Axel Addy, Liberia’s Minister for Commerce and Industry, said that his country obliges 25% of public procurement contract to go to SMEs, and of these 5% must go to WOBs.

Louise James, Global Programs Director at Accenture Development Partnerships, said that her company has developed a programme through which senior employees mentor WOBs to ensure that they can become part of Accenture’s supply chain. ‘To us it makes good business sense to focus on diverse suppliers and to focus on women,’ she said. ‘It is also crucial to develop “local champions”, to ensure that our employees understand the importance of purchasing from WOBs.’

Archana Bhatanagar, CEO of Haylide Chemicals said that in her country, the government has slated 25% of public-sector procurement contracts to be awarded to SMEs. But she would like some to be earmarked for WOBs. ‘When you support a woman entrepreneur, you support all the people that work for her,’ she said. ‘It is not only about including women in global value chains, it is about embracing change.’

Speaking a separate event at the Global Review, also dedicated to the economic empowerment of women, ITC Deputy Executive Director Dorothy Tembo focused on barriers facing women traders in Africa.

She outlined ITC’s support to SMEs in Africa, pointing out that gender aspects had been streamlined across projects and programmes. Still, she said, much of the framework in global trade had been focused on large companies, with little attention being paid to women entrepreneurs and SMEs. She pointed in particular to ITC’s guide on public procurement as a compass for governments to ensure that more WOBs realize their potential and can gain access to markets at home and abroad.
‘Empowering one means empowering a family, a community, a country and a continent,’ she said.