Global Review of Aid for Trade 2024

The 2024 Global Review of Aid for Trade, titled “Mainstreaming Trade into Development Strategies,” was held at the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva, from 26 – 28 June 2024, bringing together over 1,000 participants across 60 sessions. This event focused on enhancing international partnerships to help developing economies and least-developed countries (LDCs) fully benefit from trade.

Since 2006, the WTO-led Aid for Trade initiative has contributed US$ 648 billion to strengthen the export potential of developing economies and LDCs. However, more efforts are needed to help these countries capitalize on emerging trade opportunities from digital technologies and the green transition.

In this newsletter, we highlight key moments and outcomes from the WTO and eTrade for all partners in e-commerce and the digital economy at the Global Review:

• High-Level Panel on “Harnessing the Benefits of Digital Trade”: This panel, featuring speakers from the WTO, World Bank, and member states, highlighted the rapid growth of digitally delivered services and the importance of building the necessary infrastructure to enable countries to participate in the digital economy.
• Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSME) Day: The WTO, ITC, and UNCDF highlighted small businesses that demonstrate the transformative power of digital solutions in driving economic growth and resilience. They shared best practices on how digital tools can empower MSMEs to overcome challenges and seize new opportunities.
• UN Trade Digitalization Index (TDI) Launch: Jointly launched by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Regional Commissions, the TDI measures the progress of trade digitalization in over 160 countries, providing a new basis for evidence-based policymaking in this crucial area.
• Aid for Trade at a Glance 2024: Published by the WTO and OECD, this report outlines the priority areas for Aid for Trade and its impact, highlighting digital connectivity and e-commerce as transformative forces. It stresses the need to increase resources for trade facilitation, digitalization, and climate-related trade measures.

High-level panel on “Harnessing the benefits of digital trade”

At a high-level panel on “Harnessing the benefits of digital trade” on 27 June at the Aid for Trade Global Review, speakers discussed the potential of digital trade to support growth and innovation in developing economies. They highlighted the rapid expansion of digitally delivered services and the importance of building the necessary infrastructure to help countries participate in the digital economy.

This session also explored ongoing efforts to help everyone benefit from digital trade. These include Digital Trade for Africa, a World Bank and WTO project that aims to identify African economies’ needs related to digital trade as well as interventions that could boost their participation. So far, work has been finalized for Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Rwanda.

[Rewatch the session]

Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) Day

The three-day event coincided with Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) Day on 27 June.

Many of eTrade for all partners contributed to this special day set aside by the United Nations and took part in this year’s celebration of small businesses.

ITC works with major online platforms to make sure small traders benefit from e-commerce. A transformative dialogue on the MSME Day brought together experts from ITC, Alibaba.com, and dynamic small digital businesses to share small business stories and lessons learned, and discuss the path to sustainable digital trade.

The WTO’s Informal Working Group on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), together with ITC, ICC, and WIPO announced two winners of the Small Business Champions Competition to mark “MSME Day” on 27 June. One of the winners is O’KANATA of Canada, an organization focused on the empowerment of indigenous youth. Its winning project is for an e-commerce platform that offers a marketplace for indigenous crafts as well as capacity building for entrepreneurs.

In addition, the WTO Secretariat issued a research note “Examining MSMEs and digital readiness through meta-survey data” that reviews MSME’s use of digital technology and digitalization in terms of international trade.

UNCDF joined the global celebration of MSMEs this year by spotlighting two trailblazing enterprises, Unqueue and MLajan Mobile Wallet in the Caribbean. These two enterprises are winners of the 2023 Caribbean FinTech Sprint for Financial Inclusion. The fintech challenge promotes financial inclusion through digital payments and broader digital finance solutions, particularly for women and other vulnerable groups. Their journeys exemplify the transformative power of digital solutions in driving economic growth and resilience. Read more here.

UN Trade Digitalization Index (TDI) launch

The Global Review of Aid for Trade 2024 also saw the launch of the Trade Digitalization Index (TDI), a joint initiative of UNECE. ECA, ECLAC, UNESCAP, UNESCWA, and UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The Trade Digitalization Index (TDI) is a novel measure assessing global progress in digitalizing trade procedures, based on data from the UN Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation. It offers governments a means to assess their progress, pinpoint weaknesses, and facilitate international organizations in identifying areas requiring additional support.

The TDI underscores the significance of trade digitalization in enhancing and streamlining trade procedures, offering multiple benefits such as lowering compliance costs, facilitating faster movement of goods, and fostering opportunities for SMEs in cross-border trade.

Highlights:

• Substantial variations exist in trade digitalization rates between regions emphasizing the necessity for targeted strategies tailored to the unique needs of specific regions and economies.
• Countries with special needs (LLDCs, LDCs, SIDS) share similar average trade digitalization rates, below the global average of 59%, placing these countries at a disadvantage in digitalization efforts and integration for cross-border trade.
• Significant disparities exist between the most and least implemented trade digitalization measures, and challenges persist in fully implementing cross-border paperless trade measures.
• Global digitalization rates are on the rise in all regions studied between 2021-2023 with an encouraging increase of 8 percentage points during this period for the common countries participating in both surveys.

Aid for Trade at a Glance 2024

The WTO-led Aid for Trade initiative has contributed US$ 648 billion since 2006 to strengthen the export potential of developing economies and least-developed countries (LDCs). The impact of the initiative in improving these economies’ capacity to trade is revealed in a new publication — “Aid for Trade at a Glance 2024” — launched by the WTO and OECD on 26 June, during the opening session of the Global Review on Day 1.

Aid-for-Trade stakeholders highlighted the importance of increasing Aid for Trade resources, especially for trade facilitation, digitalization and climate-related trade measures. Donors said that Aid for Trade has positively impacted digital connectivity, e-commerce, trade-related transport, storage infrastructure, and banking and financial services.

Top areas where Aid for Trade has an impact