2022 part1

109/ DDG González: Resilient supply chains call for trade diversification, not decoupling

29 MARCH 2022

Continued supply chain disruptions are no cause for a retreat from trade, Deputy Director-General Anabel González said at the Global Solutions Summit on 28 March. She stressed that imports have been, and will remain, a critical means to adapt to shocks, and that even purely domestic supply chains can be disrupted by natural or man-made disasters.

DDG González observed that the world needs trade diversification, not decoupling. The WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement offers powerful tools to expedite trade and lower costs, which helps to build deeper and more diversified global markets. WTO members have made enormous progress in implementing the Agreement, she added, but more efforts are needed to fully enjoy its benefits.

DDG González emphasized that global digital rules on electronic commerce are needed to accelerate the transition towards paperless trade, facilitate real-time data sharing between supply chain actors, and create opportunities for new players — especially small businesses — to participate in supply chains. Modernizing the infrastructure that keeps every link of the chain together is another important building block for more resilient supply chains, she said.

DDG González noted that WTO members could take a big step towards a more resilient global economy by quickly finalizing and adopting a WTO pandemic response package with a compromise solution on the role of intellectual property rights. Governments need to get the job done of vaccinating the world, diversifying global vaccine production, and better preparing for the next pandemic, she said, adding that a WTO pandemic response package would make a big contribution to those goals.

DDG González said there cannot be supply chain resilience without climate resilience. Drought, floods and wildfires are putting supply chains to the test. She highlighted the importance of using every means in the WTO toolbox to support efforts to tackle climate change and equip the world’s trade infrastructure for future climate threats. Lowering barriers to trade in environmental goods and services can reduce the cost of renewable energy and the cost of building climate-resilient infrastructure, especially in developing countries, she added.

The Global Solutions Summit is organized by The Think 20 or ‘T20’, which brings together think tanks, experts and academics in order to provide analytical depth to ongoing discussions among the Group of 20 leading economies.

Source: wto.org