The WTO has played a key role in helping countries adjust to four recent trends that have considerably altered the relationship between trade and development, according to the latest edition of the WTO’s flagship publication released on 20 October 2014 in Geneva. Director-General Roberto Azevêdo, in marking the launch of the report, said that “the emerging trends highlighted in this report suggest that trade will be a major force for development in the 21st century”.
The World Trade Report 2014 argues that the WTO has enabled developing countries to take advantage of, adapt to and mitigate risks arising from these trends. It has done so by ensuring that countries take binding commitments which increase certainty over their trade policies, by providing flexibilities that better allow developing countries to undertake such commitments, and by facilitating technical assistance to build trading capacity within those economies.
In addition, countries undertaking substantial reforms related to WTO accession were found to grow around 2.5 per cent faster for several years afterwards, the report notes.
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